BERSIH 2.0 expresses grave concern on the statement made by Education Minister Maszlee Malik during his winding-up speech for Budget 2019 in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that opposition members of parliament are required to get permission from the state education director to enter schools in their constituencies.

If there are legitimate concerns about politicians entering schools, then any policies should apply to all politicians regardless of their affiliation.

We do not question the right of the Education Ministry to impose policies or provide guidelines to protect schools from any negative influence, but we do question the partisan implementation of policies.

Maszlee is reminded that discriminating against democratically elected opposition MPs is simply disrespecting the will of the voters in their constituencies.

In a multi-party democracy, voters have the right to choose from various contending parties and they should not be deprived of the service of their representatives if they turn out to be on the opposition bench after the election.

A frequent complaint of opposition representatives during Barisan Nasional’s rule was the fact that they were not allowed to enter public schools while BN representatives were allowed. Is the new Pakatan Harapan government doing to the opposition what they themselves objected to when they were in the opposition?

It is not uncommon for schools to invite local MPs to grace their events. If there are concerns that some messages brought by politicians through their presence in campus may not befit an educational setting, such concerns should be dealt with party-blind guidelines and standard operating procedures on violations for all visiting politicians.

We therefore call on Maszlee to immediately revoke the partisan instruction by his ministry and to replace it with appropriate non-partisan guidelines for all politicians who are invited to attend school events. – November 20, 2018.

* This statement is issued by the Steering Committee of Bersih 2.0.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.