Newly-elected MCA president Ong Ka Ting and his deputy Chan Kong Choy have been urged to join the struggle to reopen SJK (C) Damansara before it entered its fourth year of closure .

Save Our School (SOS) committee secretary Tommy Chin said today that the two leaders with Chinese education background should be "understanding enough" of the plight of the vernacular school.

"Ong and Chan are Chinese-educated. They had publicly recalled how difficult it was to complete their education under very limited resources. They know the difficulties vernacular schools are facing.

"After their elevation to the top MCA posts, they had declared their pride in their education background as it gave them strength to be close with the Chinese community. They had also resolved to help with problems faced by the community.

"So please do something - reopen the Damansara school," Chin pleaded.

Chin also reminded the MCA Team B-aligned deputy chief that his predecessor, Lim Ah Lek had openly called for the school closure directive to be lifted at the height of the controversial closure.

He also claimed receiving an 'offer' from a certain party to reopen the Damansara school but shut down another under-enrolled Chinese school but rejected it outright as it was against the committee's principle to fight all the way to promote and uphold Chinese education.

The Damansara school was ordered to close suddenly by the Education Ministry on Jan 2, 2001, ostensibly because it no longer provided a "conducive learning environment".

Its 1,430 pupils were told to relocate temporarily to another school while a new building in Tropicana, located 7km away from the original premises, was being built. The Tropicana building was completed in time for the 2002 school term.

Among the reasons provided for the closure of the original school occupying 0.8 acre were space constraints, plumbing problems as well as air and noise pollution due to its proximity to a highway.

However, an official environment assessment report has yet to be furnished by the ministry.

Fund-raising dinner

Meanwhile, the SOS committee will hold a fund-raising dinner on June 28 - Day 909 of the closure - at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur to commemorate the three-year closure of the school.

A similar function organised at the same venue last year in conjunction with the 500th day of the closure raised more than RM90,000.

On the fund raising campaign launched early this year, Chin said the committee has raised more than RM100,000 in five months.

The campaign aims to get at least RM1 from every Malaysian to help pay for the maintenance of the temporary school this year.

The SOS committee has won several awards including the prominent Suaram human rights award and Lim Lian Geok (a spiritual leader of the Malaysian Chinese education movement) award for being one of the most self-dependent and successful organisation in recent years,