Commonwealth countries should impress upon the Singapore government the need to have enlightened policies in relation to the controversial tudung (headscarf) ban, said DAP national deputy chairperson Karpal Singh today.

"No country has introduced such a ban. During the British rule in Singapore, there was no such ban," he said in a press statement.

"It is not too late for the Singapore government to come to its senses," he added.

Early this year, three schoolgirls, aged between six and seven, were expelled from a school in the republic for refusing to remove their headscarfs.

This prompted their parents to seek legal redress and they wanted Karpal to handle the case. However, the prominent lawyer-cum-politician was required to obtain a work permit in order to represent his clients in a Singaporean court.

This week, it was reported that one of the girls, Nurul Nahiha Nasser, has left for Australia to continue her studies at the King Khalid Islamic college in Melbourne.

Her father, Mohamad Nasser, said he will apply for permanent residence there for the family.

Avoid racial polarisation

Singapore premier Goh Chok Tong said the ban, implemented this year, was to avoid racial polarisation among students especially in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

However, Karpal disagrees with this rationale.

"I fail to understand how wearing the tudung to school can endanger the security of Singapore, particularly when the ban does not exclude the wearing of tudung after school hours," he stressed today.

He described the ban as discrimination against Muslim school girls as Sikh boys are allowed to wear turbans to school.

Karpal also urged the government to get its priorities right and reconsider the ban.

"The Singapore government should not hold its Muslim citizens to ransom by embarking upon bans on the nature of prohibiting the use of tudung in schools," he said.