CABINET members, led by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, showed up in support of a Puchong school, which had come under fire over its Chinese New Year decorations. 

A Malay party had yesterday taken aim at SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong 1’s decorations, which they claimed to be unconstitutional and aimed to propagate a religion to students. 

Nine ministers, including Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah and Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, arrived at the school at about 4.30pm. 

“We want to ensure unity is protected in this country. Since independence, we have not had any issues about (festive) decorations and lanterns, or about any celebrations.

“We need to be united. Don’t turn this into an issue to break us apart. A new year is celebrated by all, Muslims and non-Muslims,” said Wan Azizah.

“It is okay to have lanterns. We all have many similarities. All of us in the cabinet wants to protect our harmony,” she added. 

She said the school has been putting up decorations for more than 10 years without any problems. 

“Why make it an issue now?” she asked. 

The ministers then posed for photographs with the decorations and lanterns in the school before leaving at about 5.30pm. 

Also present were Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman; Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof and Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching.

Subang MP Wong Chen, under whose constituency the school is located, and Selangor state exco members Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud and Ng Sze Han also paid a visit to the school. 

When questioned why Unity Affairs Minister P Waythamoorty was not present, Saifuddin said the former had to attend post-cabinet meeting with his officers. 

“The cabinet discussed this issue and we are all here,” said Saifuddin. 

Wan Azizah later said all the ministers are “ministers of unity affairs”. 

In the same press conference, Teo also confirmed that some of the lanterns that were removed earlier had been put up again. 

The lanterns were removed on the advice of the police, she said. 

“However after full investigations, this matter will not be prolonged,” she added. 

Earlier today, both Lim and Gobind had slammed the move to pressure the school to remove its Chinese New Year decorations.

Right wing Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia’s (Putra) vice-president and lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz had threatened to report the school over the “religious” decorations, which he said was “unconstitutional”. 

He said Muslim parents had complained about the decorations. 

“The complaints we’ve received show unease at the excessive Chinese New Year 2020 decorations in your school. Some parents say the school looks like a Chinese-owned market with religious elements on display that are other than Islam. 

“This is distressing for the Muslim students and is also against Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution,” Khairul Azam had said in a letter sent to the school’s principal Rohani Mohd Nor and shared on his Twitter account. 

Article 3(1) states that “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation”. – January 8, 2020.