KOTA KINABALU: What Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has said and done publicly to humiliate a child is not acceptable for a Barisan Nasional member.
A child rights activist, Nilakrisna James, who is a member of Upko, said this when commenting on the recent allegations circulating on the Internet that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s son was transferred out of his school following an offence.
Nilakrisna said the identity of Lim’s son should be protected by the Child Act even if there was any wrongdoing.
“Anyone who exposes a child like that in the media should be brought before the full force of the law.
“It has far reaching psychological repurcusions and if anything happens to that child those who humiliated him should be answerable,” she said.
Nilakrisna said the vulgar expressions and street vernacular used by a political leader clearly shows that this time standards are significantly lowered, as this is not a national laughing matter.
“As a child rights activist, I am disgusted by this and as a young Barisan Nasional person I believe we should show greater class instead of lowering ourselves to this level just to be even with our political opponents. It is arrogant and revolting,” she added.
Khairy, in his twitter account highlighted the issue, which accused Lim of paying RM200,000 to keep the scandal out of the media, and said the chief minister had then transferred his son to another school after the incident.
Using the Twitter handle @Khairykj, Khairy had written, “Mungkin dia roboh Kampung Buah Pala sebab nak ganti dengan Kampung Buah Dada” in response to another tweet by pro-Umno blogger “@PapaGomo”. [English translation: Maybe he destroyed Kampung Buah Pala because he wanted to replace it with Kampung Buah Dada.