A public school teacher has been asked to shut down her Facebook account by an Education Department official for posts related to Dyana Sofya’s Teluk Intan campaign. She was also told that her future online activities would be monitored. The official had told her that her posts were deemed as being anti-government.
“We will monitor from time to time,” said the official according to the teacher.
According to a Malaysiakini report, the official had revealed that it was an instruction from the director-general Khair Mohamad Yusof. The official also admitted to the teachers claims but explained that it was just friendly advise.
The teacher who was given the orders also said that she was contacted by other government officials to warn her of the anti-government online activities.
In a statement, Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang commented that it was ironic that the teacher was reprimanded for supporting Dyana on Facebook, when today Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was reported as saying that “we have now allowed teachers to be active again (in politics)”.
Tengku Adnan had reportedly said that the previous rules barring teachers from being active in politics was “a mistake” that may have weakened BN.
Lim slammed the political bias adopted by the Barisan Nasional regime; asking if BN was warranting double standards in the political leaning of teachers.
“It is indeed the height of irony that on one hand, the UMNO Secretary-General and Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor is urging teachers to return to politics under Barisan Nasional’s fold, conceding that the headmasters, principals and teachers were the “real movers” of Umno, MCA, MIC and BN in the past, but on the other hand, high-ranking officials from Education Ministry were reprimanding a teacher for posting campaign posters of Dyana Sofya on Facebook.”
Lim questioned why teachers were not allowed to support Dyana, when Tengku Adnan had given the green light to ask teachers to return to the Barisan Nasional fold.
“Is this what Najib meant when he boasted that he wanted to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world” – where teachers have only the right to take part in politics if they become the “prime movers” of Barisan Nasional but not Pakatan Rakyat, becoming practitioners of hypocrisy and double standards in front of the new generation of Malaysians they are teaching in the schools in the country?”
Lim criticised the ruling regime’s oppression of teachers and called for the end of Barisan Nasional’s “Dyanaphobia” propaganda.
“If teachers are not allowed to put up Dyana’s posters on their Facebooks, how can headmasters, principals and teachers be allowed to be active in Barisan Nasional to resume their role as the “prime movers” of the UMNO, MCA and MIC as in the spread of Dyanaphobia as a counter to “Dyanamania” in the schools?”
Meanwhile Deputy Education Minister II P Kamalanathan was questioned on the alleged government ordered Facebook shutdown.
“Normally we don’t encourage teachers to be involved in politics like that.”
He added that teachers need to be given approval from the government to be “active in politics”.
However, when quizzed further on why the same logic was not applied on Barisan supporters, he admitted having no clue about the Facebook shutdown order. -The Rocket
