Sunday Star, Sunday, April 20, 2008
Schools need more help

I REFER to the letter by Mohd Ghazali Osman ”Token RM1 for quit rent not the way” (The Star, April 9 - see below).

I believe that among the 197 schools which will be paying RM1 in quit rent per lot are the “sekolah bantuan modal” or “capital-assisted schools” like the Chinese-conforming and government mission schools. Just to set the record straight, the nominal quit rent for such schools was announced at the National Land Council meeting chaired by the then deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Oct 27, 1999.

Subsequent to that, a circular (Pekeliling Ketua Pengarah Tanah dan Galian Persekutuan Bil 3/2002) to implement the nominal quit rent decision was issued on Dec 13, 2002. There was a three years two months lapse between the announcement and the issuance of the circular.

The actual remittance of the nominal quit rents took a long process because every application for the nominal quit rent had to be approved by the executive committee of the Perak Government which gave such approval in batches since 2006. I believe the new Perak Government is just carrying out the backlog of the nominal quit rent approvals.

Among the schools for which the nominal quit rents are approved are our government mission schools which have been educating the children of Perak nationals irrespective of race, religion or socio-economic background since the 19th century.

The Education Ministry is using our buildings and lands to operate government schools without paying any rental to our mission authorities which own the land and buildings. Therefore, it is only fair a nominal quit rent be charged on such school land.

I certainly hope that the Perak Government will extend more help to our government mission schools, such as making allocations to at least buy tables and chairs for teachers and students. Such help has been denied to all capital-assisted schools all these years by the ministry. Assistance to other government schools like computers for students and the building of information communication technology laboratories has long been withheld to our government mission schools.

I also hope a new dawn of much needed help has come for our government mission schools not only in Perak but for the whole of Malaysia.

YIN KAM YOKE,
Hon Secretary,
Malayan Christian Schools Council.

The Star, Wednesday April 9, 2008
Token RM1 for quit rent not the way

I THINK the move by the new Perak state government in allowing 197 schools in the state to pay only RM1 as quit rent is not a wise idea at all.

What can one do after collecting a measly RM197 per annum?

I know some of the schools are privately funded. These schools are funded by super rich people who are willing to give millions of ringgit for reasons of their own.

So, what is a measly few hundred ringgit if these people also pay for the actual amount of quit rent that the schools should pay? At the same time, why only 197 schools?

Why not all the other schools, colleges and universities throughout the state that have to fork out sometimes thousands and maybe millions of ringgit per annum to pay their quit rent?

If this is another political stunt just like the one time relief on payments of fines imposed by local councils as announced by the state government on their first day of rule then I think it is sending the wrong message to the public.

The state governments under Pakatan Rakyat must review their moves thoroughly before implementing them. It may satisfy a few people but the majority is against it.

There are other ways to give back to the people for electing them into office but certainly this is not one of them

MOHD GHAZALI OSMAN,
Ipoh.

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