PARTI Kerjasama Anak Negeri president Henrynus Amin said any activities including efforts to promote support for Palestine in the ongoing conflict in Gaza should be left out of schools or any educational institutions.

He said such discussions would disrupt learning in class and potentially create tension among students and teachers with different beliefs and thoughts about the issue.

“Schools should focus on the preparation of the education curriculum, not mixing political discussions that are not relevant,” he said in a statement today. 

Amin was commenting on a circular from the Education Ministry dated October 21, calling for the implementation of Palestine Solidarity Week in educational institutions under the ministry.

Noting that Malaysia is a multiracial and multi religious nation, Amin said students, teachers and parents might have different views on politics or the conflict in Gaza.

He said schools should be a neutral and inclusive environment for all students to gain knowledge and cultivate good values.

He said many parents were also disturbed by a video clip where school students entering their classroom while stomping on the flag of a foreign country with curses and insults.

“Is it appropriate for young school children to be exposed to sentiments of hatred against other races and religions?

“I question the true intention of civil servants to use schools and school students to postulate their views of international political issues,” he said.

Amin said Anak Negeri fully understood the support of the public and the outpouring of sympathy among Malaysians supporting the humanitarian cause in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza.

He said the war was a sad humanitarian tragedy where innocent civilians on both sides were victims. 

He said Anak Negeri regrets the death or injury of thousands of innocent people on both sides especially involving innocent children, women and the elderly.  

Earlier, president of the Anglican mission schools in Sarawak, Danald Jute, also expressed his indignation over the ministry’s solidarity week in support of the Palestinians’ cause but said the church would not be barring its schools from participating. 

Meanwhile, Sarawak premier’s political aide Kho Teck Wan said she was shocked to learn all schools under the ministry have been instructed to organise the solidarity week beginning this Sunday and ending on November 3.

She urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the unity government he leads to separate schools from the politics of war, claiming that a precedent should not be created.

The ministry had proposed six activities to be carried out during the week, which will be from October 29 to November 3. – October 26, 2023.