NOV 8 — Before implementing its reforms, Peru was known for its very serious red tapes. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto Polar did an experiment.l he sent his students to register a tailor shop each in the United States and Peru, and found that it took only one day to complete the registration in the Untied States whereas 283 days were needed in Peru.
Perhaps we might have a good laugh seeing the vast disparity over there, but some day when foreign economists or intellectuals come to realize that it takes us such a long time to open a primary Chinese school here, they will do the same to us too.
Well, Chinese primary school is no tailor shop and it definitely needs a little more time, but more than 2,800 days since the government pledged to build the SJKC Sungai Long, the school is yet to open for class today.
Sungai Long residents began to fight for a Chinese primary school to be built there since 2001, and after much effort, finally they got the promise from the government to build the school on January 31, 2008. After that, they spent several years of waiting until the prime minister officiated the groundbreaking ceremony in March 2012. It was then estimated that the construction would be completed within six months for 2013 intake.
We were unrealistically optimistic.
Now that we could not make it for the 2013 academic year, at least we should look to the school’s opening for the 2014 academic year, but until this day, there are still no signs SJKC Sungai Long will start its class anytime soon.
The school building committee has yet to submit the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) to Kajang Municipal Council such that the authorities could not issue the permit for the school to start admitting students.
We understand that building a Chinese primary school is by no means an easy task.From the acquisition of land to awarding of contracts to initiation of construction works to the completion of the project and deployment of the teaching staff—all these involve very complicated tasks and countless of documents required, and could very much entail political factors as well.
Nevertheless, SJKC Sungai Long is only a step away now from opening and as such the school’s building committee and all other relevant units should step up their effort to complete whatever that needs to be done so that the students can start attending the school very soon.
It is a good thing for the Chinese community to have one new Chinese primary school. However, the endless wait has robbed many of their patience while creating more frustration and wrath. Their exasperation is not ungrounded. Indeed it is highly inefficient for a primary school to take so long to go into full operation. Imagine what will happen to the country if every school in this country takes this long to operate.
To be honest, building a new Chinese primary school in this country is not something easy, and since the government has given the go-ahead, no one should play up political issues on this matter, staking the well-being of the entire Chinese community. Education must transcend politics and partisan affiliation, at all cost.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
