SJK(C) Chee Wen renaming bid hits snag

The Working Committee for the Development of SJK(C) Chee Wen in Subang Jaya, will launch a signature campaign together with the school's former headmasters and former directors on Sunday, to prevent a change to the primary school's original name.

At a press conference held two days ago, committee chairman Wei Liang Yu said that they wanted to stop the school's name from being changed to Datuk Cheah Fah's, in the memory of the Sunway Group founder and chairman Jeffrey Cheah's father.

Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong has been reported as announcing the move in recognition of the huge contributions made to the school by the elder Cheah.

A dissatisfied Wei, is appealing to the public to support the "Chee Wen to stay as it is" campaign in order to thwart " the highest bidder gets school named after him or her" policy which, he claimed, was an initiative of the Education Ministry.

He stressed that this will turn school names into auctionable items, referring to rumours that Cheah had donated RM1 million to the school. 

Wei also criticised Wee (right) for showing such disrespect and who did not seem to understand why local residents enroll their children at the school.

Chee Wen was founded in 1939 in Sungai Tinggi, Kuala Selangor, by Sung Seng Woon, Lim Seng Tet, Chang Wa, and Tan Mun Yeen. It was then moved to Subang Jaya in 2001 and become a large-sized primary Chinese school of more than 3,000 pupils.

Cheah breaks silence

In a press statement late this evening, Cheah's aide issued a statement stating that he will not be allowing the school to use his late father's name. 

"(Cheah) shares the concern (of the public) and respects the feelings of some people who are concerned about this. 

"In the first place, he did not request for it and the was the Board of Governors' decision to change (the name of the school)," said the aide. 

The school was named after the eldest son of the eminent Soong family of China, TV Song, who was also the finance minister of that country then.

Song was also the eldest brother of the famous Soong sisters, Ai-Ling, Ching-Ling and May-Ling. He was a firm supporter of Sun Yat-sen during the Xinhai Revolution aimed at overthrowing the Qing dynasty.

Earlier, Wee told the press that the suggestion to rename the school came from the school board of directors, not the ministry.

He said that the ministry only discussed the matter after receiving the board's letter, and asked the working committee not to point a finger at the ministry.

"As a deputy education minister, I would like to stress that I always respect the views of the boards and parent-teacher associations, and the ministry won't rename the school without any reason," he said.

'Not a way to fish for donations'

Wee also denied that the ministry is encouraging people to contribute to the schools, in order to get them to drop their original names in favour of the donors'.

According to yesterday's Nanyang Siang Pau, the advisor to school's board board former Subang Jaya State Assemblyperson Lee Hwa Beng (left) admitted that he was the one who made the suggestion to the directors.

Meanwhile, on its part, the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) expressed its opposition to the board's decision, on the grounds that it would tantamount to sabotaging the efforts of the others before them.

In a press statement issued today, Dong Zong asked the board to withdraw the decision and find other more appropriate measures of commending those contributing to the school