PENANG’S Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) never had any issues holding interfaith prayers at the school until this year, said its board of governors.

They told The Malaysian Insight that for the last 10 years, interfaith prayers were the norm during the awards ceremony on speech day.

“There were no complaints from either the parents or teachers,” MGS board of governors chairman Kee Phaik Cheen said.

This year, however, a police report was lodged against the school for allegedly trying to proselytise Muslim students and teachers.

MGS maintained that it wasn’t a Christian prayer but a speech on unity that was presented at the school awards ceremony.

“We havd to investigate complaints of alleged polarisation in the school as we were informed about it by the teachers.” Kee said.

The complainant accused the school of proselyting to its Muslim pupils, saying in his police report that  the school had 347 Muslim and only 161 non-Muslim pupils. He also said there were 26 Muslim teachers and 14 non-Muslim teachers.

The Education Ministry said that no further action will be taken on the case after the school submitted a detailed report of the incident last week.

Kee said some teachers had informed her that students were told not to buy food and drinks from the non-Muslim vendors at the canteen.

“We only heard that the students were told not to buy food because it was ‘haram’ ( forbidden).

“We don’t know about this, and that is why we have to look into it,” Kee said.

The Malaysian Insight had interviewed the canteen operator at the school who said that the multiracial pupils of the school were getting along just fine.

Che Su Abdul Rahman, who has run the canteen for six years,  said he had not seen Malay pupils boycotting non-Muslim stalls in the canteen, as some had alleged.

Kee also dismissed allegations that parents were threatening to take their children out of school because of the incident.

“If the parents were unhappy they would have gone to the headmaster or the parent-teacher association.

“No parent has asked for their children to be removed. These are just the unfounded claims of some people.”

Speech day controversy

Federation of Christian Mission Schools in Malaysia (FCMSM) chairman Moey Yoke Lai told The Malaysian Insight the uproar over the Crhsitian prayer began on September 20, when the school heard that Muslim students would not be in the hall during the pastoral prayer and would only enter the hall for the doa Islam.

She said it was decided then by Kee, the headmaster, the chaplain and the ustaz that the two religious leaders would instead give a speech on unity.

“The chaplan and ustaz were told to prepare their speeches which would be read out by one of the board members,” Moey said.

“However, on event day, the chaplain gave his speech, but there was nothing from the ustaz.

“Then during the ceremony the unity speech was read out which also contained a Bible verse.”

She said after the ceremony three men were seen speaking outside the school after which one of them lodged a police report that the school was propagating Christianity among Muslim students.

Moey said on September 29, the Penang Special Branch called for a meeting with Kee and the board members.

“They asked Kee for her side of the story and was satisfied with the explanation.”

The following day Kee, the headmaster and board members went to meet the Penang Education Department deputy director Abdul Rashid Abdul Samad, she said.

“What ensued in his office troubled them as the headmaster was chided for not informing the department of the speech.

“He also said the school was in violation of the rules and regulations.”

On October 1, Moey said the the board was invited by Penang Deputy Chief Minister P. Ramasamy to told their story.

“Kee informed him of what had happened and Ramasamy also concluded that it was not a prayer but a unity speech.”

Moey said a full report of the incident was submitted to Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik in Putrajaya last week.

“The minister allayed the fears and anxiety that had arisen among the mission schools community, saying that no further action would be taken with regard to the MGS Primary, Penang incident.

“The minister assured FCMSM that the status quo of the practices of the mission school will be observed and its ethos, character and traditions will be maintained and respected.”

Moey urged the Education Ministry to check with FCMSM in future if there were any religious issues linked to mission schools.

“This is to prevent misinterpretation and misunderstanding,” she said.

“We hope in the future that they will refer to us before making any statements or taking any actions.” – October 19, 2019.