DAP's Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud has slammed the Malacca Education Department's move to transfer a teacher who had shared a poster of the politician on Facebook .

"This act of punishing a teacher who has given 16 years of service and who is also a single mother is despicable.

"What more when she was simply exercising her rights as a citizen to share her interest in current Malaysian politics on her personal Facebook page," she said in statement today.

Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported a teacher was eventually transferred to a school some 27 kilometres away from her home with her old school only two kilometres away.

The teacher, who did not want to be named, had previously told Malaysiakini she was warned by an Education Ministry official for Facebook postings that were deemed "anti-government", which among others included posters of Dyana during the Teluk Intan by-election.

Dyana, who  the DAP candidate for the seat that she eventually lost, said the teacher's transfer highlights the government's constant interference in the education system.

"If educators are not allowed to think for themselves and express their views and opinions, then how are they supposed to nurture critically-minded children?

"How are we to develop the required human capital to face the challenges of the future when the Education Ministry is only intent on creating robots that ' turut perintah ' (follow orders)," she said.

Dyana said the teacher's transfer just days before Hari Raya Aidilfitri was uncalled for and called for the order to be rescinded.

She pointed out the action contradicts the government's 2010 move to lift a ban on teachers from participating in politics.

"In any case, such a rule (ban on politics) does not even apply in this case, as posting of a poster on a personal Facebook page is certainly not akin to bringing politics inside the school gate," said Dyana, who is also political secretary to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

She was defeated in the  May Teluk Intan by-election by a razor-thin 238-vote margin, garnering 19,919 votes to Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong's 20,157 votes.

Meanwhile, the National Union of the Teaching Profession has also objected to the ministry's apparent intervention, saying that Facebook is a “personal right” and off-duty teachers have the right to express their personal opinions.