By Kua Kia Soong, Principal, 20 Nov 2008
The Soul of Malaysian Chinese Education, Lim Lian Geok’s well-known exhortation, “To Combat Sabotage, the Best Response is to be Constructive”, was directed at the ruling UMNO party’s oppression of our Chinese school system. Through these many years of struggle for mother tongue education led by our illustrious leaders such as Lim Fong Seng and Sim Mow Yu, we have not floundered in our efforts to be constructive in all our undertakings.
After ten years of hard work constructing New Era College, we have suddenly under the Dong Zong leadership of Yap Sin Tian been confronted with sabotage by, of all people, the Dong Jiao Zong leadership! What would our elders Lim Lian Geok and Lim Fong Seng think of such destructive actions by DJZ leaders? Heaven knows!
We know that our elders Mr Sim Mow Yu and Mr Teo Gah San have asked for the status quo to be preserved and for the college leadership to prevail at least for another year. But somehow, the Dong Zong chairman Yap’s “ultimate objective” since he came into office three years ago has been to get rid of Mr Bock Tai Hee as the Dong Zong Secretariat CEO and to get rid of me as the NEC principal. Incidentally, Mr Bock and I happen to be “thorns in the flesh” of the Barisan Nasional government all these years because of our uncompromising defence of mother tongue education, democracy and human rights. After my recent best-seller “May 13”, the Umno leaders all the more want me out of the Chinese Education movement. Getting rid of Mt Bock and I will be Yap’s greatest achievements since he came into office in 2005!
The Bock Tai Hee episode will be recorded in a chapter of my future book entitled “Black Operation”(莫黑行动)，in which we shall see the machinations by Yap and his goons to discredit Mr Bock who has contributed more to the Chinese education movement than Mr Yap could ever dream of. In this 2008 NEC controversy, we have seen the same shameful attempts to blacken my name. I shall probably name this chapter of my book “Operation Fell Kua”（伐柯行动）！
In this process, Yap and his goons have used unscrupulous methods to try to discredit me without caring about destroying the college which we have arduously built these ten years. This can be seen in their scurrilous document “Zhenxiang” sent all over the country, the published views of directors Gao Mingliang and Zhang Guangming” in the magazine “Haowai” and others.
Throughout this NEC controversy, we have witnessed the most heart-warming surge of support for us in the college who they know have contributed so much to make NEC a truly “peoples’ college”. People from all sections of the community have sent us their passionate support. Intellectuals with a conscience in the community and in truth, justice and democracy have written in the mainstream and internet press to support us and to debate against those who have tried to destroy us.
We will be publishing a compilation of articles by all the righteous people who have written in so passionately to support us and to save new Era College. It is also intended to expose the destructive actions of Yap and his goons whose agenda seem bent on getting rid of me as the principal of NEC at the bidding of their political masters. More importantly, these articles and documents are a testimony to the efforts of all the staff, students and community supporters who have worked these ten years to make “New Era Education” what it is today.
This controversy revolves around the three principles which NEC campus culture represents, namely, campus autonomy, academic freedom and students’ self-government. It started when Yap wanted to set up a committee to hire and fire the college heads of department. This we considered to be an infringement of the college administration’s autonomy. When that failed, he went against a time-honoured DJZ tradition of participatory democracy and inclusive spirit by asking the college heads of department to leave the June 14 Senate meeting. The rest is history…
This controversy is certainly not about Kua Kia Soong being the perpetual principal of NEC. I would like to put on record that ever since I joined the Chinese Education movement in 1983, I have never asked for any appointments. All the appointments have been offered to me. Similarly, I have never asked to continue to be the principal of NEC since I retired in 2005. My contract has been renewed on an annual basis since then. It was my HoDs who asked for my contract to be renewed when this controversy started.
I have since issued a press statement saying that I am prepared to serve the college and community only because the staff and students of NEC want me to continue to lead since they are apprehensive about the DJZHLC directors’ motives and intentions. We have already established a quality management system with an ISO 2001 certification in 2007 and audit approval by two British universities, University of Gloucestershire and University of West of England.
By the way, we welcome any capable academic and administrator who can lead the college. The only condition is that this person should have good academic credentials and uphold the college principles of campus autonomy, academic freedom and students’ self-government. Any principal of New Era College must be prepared to stand up for the principles of the Malaysian Chinese Education Movement and stand up against the shameful sabotage by Yap and his goons.
COMBAT SABOTAGE!
SAVE NEW ERA COLLEGE!
SAVE NEW ERA COLLEGE!
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