Netizens launch “Save Penang Chinese Girls’ High School” to oppose land acquisition for road expansion

Sin Chew Daily, 29 February, 2016

(Penang, 28 Feb) Netizens launched “Save Penang Chinese Girls’ High School” petition on Facebook opposing land acquisition, also the state government’s acquisition of school land to expand road. Up till now, Penang Chinese Girls’ School board of directors is still unwilling to speak. Penang local government chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the board of directors of the school and state government are still negotiating without a final decision.

Earlier on, the board of directors of the school submitted its building expansion plan to the Penang City Council. It later discovered that the school’s development plan involves a setback of 30 feet of land. On the other hand, in its initial plan, the state government would be expanding Gottlieb Road (under Penang transport master plan) and acquire portion of school land.

Chow has stated on 29 January that the school has submitted its plan to Penang City Council. The 30 feet land acquisition is a condition set. The school is considering and has not made its final decision. The building plan has not been approved yet.

The incident continues to unfold on cyberspace. Netizens launched a campaign to “save Penang Chinese girls’ school” petition and targeted to receive 100,000 likes (support) in 24 hours.

Sin Chew Daily reporter has contacted Chow few days ago. He said a press conference would be held on 29 Feb to clarify the matter but the press conference was called off yesterday.

Chow, when contacted today, said after discussing with the architect in charge of the school’s expansion plan on Friday (26 Feb), he decided to discuss with the board of directors of the school again and hence called off the press conference.

Chow: Gottlieb Road would be expanded, just a matter of time

School’s expansion no longer require to given in after land acquisition

Chow earlier said it was just a matter of time that Gottlieb Road would be expanded. The state government would need to acquire land from the school. If the school has decided to start its expansion plan now, it would have to handover land without any compensation. If the school decides to defer expansion plan after land acquisition, it would receive compensation.

He said once new classrooms are built after land acquisition, the school no longer requires to surrender 30 feet of land.

He says the school can start its expansion project now and apply to state government to use the 30 feet of land to be surrendered to the state government in the form of temporary occupation licence until the state government needs to use the land.

“Save Penang Chinese Girls’ School” petition targets at 100,000 likes in 24 hours

The “Save Penang Chinese Girls’ School” petition targets to receive 100,000 likes in 24hours. Up till 2.30pm, the petition receives more than 7,000 likes.

Since last night, a posting was circulated on cyberspace urging alumni of the school to support the online petition.

According to the content of the posting, it requests Penang Chinese Girls’ School alumni and foreign friends to like the fan page of “Spare This Land Save Our Future” as well as leaving positive comments to support the petition.

The netizens hope the petition would draw the attention of media especially The Star to have coverage on the issue for national and even international attention.

The fan page also shared news articles of land acquisition involving the school. Netizens also leave their comments. Some support while some oppose the petition.

Yap So Huey: Undecided to acquire school land

State assemblyman of the area Yap Soo Huey said currently SRS Consortium, the delivery partner of Penang Transport Master Plan is studying on routes linking the highways. It will try its best to avoid or minimise land acquisition. Currently it is not decided if land of the school would be acquired.

She said the worst scenario would be state government may be buying 30 feet of land from the school. This means the school may lose between one fifth and one third of its school land.

She is currently waiting for reply from the authorities, hoping that the state government would not need to acquire land from the school unless it has no other option.

She also does not wish the Penang Transport Master Plan fails because of this incident.

Facebook fan page states its stand clearly

“Save Penang Chinese Girls’ High School” Fan page states its stand clearly:

1. Oppose the condition of giving in land for additional classrooms. The school land is bought by Chinese ancestors through fund raising. To face implementation of full day school and the sharp increase in number of students, the council has used giving up portion of school land as condition to build more classrooms. In order to reject giving up of land without any condition, the school should shelve its expansion plan.
2. Oppose acquisition of school land.
   • Expansion plan is put on hold but school compound would still be acquired, this is shocking to Chinese in Penang.
   • The school is the asset of Chinese community, the pride of Penangites. It is also the cradle that nurtures talents in Malaysia. Acquiring land of the school is equivalent to hampering the development of Chinese education.
   • To give up 30 feet of land, the school field, shared by four schools would be slashed by half in size. It would be a great challenge for space to have activities for 5,000 students from four schools. The primary school may face bigger problem as the office for teachers and headmaster are also affected by land acquisition.
   • Would four schools housed in the same compound, SRJK (C) Por Thay, Tamil primary school, Association for blind and a total of nine schools be affected for development? Such rapid development is brining negative impact for vernacular education and non-mainstream education. After implementation of Penang Transport Master Plan, roads in these schools would be major roads with increasing traffic volume, threatening the safety of students.

Based on the reasons stated above, we insist on retaining the school land, defending Chinese education.

Chung Ling Building no worry on “giving up land”

On whether Chung Ling’s plan of integrated building would also face situation of giving up some land, board of directors of three Chung Ling schools Datuk Guo Xian Rong said it is still pre mature to discuss this issue.

He said the plan is still underway. It would be submitted to Penang City Council for approval once completed. He believes in government’s operating procedure and does not worry.

Federation of Chung Ling Alumni Associations Malaysia president Datuk Liu Jing Guo is of the view that the case involving Penang Chinese Girls’ School is an isolated case and both cases should not be compared.