A Chinese education lobby group is upset that construction work for a Chinese school in USJ Selangor has yet to commence although the project contract had already been awarded on April 18.

The Working Committee for the Development of Chinese Schools in Subang Jaya/USJ is finding its patience severely tested with the latest delay in the long-stalled construction of SJKC Chee Wen.

The ground-breaking ceremony was supposed to take place this month but it did not happen, the groups chairperson, Gan Wah Lien, said today.

The group had planned to hold a protest demonstration on May 1, but had put it on hold since the school board chairperson Lee Hwa Beng announced the ground-breaking ceremony for May 5.

Lee, who is also the Subang Jaya state assemblyperson, will be officiating the ceremony with Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting at the prospective site for Chee Wen, Gan said.

However, if the event does not take place as scheduled, Gan warned that the lobby group will proceed with the demonstration.

Chee Wen was relocated from Batang Berjuntai in 1999 to serve the bigger demand of the USJ Chinese community. Although allotted a site for its new premises, construction had been delayed for more than a year, forcing teachers and students to operate from five borrowed classrooms in another Subang Jaya school — SK SS17.

Lee, who had made it his electoral promise to build the complete school building by 2001, is now under pressure by USJ residents to build the complete school in stages starting this year so that Chee Wens students will be able to study in their own school building by next year.

Uninterrupted construction

The Chinese education lobbyist also expressed concern over alleged plans by Lee to dismiss their initial agreement for one block to be completed by this year and the remaining two blocks to be completed by the following year so that the 2003 enrolment at the new premises will not be delayed further.

According to him, Lee is now considering plans to have the entire school built over an uninterrupted period of 18 months.

This would mean that students will not be able to enrol in the new school next year. This is against what we agreed upon when we met in February in the presence of MCA President Dr Ling Liong Sik. We agreed that at least one block must be completed by this year, said Gan.

When contacted this afternoon, Lee said he had suggested the new plans as it was a request posed by parents of Chee Wen students.

If works are uninterrupted, the entire school can be completed by the middle of next year. It will also be cheaper for us to do it this way, he said.

Lee said students of Chee Wen will be asked to continue sharing classrooms with SK SS17 for another six months.

We can also arrange for Chee Wen to borrow more classrooms to accommodate new students pending the completion of the new premises, he said, adding that there should not be any objections from SK SS17 since the school had extra classrooms and operated only a morning school session.

Funds

Lee also downplayed Gans concerns about a possible delay in Chee Wens opening next year, saying no concrete plans have been made yet on whether they would build the school uninterrupted or in stages as suggested by the lobby group.

We will study it when the time comes. For the next two months, the contractors will only be doing piling works for the entire building. We will have some time to consider this, he added.

Meanwhile, Lee said that funds collected for the construction of the school now totals RM1.58 million. An estimated RM5.5 million is required to finance the construction of the entire school.

Lee said the latest donation of RM700,000 was made yesterday by the same construction company which contributed the land site for Chee Wen.

He added that additional funds are expected to accrue after two fund-raising events planned for June and September this year.