IT is unprofessional of both the Education Minister and the president of the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) to use their power to harass, intimidate, threaten and even blackmail teachers from having the freedom to support the political party they want. Teachers have the same rights as any other citizen.

For the past few elections now, teachers have been targeted this way because of their sheer number – almost 500,000. This is the single largest vote bank among the civil servants, more than all the armed forces combined. If the BN could engineer an excuse, they would be made “advanced voters” who will have to vote under the watchful eye of the school heads and NUTP representatives.   

Is it legally, morally or ethically right for the education minister and the NUTP president to take away the democratic right of the teachers to support the politicians of their choice so long as they do not absent themselves from school to work for the politicians?  

It used to happen and may still be happening that during election time, some teachers who are Umno and Barisan Nasional supporters will actively campaign for their teams till late and fall asleep in school the next day. And this is perfectly all right?

The education system is in bad shape, what with broken schools and indiscipline rising. This is what is crying for attention but neither the Education Ministry nor the NUTP seems to have any workable solutions. Jointly,  instead of improving the standards of education and character building of the children, they have allowed standards to fall all round.

People are questioning why more and more Malay children are going to Chinese vernacular schools. Why are they abandoning the sekolah kebangsaan which is supposed to be the pride of the school system? Why is indiscipline so rampant in our schools?

If the teachers who have to work in a broken school system feel that the malaise is due to a broken political system, and that the political system must be changed for the broken schools tobe repaired, why is it wrong for them to lend a hand to change the broken political system?

The NUTP is showing itself to be happy with the broken school system. This is a great disservice to the nation. Of all parties, a teachers’ union should know that schools make or break the nation. They either develop future generations of people with good, strong moral values or future generations of unethical and lawless people, which is what is happening now.  

The NUTP has no call supporting the minister in threatening, intimidating and blackmailing teachers, but should instead defend teachers who are punished in any way for not supporting BN. – January 20, 2018.

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.

* 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.