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Media Statement        
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Friday): DAP Members of Parliament will censure the Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar in Parliament unless he apologises to the Selangor DAP State Chairman Ean Yong Hian Wah for his loutish and gangsterish conduct at the Education Ministry in Putrajaya yesterday.

Au Yong had accompanied Lim Kim Chung and his wife from Pandamaran, Klang to submit a memorandum to the Education Minister over the punching of their Remove Class daughter, Lim Nien Nie, 13, by her teacher at the Sekolah Menengah Raja Lumu, Pandamaran on Monday.

Noh Omar had acted in a way totally unbefitting and unbecoming of a Deputy Education Minister when he lost control of himself and created a public scene by abusing Au Yong and crumbling and throwing away the memorandum, which had to be picked up by his officer.

I am shocked by Noh Omar’s public misconduct, as I had thought that he would have mended from his previous ways of acting and behaving like a gangster when he was Deputy Internal Security Minister, as he had been assigned to the task of maintaining school discipline.

How could Noh Omar wipe out the menace of school gangsterism when he continues to act and behave like a gangster, setting the worst possible example to students – totally without a proper sense of the public behaviour expected not only of a government officer, but an elected official?

Noh Omar was creating a red herring when he accused the Selangor DAP of interfering in a school discipline matter, for Ean Yong and the Selangor DAP officials were only carrying out their duties to the public when they were approached for assistance when the school authorities refused to take appropriate action against the teacher for the physical violence of punching the Remove Class student.

I am shocked that the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had given blanket approval for the loutish and gangsterish conduct of Noh Omar, even making racist and baseless insinuations that DAP leaders only take up cases involving one community.

Hishammuddin even asked why the DAP was never bothered about the death a few years back of Mohd Farid Ibrahim, the fourth-former at Sekolah Menengah Agama Dato Kelana Petra Maamor, Ampangan, Seremban who died after being assaulted by a group of seniors at the school hostel, openly suggesting that DAP leaders were racists and were not concerned about the plight of victims if they were Malays.

Hishammuddin was Education Minister when the killing of Mohd Farid took place at the religious school hostel and he should know that he was telling a lie when he said DAP leaders were unconcerned about the case.

I personally visited the Mohd Farid’s parents in their Seremban home over their son’s murder and I was in court during the murder trial.

Hishammuddin should apologise for making such a baseless and unwarranted allegation, which raises grave questions as to whether he sees himself as an Education Minister for all Malaysians who respects the viewpoints of all Malaysians regardless of race or whether he is above all else just a keris-wielding UMNO Youth leader.

(13/7/2007)