Government postpones Chin Woo school land acquisition

The government has decided to postpone acquisition of 0.169 hectares of land in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Chin Woo.

Chief secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa (pic) said the parcel, which belonged to the government, was to be taken over by the Tourism and Culture Ministry on September 24.

"We are posptoning acquisition of the land and after that date, no form of enforcement action will be taken," he told reporters after opening Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka's (DBP) 57th anniversay celebrations and launching DBP's latest Malay-English Dictionary and licensed products.

In July, the ministry had stated that it wanted to take over the land to build a Cultural Village costing RM32.5 million under the auspices of the Kota Warisan Kuala Lumpur project.

However, the decision met objections from various quarters especially parents of students of the school in view of the parcel having been converted into a basketball court since 1938.

As such, Ali asked the parents to no longer worry about the issue and instead hold negotiations with the authorities.

"We still have room for negotiations involving the parents, the school's management and the Federal Territory Land and Mines Office," he said.

He added that the negotiations could be held promptly but gave no timeline for a resolution.

Earlier, in his speech, Ali said the use of Bahasa Melayu as the national language in the civil service, education, finance, consumerism sectors and the mass media would be stepped up.

He said the same needed to be done in the tourism and culture sector, public works, human resources, science and technology apart from youth and sports development.

He added that the government was making various efforts to empower Bahasa Malaysia without marginalising English. - Bernama