Spore tudung ban flagrant discrimination: Karpal
DAP national deputy chairperson Karpal Singh today said it was difficult to see the logic of the Singapore governments move to suspend two Muslim primary schoolgirls for wearing their tudung (head scarf) to class.
I would have thought the Singapore government would have, before taking such a drastic step, sought legal advice from its Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong, a former High Court judge and one who was born in Perak, he said in a press statement.
Seven-year-old Nurul Nasihah and six-year-old Siti Farwizah Mohamad Kassim were suspended from their schools on Monday by the republics authorities. The parents of the two girls had failed to comply with the Monday deadline to refrain from sending the girls to school wearing their tudung .
Karpal said Article 15 of the Singapore Constitution allowed all to profess and practise their religion and to propagate it while Article 12(1) provides that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of the law.
The Singapore government should not ignore its countrys Constitution which is the supreme law of the republic. If Sikh pupils in Singapore schools can be allowed to wear turbans, why must the tudung be outlawed?
The Singapore government has yet to explain or comment upon this flagrant discrimination, said Karpal.
He also said Singapores criticism of Malaysian protests on the matter was ill-founded, given possible repercussions that could arise in Malaysia resulting from the Singapore governments cavalier approach to the issue.
Pressure
In another press statement, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress workers consumer movement arm (3P) said Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong should apologise to Muslims for insisting on the ban.
The movement said if the issue was not resolved, they would urge the Malaysian government to raise the matter at the next Organisation of Islamic Conference to discuss what pressure could be exerted on Singapore.
We have no intention of interfering in Singapores internal affairs, but this involves a sensitive religious issue, 3P general secretary Mustafar Maarof said.
Mustafar said his movement would also submit a note of protest to the Singaporean High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur on the matter.
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