Sekolah Rendah Islam Al-Ansor (SRIA) in Balik Pulau accused the DAP-led Penang government today of having a political agenda after its funding this year was axed.
SRIA director Muhammad Fauzi Yusof claimed the state government under Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, had discriminated against the school by withdrawing funding for the school this year.
“We have received annual funding and this year, we received a letter of the funding for this year but on September 3, we were told the funding was withdrawn and a Penang Islamic Religious Department (Jaipp) officer came to take back the letter,” he said in a statement.
He believed this showed that there are “invisible hands” involved in this due to political intervention in the state’s administration.
“This is tyranny towards a religious education institution in the state,” Muhammad Fauzi added.
The school is a Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) that was registered with Jaipp and had been in operations since 2008.
Muhammad Fauzi said the school currently has 215 students with a majority of them coming from middle to low income groups.
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.
The state religious affairs committee chairman Datuk Abdul Malik Kassim responded by pointing out that Penang continued to allocate RM1.75 million to 177 Islamic religious schools in Penang this year.
He stressed that the funding was allocated to schools based on their applications and their needs basis.
“We are only approving applications from schools 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 – themalaymailonline
Full statement SRIA in Malay as posted in social media;
KENYATAAN MEDIA SEKOLAH RENDAH ISLAM AL-ANSOR BALIK PULAU, PULAU PINANG
1. Merujuk kepada Isu Bantuan Sekolah Agama di Negeri Pulau Pinang dari Kerajaan Negeri, Sekolah Rendah Islam Al-Ansor (SRIA) Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang menyatakan kekesalan dan kekecewaan terhadap sikap pilih kasih serta diskriminasi yang berbaur politik oleh Kerajaan Negeri pimpinan YAB. Lim Guan Eng.
2. SRIA merupakan sebuah Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) yang berdaftar dibawah Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Pulau Pinang dengan nombor pendaftaran JAIPP/PEND/01-BD-(R)0021 telah beroperasi sejak tahun 2008 dan kini mempunyai murid seramai 215 orang yang majoritinya datang dari keluarga yang berpendapatan rendah dan sederhana.
3. Berdasarkan rekod terdahulu, SRIA telah menerima bantuan tersebut dari kerajaan negeri dan pada tahun ini, pihak SRIA telah menerima surat makluman pemberian bantuan tersebut oleh pegawai JAIPP pada 3 September 2015, namun surat makluman pemberian bantuan tersebut telah ditarik balik pada hari yang sama oleh JAIPP melalui pegawainya yang hadir ke SRIA untuk mengambil kembali surat berkenaan.
4. Kejadian ini telah menggambarkan bahawa terdapat ‘tangan ghaib’ yang cuba menafikan hak rakyat Pulau Pinang khususnya anak-anak dan waris yang menghantar anak ke sekolah agama rakyat. Pihak SRIA percaya bahawa isu ini berlaku adalah disebabkan campur tangan politik dalam urusan pentadbiran Kerajaan Negeri dan ia merupakan satu kezaliman terhadap institusi pendidikan agama di negeri ini.
5. Pihak SRIA ingin mengingatkan Kerajaan Negeri bahawa wang yang dimiliki oleh kerajaan adalah milik rakyat dan ia merupakan amanah dari rakyat. Sikap ini telah menampakkan kegagalan slogan cekap, akauntabiliti dan telus yang sering diwar-warkan dan rakyat sentiasa memerhati serta sedia menghukum kerajaan yang zalim.
Muhammad Fauzi Bin Yusof
Mudir Am
Sekolah Rendah Islam Al-Ansor
6 Oktober 2015
