Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng only had harsh words for a school event in Putrajaya yesterday, at which hundreds of pupils and teachers participated in a class decoration and performance competition while honouring Umno.

Lim (photo) said the pupils were “brainwashed” during the event, themed “Umno and Independence #Negaraku”, at which the pupils and teachers were ordered to sing the Umno song, shout the party’s slogan and wave its flags alongside the Jalur Gemilang.

“What do the pupils know? They were ordered to do so by the school teacher, who may be a political party member. He may just be hiding behind his teacher post, so that he can brainwash the pupils,” Lim said at a press conference in Komtar today.

“This is an abuse of power. We ask that the Education Ministry takes stern action against the teacher and the primary school headmaster for allowing this to take place,” he added.

“The Education Ministry must put a stop to such events as schools are now used to campaign for Umno. It is a waste of public funds.”

Teachers urged to join Umno

Malaysiakini reported yesterday that the event in at SK Putrajaya Presint 14(1) was organised by the Federal Territories (FT) Ministry, the Putrajaya Education Department, Putrajaya Umno division education bureau and two other NGOs.

During the event, Federal Territory Minister Tengku Mansor Adnan, who is also Umno secretary, reportedly urged teachers to join Umno, and after his speech, the students responded by chanting “Hidup Umno” (Long Live Umno).

This was in contrast to last month, when Lim applied to visit a Chinese school in Sungai Lembu, Bukit Mertajam, to hand over funds to the school’s board of directors, but was barred from entering the school by the state Education Department.

‘No logic to bar my visit’

At the time, Lim told a press conference that the move to bar his visit was a "travesty of democratic principles.”

He queried the state Education Department on why it should victimise the Penang government and bully its chief minister.

Lim said there was no logic in preventing him from visiting the school when all he wanted to do was provide financial aid.

He said politicians usually visit schools to help, but the event at the school in Putrajaya was to campaign for Umno.

“Unfortunately, it involved students, where schools are turned into indoctrination campaigns and it is clear it involves public funds,” Lim said.

“I don’t understand how Umno can bring poliitics into schools. Serious action must be taken on this, or else our system of education will be tarnished by such incidents.

“This has never happened before in Malaysia, but it used to happen in North Korea,” he added.