The Save Our School (SOS) committee for SJK(C) Damansara will request a meeting with MCA president Ong Ka Ting after the latter spoke for the first time on the school closure yesterday.

Committee chairperson Yong Yoke Sung said he felt that Ong's statement was a "positive" indication although the minister did not hint whether the school will be re-opened soon.

"At least he agreed that the residents were not doing the wrong thing in fighting for a community school in our area," Yong said when contacted today.

On the request for a meeting, he said he would discuss the matter with Dong Jiao Zong, the umbrella body of Chinese education groups.

"The first thing that came to my mind after reading news reports about the MCA president's statement is the need for communication since Ong has finally broken his long silence on the issue," he added.

Fund-raising dinner

The committee is scheduled to hold its third annual fund-raising dinner next Saturday in Kuala Lumpur. 1,800 tickets for the dinner have been sold.

Yong said it was also the first time that the committee has received an official response from the MCA president on an invitation to attend the dinner.

However, Ong has replied that he would not be able to attend the dinner due to prior official commitments.

Yong said previous invitations sent to former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik to attend the committee's annual dinner in 2002 and 2003 received no response.

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

The 1,430 students were told to relocate to a new building in Tropicana but the parents felt they were 'cheated' because they were promised earlier that the government was to build a 'branch school' in Tropicana.

Ong, who is also housing and local government minister, spoke on the controversial Damansara school closure yesterday while attending the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) swearing-in ceremony of new office bearers.

He was responding to outgoing SCAH chief Ting Chee Seng's remark after being indirectly told "to go and sell potatoes if he cannot serve the people".

Call for new efforts

Ting, in his farewell speech said one of his regrets during his two-year term as SCAH president was his failure to get the original Damansara school re-opened.

He then said that "if a minister cannot serve the people, then he should go back and sell potatoes." While Ting did not mention names, the tirade was clearly a reference to Ong as he was the only minister present.

However, the minister calmly responded later saying that he did not have a ready answer on how the school issue could be resolved.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement today urged the government to make new efforts to resolve and re-open the original school.

He proposed a roundtable conference of all political parties together with Dong Jiao Zong to come out with solutions on how best to re-open the original Damansara school.

Earlier this month, the SCAH has announced its establishment of a 'Damansara school follow up task force' comprising SCAH committee members to discuss ways to resolve the controversial issue.