And I thought that was the end of the story. Nothing much was published in the papers anymore and I suspected that everything was just swept under the carpet. But hey, it looks like I thought wrong. The game is pretty much still in play. :)
The New Straits Times reported on Saturday that
[t]wo months of homework involving investigations into allegations of graft of about RM100 million annually by Chinese primary school headmasters has yielded results. Two boxes of evidence, gathered from, among others, school committees, parent- teachers associations and parents, were handed to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)...Apparently the lucrative reward offered attracted evidence from book distributors, computer wholesalers, tour agencies and stationery dealers. Mr Ong, who is a protem adviser to the newly founded Malaysia Chinese Schools' Parents Association (MCSPA) handed over the evidence to the authorities.
"Some of the evidence from certain schools is complete while some otherMalaysiakini also published a similar report on the matter. In it, the protem deputy chairperson, Teh Hon Seng clarified that "the finances involved in Chinese primary schools amount to RM500 million (annually). This include money for books, stationery, tuition, computer classes and extra curricular activities".
evidence is partially complete. But overall, there is more than enough for the ACA to act."
He said more evidence would be compiled for submission to the ACA sometime after Sept 1.
He further alleged that "over RM100 million is being siphoned from the 1,288 Chinese primary schools nationwide".
The amounts involved are clearly sizeable on a cumulative basis and is a clear betrayal of the trust placed by the school children and their parents on the headmaster. Let's see further actions taken by the ACA on this issue. Hopefully it won't take too long for MCSPA has done plenty of homework on their behalf.
A Mr. Lee from a used to be prestigious school at Jln Raja Laut will be one to fall the hardest.
ReplyDeleteMark my words
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ReplyDeleteCorrupt headmaster occur in almost every town schools. But who want to come out and give evidence. Businessman want business alsolah. How many of you know that undertable money to become a city SJK(C) headmaster had already reach 100K.
ReplyDeleteWe Chinese are a shameful lot. Under the yoke of oppression, we do not fight back but instead feed on each other. Our saviour and weakness is our tolerance. Tolerance for corruption, tolerance for shame.
ReplyDeleteInstead of going after those who control but are irresponsible towards our school, we instead feed on each other. Can we count on the ACA to deal with this issue? Don't bet on it. The headmasters may have enough money to pay off the ACA and sweep it under the carpet.
This thing has nothing to do with racelah. Doesn't matter if it's Melayu, Cina, India or Mat Salleh...in every race, there will surely be some who are unscrupulous and some who are honest. It is the upbringing that matters. On the topic though, it is really shameful of these principals...maybe that's how they become kaya raya.
ReplyDeleteBooks, stationeries, extra curricular activities is one thing but undertable also amount to quite a big sum that is not tracable!
ReplyDeleteNormally for popular chinese schools, some well doing family don't mind paying (undertable) just to get their kids in. I used to hear Mr & Mrs A pay so and so to the headmaster for a place in popular schools. Normally, these are cases where they stay far from the school.
Some head masters are very smart, they demand parents to give in the range of 5k - 10k to the school as donations. Who knows what he can do with the accounting paper work later.
As a result, some children who stay near don't even have a place but have to send their children to a school far away.
Let just hope and pray that the authorities go after the guilty headmasters and not the Chinese schools in toto. I have said this before and I will say it again. I pray and hope all this bad publicity will not mean the end of Chinese (or Venucular) schools in Malaysia. I hope Dong Zhong is aware of all the implications of this issue and isolate it immediately so as to not let the government offer any excuses to review the existence of vernacular schools here. The whole issue can be very damaging in a long run. The faster it is resolved, the better. We are walking on a very thin line.
ReplyDeleteHaiya, Please learn to close one eye laaaaa.....semuer orang mau cari makan
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this is the Chinese schools we are talking about. Sorry....no eyes shall be close. CLOSE scrutiny maybe
ReplyDeleteI thought corruption is an established practice esp among chinese....?
ReplyDeleteWhen I grow up, my ambition is to be a headmaster at a Chinese School....
ReplyDeleteI can be very rich in notime...