Educationist was misled, says son

KUALA LUMPUR: The son of Chinese educationist Loot Ting Yee has hit back at the magazine reporter who was reportedly hugged and kissed by his 80-year-old father during an interview.

In a letter published in the China Press daily yesterday, Mr Loot Hua Zong claimed that the reporter from Chinese magazine Feminine did not identify herself as a journalist when she visited their house earlier this month.

Instead, she said she was a former Confucian Private Secondary School student, where Mr Loot used to teach, and wanted to see how he was doing, he claimed.

'Although my father did not recognise her, he was touched and welcomed the visit,' the younger Mr Loot wrote.

He added that she introduced the two men and one woman that she was with as 'friends', and informed his father that the two men work in the IT industry. They were actually fellow reporters from the magazine.

The incident happened barely a month after the veteran Chinese education activist resigned as adviser to top Chinese education groups Dong Jiao Zong and the Lim Lean Geok Foundation last Dec 21 amid allegations of sexual harassment from another young woman reporter.

Since then, Mr Loot has stayed out of the spotlight until a series of pictures was published in local daily China Press on Wednesday, which showed him hugging and kissing the unnamed reporter from Feminine.

The reporter said that Mr Loot had also repeatedly asked her to call him 'father'. In her column, she wrote that the encounter left her shaken, and she spent the following day crying at home.

Mr Loot Hua Zong said the reporters did not carry any identification during the visit. They also did not request an interview. 'Nobody took any notes, and even when they were shooting photos, they said the photos were for themselves,' he said.

'I'm not here to defend my father's actions, but hiding your identity is an unethical journalistic practice.'

He ended the letter with a plea to 'give my father some space'.

Mr Loot's letter was published alongside a response from Feminine's editorial team, which said the reporters called the elder Mr Loot lao shi, Mandarin for teacher, because it was a respectful term and they had no intention to mislead him into thinking they were his ex-students.

'The reporters do not approve of 'setting up a trap' for interviewees this way. Besides, this incident left the reporter traumatised. Would someone go so far just to get a piece of news?' it said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese community has rallied round Mr Loot.

They urged him to seek medical help, believing his behaviour could be an early sign of dementia or depression. Said Madam Lee Sok Wah, chairman of the women's wing of the Kuala Lumpur- Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall: 'If it's a psychiatric condition, we're willing to raise funds to pay for his treatment.'