The foreign news agency, AP, has picked up on this brewing issue of the racist Malay teacher who abused Indian students in a secondary school in Banting using derogatory statements. The news report claims that three of the Indian students abused by this racist teacher are planning to sue the teacher for defamation in addition to demanding her sacking. MIC President Dato Seri S Samy Vellu has also called for action to be taken against the teacher, who has now been transfered to a better school in the area.
from Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Three ethnic Indian teenagers plan to sue their Malaysian schoolteacher for defamation after she taunted them with racial insults in a case that has outraged the minority community, a lawyer said Thursday.
The ethnic Malay female history teacher has been transferred out of her school after she reportedly acknowledged making racial remarks such as calling Indians “black monkeys” and accusing them of involvement in thuggery and theft.
The case has bolstered complaints by Malaysia’s minorities that racism by the majority Malay population is entrenched and institutionalized.
Some 500 ethnic Indians protested outside the school in central Selangor state last week after the teenage students filed a police complaint against her. Police said she would not be charged because she had not committed a criminal offense.
Three of the students plan to sue the teacher later this month because “she made false allegations that go right to the roots of their origins,” said their lawyer, S.N. Pathmanabhan. They will decide what kind of compensation they want later.
The students will also write to the government to demand the teacher be fired, he said.
It is the latest incident causing racial friction in a country that takes pride in its multiethnic peace and stability. Malay Muslims comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia’s 27 million people. Ethnic Chinese constitute a quarter of the population, while Indians make up less than 10 percent.
Malaysia’s top ethnic Indian politician, Samy Vellu, president of the Malaysian Indian Congress, is also calling for sterner disciplinary action against the teacher.
“This sort of people will give the government … a bad name and may reduce the support of the Indian community,” Samy said in a statement Wednesday.
Minority Indians largely voted against the government in March general elections amid rising complaints that the Malay-dominated ruling coalition deprives them of economic and educational opportunities and promotes religious discrimination.
