Letter to Prime Minister & Minister of Education dated on 11/11/2009
YAB,
Re: 1) New building for Bagan Serai Tamil school delayed by three years.
2) 80 year old SRK (T) Bukit Jalil also merely has the usual signboard but no new building.
3) Political rhetoric by UMNO, PKR, DAP and PAS to solve that too on a piecemeal basis as opposed to a wholesome basis.
4) Grant land and declare all 523 Tamil schools in Malaysia as fully aided by 1/1/2010.
5) Tip of iceberg of Tamil school problems.
We refer to the above matter and to the newsreport in Malaysia Nanban front page dated 11/11/2009 and The Star Metro 10/11/2009 at page M7.
To create the impression that a new Tamil school building would be built to replace the dilapidated existing Bagan Serai Tamil school building a “wayang kulit” signboard had been put up (by UMNO) nearby just before the last general elections. There is now a jungle growth in this new Tamil school land but the new Tamil school was never built.
Despite this being a fully aided Tamil school and the parents persistent protest it suffers this fate. Why is this school building been delayed for three years now when in the 2009 Budget the sum of RM 67 Million was specifically allocated for Tamil schools. Thereafter the Cabinet Committee on Tamil schools headed by Dato Seri Najib Razak approved a further RM 50 Million and then again a further RM 50 Million totalling RM 100 Million in the First and Secound Economic Stimulas packages respectively but from which not a single cent filtered down to any of these 523 Tamil schools in the pretext that the cost of Tamil school building materials having gone up (The Star 30/09/2009). Assuming even if the said price went up by double, the said RM 100 Million could have been utilized to build and/or upgrade at least half the number of the originally intended Tamil schools. Why was this not done?
Again for the 2010 Budget RM 30 Billion was allocated for 80 new schools, 1,100 additional blocks and 347 school replacement projects, to refurbish and upgrade schools in the RM 191.5 Billion Budget. But why zero flows down to these Tamil schools.
This is the very same problem with the SJK (T) Bukit Jalil which was promised RM 2 Million by the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister in April 2009 for the new school annexe building which would have additional facilities. “There is now a signboard for a proposed SJK (T) Bukit Jalil Tambahan. “This school even has to beg for a school field while others have to beg for chairs tables and books. (Refer The Star Metro 10/11/2009 at page M7).
This is just the very tip of the iceberg of the very basic and elementary problems in almost all of the 523 Tamil schools in your goodselves One Malaysia. This is hardly heard of in almost all Malay or Chinese schools.
We hereby once again call upon the UMNO controlled Malaysian government to grand land and declare all 523 Tamil schools as fully aided government schools with effect from the next academic year beginning 1/1/2010.
Thank you,
Your faithfully,
_______________________
P.Uthayakumar
Secretary General (pro-tem).
