The Save Our School (SOS) Committee will be holding a 1000-people dinner tomorrow at the Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur to commemorate the three-year closure of SJK (C) Damansara.

The dinner, which will begin at 7pm, will feature speeches by the organisers and educationists, and performances by the students. The first batch of 49 students and graduates of the school will also be putting up a show.

"All 1,200 tickets have been sold and we are deliberating how to accommodate more people in the hall. Those unable to get tickets are welcomed to turn up and show their support," SOS secretary Tommy Chin said today.

"The main purpose of the dinner is not to raise funds. The event is to thank all those who have assisted and supported us and to encourage all to sustain this campaign," he added.

Paying school bills

Some 100 people will receive souvenirs from the committee for their generous donations to SOS fund-raising campaign launched earlier this year while badges depicting the SOS struggle will also be distributed to guests.

The campaign launched in January has raised more than RM100,000 in five months. It aims to get at least RM1 from every Malaysian to help pay for the maintenance of the temporary school in Petaling Jaya this year.

The expenses include utility bills, teachers' salaries, food for students, field trips and loans for books. It has dropped from the initial RM20,000 per month to RM16,000 after the committee bought over the six containers located at a neighbouring temple to house the students and teachers.

A similar function held at the same venue last year in conjunction with the 500th day of the closure of the Damansara school raised more than RM90,000 ( photo ).

Damansara school saga

SJK (C) Damansara primary 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 several kilometres away, was being built. The Tropicana building was completed in time for the 2002 school term.

Among the reasons given 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.

Built in 1930, the school has grown by leaps and bounds. In 2001, it had a three-storey building which housed 16 classrooms, the administrative office, an activity centre, a library furnished with computers and audio-visual equipment, and a new canteen.

One year prior to its closure, an auditorium costing hundreds of thousands of ringgit was completed ( photo ).

The SOS committee has also 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 organisations in recent years.