Selangor Mb In Firing Line For Seeing Bandar Utama School Murder Tragedy From Racial Lenses

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SELANGOR Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari has found himself in a quandary for dispelling “racial elements” in yesterday’s (Oct 14) gruesome murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl by a male school mate who is two years her junior at SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 4 in Petaling Jaya.
This came about as the Selangor Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman stated that the Selangor police chief has confirmed that there is no racial element in the fatal stabbing of the Form Four girl around 9.30am outside the school’s toilet.
“As a father who also has a daughter, I can’t fathom the situation that the girl’s parents are going through and I wish to convey my condolences to them,” he penned in a statement.

“This matter will be a priority in the state executive council meeting with several measures, including safety efforts and student mental health support, will be decided immediately to ensure the safety of all our children in school.”
Interestingly, brickbats were hurled at the PKR vice-president as he was accused of
“playing the race card” in his quest to brush aside any racial sentiment on the incident. This was evidently so in many responses posted on a Malaysiakini post of Amirudin’s statement on Facebook.

“Politicians play up racial issues every day and now you’re worried that this criminal case might be misinterpreted as a racial issue,” fumed YouTuber Ng Kok Hoe Daniel whose reaction was described as “spot on”.
“As a country, we have sunk so low that racial sensitivity is a major concern in everything we do. It’s shameful and disgusting.”

Some even insinuated that politicians are afraid of their own shadows for they always think of Malaysians in term of race and religion.

Others berated Amirudin for overzealously wanting to issue a statement when he should have left the matter for the police to handle or view it from the perspective of moral decay of youngsters today or even weaknesses in the education system.

To clear the air once and for all, one commenter declared that “both (the suspect and victim) were Type C”.

Also in the firing line no least is Education Minister Fadhlina Jaafar with pressure mounting for her to resign as the nation has been rocked by tragic incidences involving school pupils in recent months.
With the tragic death of 13-year-old Sabah religious school pupil Zara Qairina Mahathir still gripping the nation, the sense of schools being safe zones was shattered with the horrendous gang rape of a Form Three schoolgirl in Melaka by four male Form Five pupils.

It can be imagined how detractors poured scorn to her latest statement that a team of counsellors and counselling teachers have been mobilised to the schools involved to implement psychosocial support interventions for pupils, teachers and all school staff of SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 4.
A vast majority of commenters in the Astro Awani Facebook post which has fetched 15K likes, 16.4K comments and 1.5K shares at the time of writing had wanted the Nibong Tebal MP and PKR women’s wing chief to step down as minister. 

- focus malaysia

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