Prominent Chinese education activist Loot Ting Yee on Sunday announced his resignation from all his posts following a sexual harassment allegation against him by a girl. The alleged victim had made the claim on her blog.

srjkc damansara school opening 030106 loot In a brief statement to the media, Loot said, "I am deeply disturbed over allegations of my offensive or disrespectful behaviour and language against some females. I hereby offer my unreserved apology to these victims."

Loot, 80, said he was giving up his advisory posts in Jiao Zong (United Chinese School Teachers Association) and the Lim Lean Geok (LLG) Cultural Development Centre, as he didn't want to create unnecessary trouble for these organizations.

Earlier this month, a Sin Chew Daily reporter in her blog, accused Loot of sexually harassing her at a book fair in November. The article sent shock waves throughout the Chinese community and prompted a Chinese online news portal to interview other alleged victims.

Although rumours of Loot's improper behaviour have been rife, he has always denied any inappropriateness, saying he regarded the many young girls he was close to as god-daughters.

Nevertheless, in his statement, Loot expressed regret that his affectionate gestures were misinterpreted, adding that he had no intentions of causing hurt and discomfort to anyone.

Loot was the vice-president of Jiao Zong from 1965 to May 2006. He has also focused efforts on leading the LLG Cultural Development Centre, for which he was president since 1996. He gave up the post in June this year.

An attempt to discredit campaign?

The issue was also picked up by bloggers such as Wong Chun Wai and Ahirudin Attan of Rocky's Bru , who linked Loot with the movement against the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English in primary schools.

Meanwhile, Jiao Zong and the LLG Cultural Development Centre yesterday reaffirmed their respect for Loot, saying he had contributed a lot to movements championing Chinese education in the country.

LLG Cultural Development Centre president Zhou Shou Han rebutted attempts by bloggers to discredit the anti-English campaign by tying it up to Loot's alleged sexual misconduct.

"The language issue not only concerns the Chinese community, but at the same time, the rights of the Malay and Tamil communities. It has nothing to do with the Loot incident," he said.

In a related development, the Chinese-based Writer Alliance for Media Independence has issued a statement calling for the protection of journalists from sexual harassment.

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