Liu re-elected to helm school board

0
Delegates are seen dropping ballot papers into the box.

Delegates are seen dropping ballot papers into the box.

KUCHING: Liu Thian Leong was re-elected to lead the Association of the Boards of Management of Aided Chinese Primary Schools Kuching-Samarahan Divisions during their annual general meeting (AGM) and election of office-bearers yesterday.

The treasurer Lim Ah Ted, who was nominated to succeed Liu was defeated during the direct election held at the conference room of SJK Chung Hua Sg Tapang in MJC Batu Kawa.

Liu defeated his opponent by a 10-vote majority after garnering 50 votes from a total of 91 delegates. One vote was ruled as spoilt.

Liu was not the first to be nominated prior to the balloting. Lim nominated the deputy chairman Jonathan Chai to challenge Liu for the chairmanship.

Before Lim’s proposal was seconded by a delegate, Chai took over the floor and declared he was all for status quo as far as the chairmanship was concerned.

Chai therefore turned down the chance to be nominated. Immediately after he did so, he nominated Liu for the post.

After the three-hour AGM and election, Chai and Lim were also re-elected as deputy chairman and treasurer, respectively.

Met later, Chai said nearly 80 per cent of the committee members were retained.

Speaking to the press later Liu said he was confident the delegates would vote for a leader who had put in time and efforts for the betterment of Chinese-aided primary schools.

He hoped all delegates would adhere to the tradition of steering clear of politics during the association’s election of office- bearers.

Asked whether he would stay away from politics after being given another term of tenure, Liu, who is also United People’s Party (UPP) Batu Kawa branch chairman, said he could juggle between politics and affairs of the association.

He said it all boiled down to how he managed his time instead of making a choice between the two.

When prompted for the next course of action in the event that he is not announced candidate for Batu Kawa, Liu said: “We don’t have a clear-cut decision on that.”

The Ministry of Education was urged to allocate funds according to the size, number and needs of various types of schools.

This was one of the resolutions adopted during the AGM.

Liu said there were over 1,000 Chinese-aided primary schools but only a few hundreds of Tamil and Mission schools in the country.

“When it comes to government allocations, the over 1,000 aided Chinese primary schools get RM50 million while the 300 Tamil and 300 Mission schools get RM50 million each.

“Such blanket allocation should be reviewed because RM50 million for so many aided Chinese primary schools is definitely not enough.

The association has raised this issue before the ministry on several occasions, but so far we have heard no positive response.”

In another resolution, Liu said the association wanted the MoE to make an amendment to the history textbooks to include facts on Sarawak and others coming together to form Malaysia.

He added that the contributions of the Chinese community in national development ought to be made a part of the history books as well.