Chin Woo school land dispute coming to an end?

The land dispute between SJK (C) Chin Woo and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture gained some new progress today, towards a possible amicable settlement.

Representatives of the school board met with the Chief Secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and various government representatives at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) headquarters this morning.

During the meeting, the federal government offered to lease the school land for 20 years at RM1,000 per acre.

The Tourism and Culture Ministry wants to acquire about 15,000 square feet of land from the 84-year-old Chinese primary school located on Jalan Pudu for a Kota Warisan building and a restaurant.

The ministry had last month moved to demolish a portion of SJK Chin Woo but then called it off.

The offer today means that government has also temporarily ceased its move to acquire a part of the school compound.

After the 45-minute meeting, Chin Woo general affairs director Chew Kee Hui told the media that the rental offer was just a preliminary solution.

"Although the lease duration is 20 years, but after 15 years, we still can negotiate with the authority on how to use the land," Chew said.

Chin Woo school board chairperson Oo Tin Fuan (left), who also attended the meeting, told reporters that the deputy director of Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta of the Prime Minister's Department, Tan Yew Chong, told him that the proposal for a restaurant plan on the school land has been cancelled and moved to another site in Wangsa Maju.

‘This is the best offer. Our land will be safe, so why not accept it? This is the best present for the Chinese community," Oo said.

However, Dong Zong president Yap Sin Tian was cautious about the situation.

He told reporters after attending the meeting that they all requested the authorities to make their offer in black-and-white, so that the school could give the matter a closer study.

Yap (right) said any resolution for the Chin Woo school land must be carefully considered, as it would be a precedent for other Chinese primary schools on land issues, especially those in the Klang Valley, where land is becoming rare and valuable.

The Tourism and Culture Ministry informed the school in September last year that it intended to acquire 1,393.55sq metres of the school's compound for the construction of a government-owned restaurant.

This has been strongly opposed by the school's board of directors and NGOs, among others.