Controversial meeting on Chinese schools goes unhampered

comments     Yap Mun Ching     Published     Updated

Chinese educationist groups that oppose the vision school concept finally met last night in Kuala Lumpur after their earlier scheduled meeting was prevented by police two weeks ago.

The United Chinese Schools Committees Association, also known as Dong Zong, organised the meeting at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall which was attended by about 200 people to discuss the implications of vision schools on vernacular education.

According to Dong Zong, although vision schools are said to have been designed to achieve national unity, the underlying purpose of the government is to convert all mother-tongue primary schools to schools using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction.

We oppose it as the right to mother-tongue education is a basic human right of the people, said Bock Tai Hee, the chief executive officer of Dong Zong.

Bock urged all parents not to enrol their children at vision schools.

A five-point resolution was presented and passed during the meeting.

Monolingual education policy

The resolution, among others, protests the vision school project and calls on parents not to send their children to the USJ 15 vision school.

Vision schools are said to have the ultimate aim of monolingual education policy.

The resolution also called for the conversion of the USJ 15 vision school, which is expected to start enrolment next week, into a full Chinese school and for the resolution of the problems affecting SJK(C) Damansara and SJK(C) Chee Wen.

A group of parents has been campaigning to re-open the original school building of SJK(C) Damansara for some 60 students who are now studying in an air-conditioned container.

They say the new campus in Tropicana was meant to be an extension of the original school and not its replacement.

Parents of students attending SJK(C) Chee Wen have also been protesting against the delay in the construction of a new building for the Chinese primary school which is now squatting in five classrooms at another Subang Jaya school  SK SS17.

Gan Wah Lien, the chairperson of a Subang Jaya/USJ Chinese education lobby group, urged those who have been unable to register their children in neighbouring Chinese schools to continue campaigning with the lobby group for more such schools to be built in the area instead of accepting the vision school solution offered by the government.

We are now working to build the entire school of 70 classrooms at once for Chee Wen instead of only 16 classrooms as originally intended by the schools board, said Gan.

We are also campaigning for another Chinese primary school to be built for the residents of Putra Heights which is also within the USJ area, he added.

Signature campaign

Earlier, Yap Sin Tian, president of Dong Lian Hui which is a member of the Dong Zong, announced that more than 20,000 signatures have been collected from Subang Jaya and USJ residents supporting the conversion of the USJ 15 vision school into a complete Chinese school.

Yap said the government had built the vision school in an area where there was a severe shortage of Chinese schools in order to force local residents into sending their children to the vision school.

The government promised to build six more SJK(C) and to relocate another 13 before the 1999 general elections but until now most of the promises are not kept, he said, adding that in the meantime, national schools and vision schools have been built in large numbers, often catering to only small numbers of students.

Yap said that Malaysia as a democratic, multiracial country should have schools with different origins to provide a choice for parents to decide which type of school their children should attend.

The meeting, which was originally intended to be held on Jan 16, was stopped from taking place when police blocked the entrance to the hall, citing that the organiser had failed to apply for a police permit.

However, the organiser refuted that a permit was required as it was a private affair and not open to public.

The police later said they will not allow anyone to exploit sensitive issues to sow seeds of hatred against the government..

The move by the police was widely seen to be in response to the large presence of Chinese Malaysian groups then in Indera Kayangan during the run-up to the by-election.

Barisan Nasionals Oui Ah Lan defeated Keadilans Khoo Yang Chong during the by-election with a higher majority but the ruling coalition was said to have suffered a loss of 30 percent of the Chinese Malaysian vote.



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