I refer to the Malaysiakini report Minister's silence on 'racist' teacher irks Indian NGOs .

The ‘hang da bugger’ sentiment has been further fuelled by the conspicuous and unacceptable silence from the minister and ministry of education as well as the fact that the teacher concerned is perceived to have been ‘promoted’ for conduct which anywhere else in the world would have merited an immediate dismissal.

However, let us pause for a second and reflect on how our education system has deteriorated to a level where it is a fairly-commonly held perception among Malaysians, especially non-Malays, that our ‘Sekolah Kebangsaan’ and ‘Sekolah Menengah’ are the enclaves for religious fundamentalists.

Enclaves where all sorts of major and minor Islamic functions such as Maulidur Rasul, Maal Hijrah, Israk Mikraj etc. are promoted and our common history re-written and taught as though a kind of vacuum existed before 1400 AD.

That before the introduction of Islam, only detestable paganism and ogres existed here. And that it is more important to learn Arabic and about Arab culture than that of the other main peoples of Malaysia.

The real culprit is the over-zealous and skewed promotion of the NEP since 1969. This has seen not only an unhealthy ethnic mix of students in schools (and elsewhere), but also of teachers, headmasters and administrators.

After 30 years of these disastrous policies, it is astonishing that incidents such as that which occurred at SM Telok Panglima Garang in Banting, Klang have not broken out more frequently in epidemic proportions!

Perhaps, the minister would like to sit back and ponder on how much of this debacle has also been fanned by his previous keris -waving antics and how much he and his cohorts grossly underestimated the offence that voters took to it.

And which compelled them to send a clear message to the BN Government in the general elections of March 8, 2008.

It is the people-mandated duty of our minister and ministry of education to forthwith re-structure all government-funded schools and introduce policies and syllabus so that racism does not continue to be the culture of those we ‘trust’ to educate our children.

In this context, it might well be worth the ministry of education’s while to send these recalcitrant and wayward teachers for counselling and community service and give them a second chance before deciding whether to give them the boot or not.

In any event there must also be some other tangible disciplinary action meted out to the teacher concerned, such as a pay cut or a three-month suspension without pay etc. as well as a publicly-read out apology to the students and school.

These are not the sentiments of a ‘bleeding heart liberal.’ But, I do believe that as the Bard once said: ‘The quality of mercy is not strained. It drops as the gentle rain from Heaven.

It blesses twice. The one that receives, and the one that gives, as well’.*

*With apologies to Shakespeare. Somewhat paraphrased in modern English.