MCA should strive to re-open SJK (C) Damansara instead of trumpeting the government approval it received to set up Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), said the Chinese education movement leaders.

Tommy Chin, the committee secretary of Save Our School (SOS), a citizens' initiative to keep the controversial Chinese primary school in Selangor that was closed down last year, told malaysiakini that MCA should be seeking to cooperate in efforts such as SOS'.

MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik announced yesterday that the government had, in principle, approved the setting up of a private university to be named Utar. The status of MCA's Tunku Abdul Rahman College will however remain unchanged.

TAR College was founded by MCA in 1969 after the Chinese community failed to gain approval from the government for a private Merdeka University.

Root of education

"The primary school is the root of education, while the secondary school and university are the branches and leaves respectively. Re-opening Damansara school is a small thing for MCA to do, yet the party has not been able to do it," Chin added.

The parents of 72 students of the Damansara school are fighting an Education Ministry directive enforced since the year started, that all the school's students be transferred to SJK (C) Puay Chai II while awaiting the completion of a new building in Tropicana.

The parents were dissatisfied with the authorities' rationale for the relocation as well as the lack of information on the future of the 70-year-old school once it is abandoned.

The students who have been studying at neighbourhood temple are no longer recognised by the Education Ministry, according to its minister Musa Mohamad sometime ago.

Chin said MCA's announcement to set up Utar was just another means to get cheap publicity after the party had triggered the anger of the Chinese community on several issues.

"They are desperate for Chinese support," he said.

Vehement objections

MCA's takeover of Nanyang Press - which publishes Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press - also sparked off vehement objections from the Chinese community as well as rank-and-file party members who feared that the independence of the two major newspapers would be compromised by the political party.

A faction of MCA leaders, which included Lim and Chua, also opposed the Nanyang deal as they claimed it breached the party's constitution.

An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) called by the party on June 24 to resolve the matter showed an obvious split within the party, with 53 percent of the delegates voting in favour of the deal.

Bok Tai Hee, the chief executive officer for Dong Zong, the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia, echoed Chin's remarks.

"First, MCA should help re-open Damansara school. Second, it should immediately build the new primary schools as promised in last general election," said Bok.

In addition, MCA should work to build more Chinese schools, especially in cities, he said.

Bok said MCA should fight to get more allocation for Chinese primary schools instead of sweeping all the problems under the carpet.

"In the Seventh Malaysia Plan, the Chinese primary school only received 2.44 percent out of the allocation for primary schools, but the fact is the Chinese schools should at least get more than 20 percent," he added.

He said MCA should also help to get more donation for New Era College, a higher learning institution set up by the Chinese community led by Dong Jiao Zong, a Chinese education movement grouping Dong Jong and Jiao Zong, the United Chinese School Teachers Association.