The Kulai MP questioned the department for not sending any warning letters to Pei Chun High School when it had rented out its hall to BN components Gerakan and MCA last month but doing so only when the Pekan Nenas DAP used the same hall for a fundraising dinner on April 7.
“Isn’t this selective and malicious persecution?” she asked.
She called on the department and the education ministry to explain the matter.
“This is not the first time the Johor Education Department is taking an unreasonable step to punish a school that rented its hall to DAP.
“In 2014, the head teacher of a Chinese primary school in Pekan Nanas was also transferred after the school rented out its hall to Pekan Nanas state assemblyman Yeo Tung Seong (of DAP),” she said in a statement today.
Teo also asked if the department had issued any warning letters to SK Putrajaya Presint 14 (1) after it held an Umno-themed event where pupils were made to sing the ruling party’s song and wave its flag in the presence of Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who is BN and Umno secretary-general, in October last year.
The Chinese-language Sin Chew newspaper reported that Pei Chun, an independent school in Pontian, had received a warning letter from the state Education Department on April 5 that said its head could be fined RM5,000 or be jailed, or both, if it rented the venue to DAP.
The report did not say under what law this was an offence.
Teo, who is DAP international secretary, said Pei Chun was a private school and did not receive any funding from the government.
“The hall was built by the board of directors using donations from the public,” she said, adding that the department had no right to interfere in the school’s rental matters.
“The ministry is a government institution and should not get involved in party politics,” she added.