Yoursay: BN must be running scared, even teachers are threatened

Report: Minister tells teachers with opposition positions to resign

Negarawan: Teachers are government servants. During the course of their professional duties, they serve the rakyat, not political parties, and they should remain apolitical during working hours. However, it is their constitutional right to support any legitimate political party of their choice.

If Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid sacks any teacher purely based on his or her political affiliation, he and the Education Ministry should be sued.

On the other hand, Mahdzir has abused his position as the education minister by greenlighting the promotion of his political party in schools. In fact, he should be the one to resign for his unprofessional and unethical behaviour.

Kangkung: Mahdzir, what about teachers with positions in Umno? What about head teachers who openly invite Umno into their schools?

Why don’t they have to resign as well? Mahdzir, please enlighten us, are public schools funded by taxpayers or by Umno?

Clever Voter: There is nothing to stop any civil servant from voting for the opposition, or the government. The lines between government and BN have been intentionally erased.

Such feudal thinking is out of line, but it’s no wonder BN continues to dish out crumbs to the voters while they enjoy the meat. This is no benevolence but rather, a clear case of feudalism at work, and it ought to be rejected by all decent voters.

RKR: What rubbish this man talking about? If the ruling is that a teacher cannot hold any position in any political party, it should apply to Umno and other BN parties too.

Umno has formed the government but it is not the government. It is just a political party.

Anonymous 444981488553970: Yes, what nonsense is this? Where in this world is there a country in which teachers cannot hold opposition party positions?

This is really a sign of desperation by BN. Teachers are merely working for the government, not for BN. You must separate between party and government. Don’t mix this up.

Vgeorgemy: Mahdzir seems to be considering any opposition to Umno’s failed education policies as a sign of support for the opposition to minimise the anger among the children and their parents.

However, the many booming private tuition centres in our neighbourhoods that specialise in British and Singaporean syllabuses are the result of Umno’s failed educational policies.

Thus, Mahdzir should not belittle the parents’ demand for quality education as opposition-inspired. The Education Ministry must aim for an internationally-recognised education platform to improve the current laggard system that merely pleases vested religious interests.

Anonymous 242641505703475: Yes, civil servants must be apolitical and must keep their views to themselves. The minister is half right but, of course, half wrong. They must do their duties as civil servants and serve all people; not just BN.

But whether they are members of BN or opposition parties, it is their right as individuals and nobody can tell them that they could only be BN members. This is a free country, minister!

Being the education minister, you ought to know better, Or are you having doubts whether BN could retain Putrajaya and you could retain your ministerial post? Have you lost confidence in the support of the voters? Why are you afraid of civil servants joining the opposite camp?

Fight by all means; but fight fairly. Don’t use threats or warnings, please.

Rupert16: Indeed, this shows the lack of confidence in Umno of winning the coming GE14. Hence, this incompetent minister is resorting to bullying tactics to threaten the teachers.

Victor Johan: Well then, soon after GE14, Umno/BN will be in the federal opposition and all these civil servants who are members of Umno, MCA, MIC and the rest of the BN component parties will have to quit their memberships.

Mahdzir: Reports of me threatening pro-opposition teachers ‘illogical’

Vijay47: Malaysiakini columnist Fa Abdul could well do a follow-up to her recent article and this time title it as “Do we have any minister of honour?”

Mahdzir reflects the calibre of our entire crop of ministers, individuals wrapped up in the arrogance of power, lacking in any professional or moral quality to accept responsibility for what they say or do.

The greater shame is that such personalities are not stray members of PM Najib Razak’s government, the entire corps is rotten to the core with these characters, crude, ignorant, and believing themselves to be gifts to the nation by their mere presence.

Mahdzir’s claim of innocence may be that he realised that unwittingly, he has admitted that as widely believed, our votes are not secret.

In the history of Malaysian politics, we have never had a single minister or Umno leader who in the face of criticism either stood up for what he said or apologised for any ill-advised statement he made.

It would be a cold day in hell before they do.

Peninsular Rhino: Immediately after that report on the minister’s threat was published, a cartoon depicted the minister saying that voting the opposition will see the teacher losing her job, whereupon the teacher replying that voting for the opposition will instead see the minister losing his!

Now the minister has denied saying those words. It seems that ministers are always denying what they said after a backlash from the public. Political leaders are notoriously known to tell lies most of their waking hours.

Ultimately: The excuse is lame; we have heard such threats, time and again. And I have heard civil servants saying they fear their votes are not secret. It’s probably not surprising.

But regardless, Mahdzir and even the top dogs have been telling civil servants to support the government and not opposition, as if ‘BN = government’, and ‘opposition = troublemakers’.

May as well put “government” on the ballot paper instead of the ‘dacing’ (BN logo).

Anonymous 242641505703475: Dear minister, when a school in Putrajaya put up banners “Hidup Umno“, did the school do anything wrong? Was it right or wrong for telling gullible pupils to shout “Hidup Umno?”

Ib: It is weak ministers who make me want to vote for change. There is no question our education system has failed and this minister, instead of working hard to do his job which he is paid for, is busy threatening teachers to keep him in power.

Anonymous 2439891477538802: It’s too late to tell a lie to cover up your threats against the teachers. The damage is done and I hope you will not be in the cabinet after the next GE.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.