When racial segegration in schools was first brought up by disgruntled parents, nobody was courageous enough to expose the rogue activity except for N Siva Subramaniam, secretary-general of National Union of the Teaching Profession.

Now that he is facing the flak from many quarters of the government, I wonder why none of the parents who brought the issues to light in the first place has come out to support Siva at this crucial moment.

The least the parents could do was to speak to the press by sticking to their contention that there was indeed racial segregation in schools and bare all their personal experiences on the matter. By keeping their silence, the parents have not only done tremendous injustice to Siva but also on themselves as they are now seen as liars and trouble-makers.

According to a Star report last Friday, the ICSS (Independent Committee on Segregation in Schools) not all the 210 schools were subjected to the probe. Though they went nationwide to interview each states education department, district education officer, headmaster or principal, parent-teacher association (PTA), teacher in charge of drafting the timetable and complainant, only two complainants could come at the stipulated time and place.

So, the wealth of the data did not come from the complainants. It certainly seems a one-sided event and that would make the report biased and worth less than the paper it is printed on.