Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said Penang will pursue further action if the state education department continues to ban schools from attending this year’s Merdeka parade.

Lim said the theme for this year’s Penang Merdeka celebration is "Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah" (Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy), which the state secretariat - the liason between the federal and state administrations - was aware of.

“State secretary Farizan Darus will inform the education ministry about the theme for Penang’s celebration, and if they continue to ban (the schools), we will pursue further action,” Lim said in a WhatsApp message to Malaysiakini, from Hong Kong.

“Let them declare that our theme ‘Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah’ illegal,” he added.

Asked if he were considering legal action against the ministry, Lim said: “We will wait for their response first.”

Lim was referring to the directive issued by state education director in an official letter dated Aug 30, urging schools not to attend the state’s Merdeka celebration on Aug 31.

Osman told the school to wait for the greenlight from the education ministry as Penang’s Merdeka theme this year is ‘Bersih’ and it is sensitive.

Hope ministry will issue another letter

At a press conference, Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said that the state education department may have been “misinformed” about the matter.

“It seems the ministry has over-reacted to the word ‘Bersih’ and forgot about the words ‘Cekap’ and ‘Amanah’. Just because of the word ‘Bersih’, we are being linked to the Bersih 4 movement,” he said.

“I do not think that the Bersih movement has a monopoly on the word ‘Bersih’. We hope the education ministry will issue another letter to advice schools to take part in the celebrations as the teachers and school children always look forward to attending it,” Ramasamy ( photo ) stressed.

He said that the school may not even know Penang’s theme as Merdeka is always the overarching theme, and it is a national celebration.

Ramasamy said he was also asked if the theme ‘Bersih, Cekap And Amanah’ was reminiscent of the former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era.

“Do they think Mahathir is on our side? The federal government should not overeact or politicise Merdeka as it is a national celebration,” he said.