Statement by
Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong
on 28.4.2002
in Kuala Lumpur
Last Friday, a 19-year-old student slaughtered 13 teachers, two pupils, a policeman before killing himself. He was expelled from the school in February this year. Similar massacres happened in countries such as U.S.A., Australia and United Kingdom.
On 20 April, 1999, apparently two students shot dead 13 other students at Columbine School, U.S.A., before committing suicide. Then, people thought that such incidence could only occur in U.S.A.
MASSACRES
Clearly, such a tragedy can appear in any part of the world. We have heard about various factors such as lack of strict gun laws, weapon smuggling and lack of school security.
Although Malaysia has strict gun laws including mandatory death sentence for illegal possession of firearms, some people can still obtain illegal weapons. We have often read about criminals using illegal arms to shoot out with police. Do criminals smuggle arms into the country?
On 27 April, 2002, the Education Minister Tan Sri Musa Mohamad postponed the School Security Plan from the end of this month to 6 May, 2002. We hope that he introduces effective plan for school security.
The country has over 10 universities, over 8,000 schools and more than 500 private institutes of higher learning. We have never seen massacres in these institutions. We have heard of gangsters, drug addiction and trafficking and dropouts in some of them. But, this does not mean that school killing will never happen in the country.
In the modern world, news travels very fast. People know about Columbine and Guthenberg killings. We must learn from these tragedies and take effective steps to prevent them in our schools and Universities.