The proposal by DAP that SRJK (C) Damansara maintains two premises - one at its original 70-year-old site and the other at its yet-to-be-built site in Tropicana - is unviable, said a senior politician today.

"It is not the wishes of the people. The people have decided that the present premises at SRJK (C) is unsuitable, and that they want another school, which is in Tropicana," MCA president Ling Liong Sik told reporters today after officiating a departmental Hari Raya open house at the Transport Ministry.

He said this in response to DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang's suggestion that the original site be retained and considered part of the disputed school.

However, Ling said that if the school board and the parents of SRJK (C) Damansara had decided the present premises were suitable they would have applied to have another school to be built there.

He gave the example of a school in Serdang, Selangor.

"There are two schools - Serdang 1 and Serdang 2 - where the original school was bursting at its seams but because the premises on which it was built was suitable, they built another school on the same site," said Ling

Students' safety

SRJK (C) Damansara, a national-type school using Mandarin as a means of instruction, has been in the media lime light after a number of parents refused to allow their children to be temporary transferred to the nearby SRJK (C) Puay Chai.

While approximately 1,300 students have moved to Puay Chai, 70 students have remained at SRJK (C) Damansara.

The reasons given for the closing down of the old school were congestion and that the students' safety as the new Sprint highway runs near the school.

The school board was promised a 5.6 acre land in Tropicana for relocation - 15 to 20 minutes drive away - just before the last general elections in 1999. However, up till today, the new school has yet to be built as it is supposed to be under the forthcoming Eighth Malaysia Plan.

Malaysiakini had earlier reported that the school board and the school's Parent-Teacher Association have agreed in principle to retain the original school.

Population saturation

Meanwhile, Ling said the even though the growth rate among the Chinese community in Malaysia was 2.1 percent, it had reached a saturation point where it would level off as a result of increasing mortality rates.

"When the growth rate reaches two percent, it will stagnate and by a certain time it will drop.

"It is expected that we could reach total population saturation at 70 million but experts I have heard at a seminar claim it to be at 30 million," he said.