This morning, I held a press conference with the Chairman of SJKC Yak Chee and President and two Vice Presidents of the Yak Chee Board of Directors to put an end to MCA Puchong’s manipulation of the truth on school land which Selangor has already approved in Puchong.
Yet again, MCA Puchong chairman Wong Hock Aun is barking up the wrong tree by falsely accusing Selangor State Government of not having approved the land for SJKC Yak Chee, SMJK Katholik and autism school in Taman Tasik Prima, but merely “supported” the schools.
As MCA Puchong Chairman, he should know better that education is on the Federal list, thus the construction of schools must be approved by the Federal Government, not the State. Thus, he should be chasing after the Education Ministry to approve the construction of the schools asap.
The Selangor State Government has already done our part in approving the school reserve land for the construction of those schools. I’ve already produced proof of that in the Selangor State Government’s letter to the Education Ministry. In the letter, we asked the Education Ministry to please approve the schools to cope with the high demand by students in the area. Thus, the ball is now in the hands of the Education Ministry to approve the schools’ request to the Ministry to set up their schools.
SJKC Yak Chee wrote to Education Minister Muhyiddin on 20 June 2011 requesting to set up their branch school. SMJK Catholic have wrote to Muhyiddin 2 March 2011 requesting to set up their branch school. Both have received no positive response to date.
That’s why the State’s letter to the Ministry of Education stated that the Selangor State Government approves in principle (secara dasarnya telah meluluskan) the school land application by SJKC Yak Chee and SMJK Confucius on condition that these schools receive approval from the Education Ministry (dengan syarat pihak sekolah ini hendaklah terlebih dahulu mendapat kelulusan daripada Kementerian Pelajaran).
If the Education Ministry rejects their requests, both Yak Chee and Confucius will not be allowed to set up their schools. It is for this reason that the State cannot blindly give away precious school reserve land, without the certainty that a school will be build on it.
As for Wong Hock Aun’s wild claim that the land belongs to the developer and that it is not state land, he should know that in every mixed development, there is a requirement for the developer to set aside land as school reserve land. In that area of Taman Tasik Prima, the developer has already set aside the two pieces of land as school reserve land. School reserve land is state land.
The developer has already done its part in writing in to Jabatan Ketua Pengarah Pejabat Tanah dan Galian (JKPTG, the land office at the Federal Level) to inform them of the school reserve land. The next step should be for the JKPTG to make an application to the State for the school reserve land and pay the necessary premium to the Land Office, upon which the Land Office will issue JKPTG with the land title. Only then will there be a land title.
So is Wong Hock Aun genuinely ignorant of due process, or is he making up stories for the sake of holding an press conference to attack me and get cheap publicity for MCA Puchong? All his efforts are not productive at all and are of no help to Yak Chee or Confucius and do not impress the people of Puchong who don’t care for his political pot shots but only hope very much for more vernacular schools for their children.
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/11/3/central/9824504&sec=central
Thursday November 3, 2011
Wong: Land for schools not approved yet
By S. PUSPADEVI
[email protected]
PUCHONG MCA chairman Datuk Wong Hock Aun is rebutting statements made by DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok that the Education Ministry has approved the application of two vernacular schools and an autistic school to be built in Taman Tasik Prima, Puchong.
Referring to a letter from the Selangor state secretary’s office to the Education Ministry, Wong said the letter only stated that the state government supported the application of the new schools, but did not mention its approval.
“As such, it is very wrong for Kok to politicise the issue and mislead the public into thinking that the state had approved the land for the schools,” Wong said during a press conference at the Puchong MCA Youth office at Batu 14 in Puchong yesterday.
No approval: (Seated from left): Puchong Wanita MCA chief Chin Ah Yim, Wong, division secretary Liew Yew Fook and Wanita MCA treasurer Amanda Own with other members.“I have done my research at the Land Office and found that the land had no titles yet and it is not a state land.
“Furthermore, the Education Ministry through the Federal Land Commission had submitted the land application to the Land Office to be elevated as a school reserve.
“However, this application could not be processed by the Land and Mines Department because the property developers, Bolton Bhd, had surrendered the land to the state education department and not the Land and Mines Department,” he said.
He added that Kok had also made a statement in Parliament on Nov 1, saying that the application for the new schools had been approved by the state government.
It was reported in another newspaper that the state had urged the Education Ministry to approve the construction of three schools in Puchong to cater to a growing number of students in the state.
In a letter to the Ministry, the state government voiced its support for the applications of SJKC Yak Chee, SMJK Katholik and the National Autism Society of Malaysia (Nasom) to build schools on two plots of land in Taman Tasik Prima.
In the proposal, 1.67ha will be used to build SJKC Yak Chee 2, 2.58ha for Catholic High School 2 and 1.01ha for Nasom.
