GEORGE TOWN, Oct 7 — Sekolah Rendah Islam Bahrul Ulum (SRIBU) in the Permatang Pauh federal constituency today joined another Islamic religious school to suggest that politics may have been involved in the DAP-led Penang government’s decision to stop its funding this year.

In a statement, SRIBU board chairman said the school has been receiving funds from the state every year since 2008 but this was suddenly cancelled this year.

“We understand that state executive councillor Datuk Abdul Malik Kassim said the funding is only for poor schools that needed it so we would like to invite him to visit our school to see for himself the poor conditions of the school,” he said.

“The school depends entirely on the low school fees and public contributions, so we have very little funds and really need funding from the state,” he added.

SRIBU, which began operations in 2005, is registered under the Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JAIPP) and offers an integrated education system of the Dinniyah and Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) syllabus.

“We hope there was no political agenda in this issue that has victimised SRIBU, its students and parents because the community that supports and attends this school are made up of those from different political backgrounds including PKR, Umno, PAN (Parti Amanah Negara) and even DAP, along with neutral voters,” he said.

Yesterday, Sekolah Rendah Islam Al-Ansor (SRIA) Balik Pulau accused the state of tyranny after funding for the school was withdrawn on September 15.

SRIA director Muhammad Fauzi Yusof said he believed this showed that there were “invisible hands” involved in the matter due to political intervention in the state’s administration.

Last week, PAS Ulama wing information chief Datuk Khairuddin Aman Razali accused the state government of stopping funding to religious schools owned by PAS members.

Abdul Malik had responded by pointing out that Penang continued to allocate RM1.75 million to 177 Islamic religious schools in Penang this year.

“We are only approving applications from schools that really needed it and we go by school names, we don’t know which is a PAS-owned school so this sort of accusation is uncalled for,” he had said.