YAYASAN Chow Kit co-founder Hartini Zainudin took to Twitter today to slam the action of the Kuala Lumpur Library, which is operated by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), prohibiting two of her refugee students from entering the premises.

“DBKL library wouldn’t allow two of my refugee kids in to read. They didn’t even want to borrow books, just read on premise. Told they cannot enter,” she said on Twitter.

Hartini tweeted this at 10.59pm, and the post has since garnered more than 1,000 likes and 800 retweets.

It was believed that the staff had used the word “pelarian” (refugee) on them, thus making it a reason for refusing entry.

Hartini explained this when asked by a user on why they were not allowed in.

“I don’t know. They were told because they were refugees. Teachers are going down tomorrow to argue. Before I go down and breathe fire,” she tweeted.

In another tweet, she gave an update on the situation, and said the library’s spokesperson contacted her after seeing her initial tweet and apologised over the incident.

“Update from our teacher: The spokesperson just called me. They saw your tweet. He apologised. The staff shouldn’t use the words pelarian. Okay. Apology accepted. Are you going to let them in?” she tweeted.

The Malaysian Insight tried contacting City Hall for comments but to no avail.

Although furious, Hartini was unfazed by the rejection and explanation.

Instead, she said they would build their own library, which drew many positive responses from the public.

“I’ll make a list of books the kids want to read and create our own public space,” she tweeted.

User @nuriwa_J said she was gutted knowing children were banned from reading.

She also pledged to contribute books.

“Utterly disgusting what they did. Why would u ban children from reading?! Need to know what books needed. I want to contribute,” she said.

User @penatbuttercup said she was excited to see the space and would be keen to contribute books.

She also slammed the library for depriving people’s rights to read.

“Would love to contribute some books! So excited to see the space. People who WANT to read should never be deprived of materials that are AVAILABLE,” she said.

Another user @syubamalin said she was also willing to contribute to the cause.

“Let’s build that space, would love to contribute to this!” she said. – December 28, 2021.