The villagers of Damansara New Village oppose fully the moving of all 1,400 students of SRJK (C) Damansara to another Chinese school as they feel that this might lead to the closure of the 70-year-old school.

Kuala Lumpur DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai said that the standoff last weekend between the villagers and parents of the pupils - many of whom are former students themselves - and the school's board of directors and the Selangor State Education Department showed how strongly the parents and the villagers feel about the relocation.

Tan said that SRJK (C) Damansara was promised a 5.6 acre land in Tropicana just before the last general elections. However, up till today, the new school has yet to be built as it is supposed to be under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, which has yet to be passed.

"While waiting for the new school to be built in Tropicana, the board of directors and State Education Department have taken it upon themselves to move all the students to another school, SRJK (C) Phui Choy (2) in Damansara Utama," Tan said.

"The excuses given are that there will be congestion and the safety of the students is at stake with the new Sprint highway that runs near the school."

Tan said that the villagers are not opposing the move per se but they are unhappy with the fact that the old school might be closed down once all the students are moved to SRJK (C) Phui Choy (2).

"Phui Choy (2) has enough classrooms but it does not have the furniture so they have to move the furniture from SRJK (C) Damansara to Phui Choy (2). With the pupils and the furniture gone, it is more or less like the school is being closed down," said Tan.

Don't let school die

Many of the pupils will now have to go further to attend school when before they only have to walk to school.

"We must bear in mind that these people are not well-to-do economically and these parents do not have the time to pick up their children.

"The safety of the students can be taken care of with preventive steps. Just look at the Chinese school in Salak South which has effectively put up measures as the school is only a few feet away from the Sungai Besi expressway," said Tan.

Stating that the villagers are only trying to preserve a school that was built from their own sweat and hard work and has become part of their village for 70 years, Tan said the villagers do not want to see the school die.

"With much threat to Chinese schools, the villagers and the parents feel that it is their duty to make sure the school does not close down, even when the new SRJK (C) Damansara is built in Tropicana.

"As it is, there are very few Chinese schools in the Petaling Jaya area but the demand for Chinese education has been increasing with the growing population," said Tan, voicing out the frustrations of the villagers.

Hidden interests

Parti Rakyat Malaysia president Dr Syed Husin Ali said that the intention of the board of directors and State Education Department might be good as it is to provide the pupils a better place to study in a less congested place.

"However, the way they are going about it is perhaps what's causing the problems. There might not have been proper discussions and proper explanations and also not enough time to sort out whatever grievances and worries the parents and the villagers have.

"Furthermore, at present, with tensions running high on the issue of the future of Chinese schools, any step to touch any Chinese school will be met with opposition from those who want to preserve these schools. The authorities also should take into account that many of the pupils stay near the schools."

Syed Husin said he believes that there might be hidden interests in the land on which the present SRJK (C) Damansara is sited as it is near the highway and there are also hotels nearby.