Yesterday, I was quite happy to have press conference with Mr Nagamuthu, Chairman of school board of SJKT Castlefield, Puchong to clear all the baseless accusations thrown against me by MCA Youth National Chairman Wee Ka Siong and Wong Hock Aun of MCA Puchong. The statement made by Mr Nagamuthu and the documents which he presented to us at the press conference have cleared the air about the school land that was applied by both SJKC Kheng Chee and SJKT Castlefied.
Nagamuthu has been working with education ministry for 18 years, he has held the position of inspector of the schools for many years in the education ministry, that’s why he knows the procedure of land application in and out. As he told the press in the press conference, he did not seek assistance from me and I have never involved in his application of school land, because he knows what to do.
In addition, Nagamuthu also showed to the press the minutes of a meeting which he had with JKPTG (land office at the Federal government level) in December 2009. The minutes conclude that the piece of land that he wanted to apply belongs to the state government of Selangor.
In fact, I am not interested to argue whether the school reserve land that SJKT Castlefield wanted to apply for belongs to the state government or Federal government, because based on what Nagamuthu and Petaling land office officers have said, I can see that the records at both Pejabat Daerah dan Tanah Petaling and Selangor Education department were not up-to-date.
Both of these agencies do not have the record that the piece of school reserve land wanted by SJKT Castlefield has already been surrendered to JKPTG/federal government, and that’s why education ministry has the right to shift SJKC Kheng Chee to the said land.
The misinformation given by Selangor education department and Pejabat Tanah dan Daerah Petaling have made Nagamuthu run around to apply that piece of school land for the relocation of SJKT Castlefield. And this has caused the misunderstanding between SJKT Castlefield and Wee Ka Siong and me.
In my press conference yesterday, I told the media that when I had the press conference with the school board of SJKT Castlefield to
highlight their predicament, I did not attack MCA or Wee himself. I merely requested the Education Ministry and Wee to assist in the relocation of SJKT Castlefield.
When Wee read of our news report, the right thing for him to do would have been to call for an emergency meeting with the school board of SJKT Castlefield, JKPTG, Pejabat Daerah dan Tanah Petaling and Jabatan Pelajaran Selangor, to find out what has transpired, and not to fire me immediately based on bits and pieces of information which he read in the Chinese papers without getting all the facts right.
I find that Wee sometimes forgets that he is a Deputy Minister, and that his role is to resolve people’s problems and provide assistance to all schools. He can always whack me once he has ascertained all the facts and found out what had actually transpired. Wee’s actions so far shows that he is more suitable to play the role of ‘kaki gaduh” and oppositionist, rather than a “statesman-like” deputy minister.
I have no intention to entangle with him over this school land issue anymore. The ball is in his court now because only the Education Ministry can decide where to relocate this Tamil school and Chinese primary school. The good people of Puchong are not interested in the petty political squabble between MCA and DAP, or between Wee and I. What they very much hope for is that both schools are taken care of by the Education Ministiry, and there are enough Chinese primary schools and Tamil primary schools for the schoolchildren of Puchong.
The last paragraph says it all.