Shanmugam Govindasamy
An engineer from Ipoh has been left fuming after his wife, a school teacher, was transferred from her school just days after he voiced out his opinion against a boy’s alleged racist remarks against his son, who studies at the same school.
Muniandy, 32, is refusing to buy into the Education Department’s explanation that his wife was transferred from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Bandar Baru Putra in Ipoh to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) St. Michael because the former school was having an excess of teachers.
“My wife teaches 28 hours a week, and she is a Mathematics teacher. There are no excess teachers in this school for this subject,” he said while met by Komunitikini recently.
Just a few days prior to his wife’s transfer, Muniandy had voiced his objection regarding a student’s usage of racist remarks against his son to the discipline teacher of the school.
“He had called my son with offensive words such as pariah, negro, and even said that one can’t see my son’s face after 5pm (in reference to the skin color),” Muniandy said.
When this matter was raised with the school principal, the latter allegedly said that ‘Negro is not an offensive word’.
“I returned home that day feeling that nothing can be done about this matter, and a few days later, I got the news that my wife was immediately transferred schools,” he added.
Muniandy was notified via a text message on the morning of March 1 that his wife has been transferred with immediate effect.
He had lodged a police report regarding the matter recently and had also sent letters to the state education department among others seeking an immediate explanation.
Interlok plays a part
Muniandy believes that the racist remarks directed at his son might have stemmed due to the influence of the controversial novel Interlok.
The novel is a part of the Form 5 syllabus in schools nationwide, and he feels there is no necessity for the book to remain in the limelight.
“There are so many books out there. There is no need for this book to remain at all,” he said.
The country was better off in terms of race relations prior to this issue, he added.
“I didn’t see such racial tension until this book came out. Why are we seeing so many racial issues popping about in this country recently?” he asked.
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