School row: Trustee to meet association

PETALING JAYA, Sat. – The Selangor and Federal Territory Association for the Deaf is to meet the trustee for a Japanese philanthropist to discuss a dispute over a $6.7 million unoccupied school building along Jalan SS5D/6, Kelana Jaya here.

Association president Tan Yap said the trustee, chartered secretary Cindy Tan May Leng, contacted the association late yesterday after it had advertised in a newspaper on Friday that it would enter the building today to show its unhappiness over the issue.

“Cindy Tan said the original trustee, Hong Kong Bank, had asked her to be the trustee formic 1for the Japanese philanthropist K. Sugita, who is chairman of the Ainomichi Trust in Osaka,” he said.

Tan informed the Press yesterday of his intention of prising open the gates and doors of the school, meant for handicapped children, with the help of a locksmith at 10am today.

However, he and some 20 members were surprised when they turned up at 9.30 am today to find the gates ad doors already opened by two men who said they were acting for ht Japanese trust.

The association has claimed that the quarter hectare of land on which the school was built was originally allocated to it in 1988 and Sugita had promised to hand over the school with 20 classrooms to it.

Tan said the association later asked the State Economic and Development Corporation (PKNS) to allow the Ainomichi Trust to develop the land on its behalf.

He said the association was shocked when it later found out that it had been excluded from the agreement the PKNS signed with the Ainomichi Trust.

“The land had been given to the trust for 30 years. This is in effect gave total control of the land to the trust, leaving us out.”

Tan said earlier Sugita had promised that his trust would allow the association to use all the 20 classrooms and to pay for the teachers and other facilities.

“But after the school was competed, they only allowed us to use 12 classrooms and said we had to pay for the teachers and other facilities.”

Tan said the association then engaged a lawyer to plead its case and also met Menteri Besar Tan Sri Muhammad Haji Muhammad Taib, but the problem remained unresolved for the past 15 month.

In the meantime, about 150 deaf students have been squatting at the Bukit Nenas Convent attending lessons in 18 classrooms there.

Tan said his association had been desperately trying to contact Sugita personally to resolve the dispute, but had not been successful even though it has approached the Japanese Embassy for assistance in tracing him.

The association’s lawyer, Mr Yow Lock Sen, said a trust deed signed between Sugita and Hong Kong Bank mentioned the association as the ultimate beneficiary of the Ainomichi Trust in the country.