PETALING JAYA, Aug 28 — The government and the police must step in to protect the rights of the non-Muslim students of SK Seri Pristana who were implicated in the recent ‘shower room canteen’ issue that cropped up during the Ramadan fasting month, the MCA said today.

The Barisan Nasional component party’s publicity chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie said it was “saddening” that the parents of 13 students have decided to transfer their children out of the school after the children were allegedly questioned by police without the parents’ knowledge.

Heng slammed the school’s administration for being a party to the alleged harassment of the students, saying they had “betrayed the trust” they had been given to educate and protect the children.

“The school premises is not a place for school authorities to abuse their poewr to persecute pupils simply because they are unhappy over the storm of bad press following the photos (of the ‘shower room canteen’) that went viral on Facebook.

“Doing so only indicates vindictiveness on their part and teaching other unaffected pupils that it is acceptable to hound minorities rather than moving forward from a misdeed,” she said in a statement.

Ten non-Muslim parents yesterday said they would transfer their children out of Seri Pristana to protest the arrest of one of their own, V. Kumancan, who was accused of threatening the headmaster over the school's ‘shower room canteen’ controversy.

This follows a decision by parents of three other students to transfer their children out over the school administration’s handling of the debacle.

The upset parents questioned the police’s move to arrest Kumancan, 32, who has since been released on police bail, when 18 police reports had been made against the headmaster with no action taken.

The reports were made after photos circulated in social media showing non-Muslim students eating in the school’s shower room during the Muslim holy fasting month.

Heng said it was especially vexing to learn of claims that the students were questioned and had their pictures taken by police officers, while accompanied by the headmaster, and demanded that action be taken against the officers involved.

“If allegations of pupils questioned by the police officers are indeed true, and I personally believe they are, I urge the superiors of the Sungai Buloh police station, right up to Bukit Aman to probe into the method of investigation of the alleged police officers.

“There are laws which protect the rights of minor children (sic). In fact, the headmaster or the senior assistant should have contacted the parents upon being informed or discovering that the police were going to speak to the children,” she said.

Heng, who is also MCA deputy national organising secretary, also urged the Sungai Buloh police chief to act on a police report by Guneswari Kelly, who claimed to have been issued kidnap and death threats after she took and posted the photos on Facebook.

She also urged the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to work with the police to track down the culprit behind the threats against Guneswari and her daughter.

“What action has been taken since the report was filed and the outcome of the investigation (if any were carried out)? Surely the OCPD does not want to be saddled with allegations of double standards and neglecting death threats issued against any citizen regardless of their gender, religion or race.

“If fact, it is time to put a full stop to the entire situation from worsening before it jeopardises national unity. Thus, I urge all the related authorities including the education ministry, PDRM (police), etc (sic) to take prompt action to halt all these (sic) nonsense,” she said.