Father defends NGO chief in slapping video

My son was wrong and had to be disciplined, he says after video of slapping incident

KLANG: A Sungei Petani man has defended the head of a charity seen on a video recording to have slapped the man’s son. “My son had done something very wrong and he had to be disciplined,” said M Subramaniam in a press interview.

A police report has also been filed against S Selvamalar, the director of Klang-based MySkills Foundation, but the boy’s father urged poliical parties to refrain from using the incident to attack MySkills.

Subramaniam said that his son had a learning disability and had been enrolled in the Klang-based MySkills Foundation programme as an apprentice baker. The boy had since shown an improvement in behaviour, he said, according to Star Online.

A video recording being circulated online showed his son being slapped by Selvamalar after being questioned. Selvamalar is seen asking the boy if he had assaulted a girl in his class but he remained silent. Selvamalar then instructed him to take off his spectacles and proceeded to slap him several times.

This was not an isolated incident, she was reported to have said. She said the boy had previously assaulted classmates, and the slaps were not carried out in anger. Selvamalar said, “He refused to say anything and that is why I had to punish him and he immediately gave me his side of the story.”

She said MySkills prepares students for employment and assimilation was crucial before sending them out into the workforce.

On Thursday, PKR Kelana Jaya division secretary Murali Subramaniam filed a police report against the director for child abuse.