Mission schools are prey to those hungry for land

 

Convent Bukit Nanas, whose land lease was extended by 60 years yesterday.

PETALING JAYA: Convent Bukit Nanas has escaped the axe for now, thanks to a 60-year land lease renewal, but the story of the school mirrors that of other mission schools that have had to give up their land.

From the late 1990s to 2000, Bukit Bintang Girls’ School also had a tussle with authorities and private developers over its lease renewal. St John’s Institution faced the same problem in 2011. And then there is the 4.04-acre site off Jalan Sultan Ismail where St Mary’s School once stood.

All these mission schools in Kuala Lumpur, with architecture from another era, are historical. They offered quality education and the values and traditions they stood for  meant a lot to their students and teachers.

But they occupied prime real estate in the city. And politicians and developers hungered for their land.

One of Kuala Lumpur’s most popular malls, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, now occupies the land where the Bukit Bintang Girls’ School used to be.

St John’s Institution lost more than half of its school field, no thanks to some arm twisting by vested interest groups. A couple of property consultants claimed that the La Salle Brothers forgot to renew the lease on the school, but a source said the brothers did not forget. They, like others managing mission schools in the country, consider their land lease renewal a top priority.

According to the source, when the La Salle Brothers sought renewal of the lease for St John’s Institution from the Land and Mines Department, they were told they must first give up more than half the playing field for a car park for Menara Olympia.

In the late 1990s, Bukit Bintang Girls’ School also went through a period of uncertainty and attempts were made to save the school and its facilities.

In 2002, news broke that a listed property developer and a privately-held company with strong political ties had entered into some agreements with City Hall.

Under the deals, City Hall would get a building for rental income while a new school would be built in Cheras, all in exchange for the site in Jalan Bukit Bintang where the school was located.

With that, a historic school became history, to be viewed only in black and white photographs in some old albums.

In the Convent Bukit Nanas case, two pieces of land and two schools were involved.

There is the SMK Convent Bukit Nanas and the primary school, SK Convent Bukit Nanas. It is believed the secondary school is located on leasehold land and the primary school on a freehold parcel.

The freehold status was given more than 100 years ago. Combined, those four acres are of substantial value, considering their location.

In April 2017, a news article, probably referring to the freehold parcel, said the Sisters of Holy Infant Jesus held the land rights to the school.

While the sitting government has put an end – for the next few decades at least – to the Convent Bukit Nanas issue, the case remains a blemish on the previous government, which came into power in 2018.

Why was the lease not extended then? Had it been extended, there would have been no issue now.

The government, if it had been sincere about education, heritage preservation and the public good, could have offered the land to the school unconditionally, unlike the St John’s Institution case.

The PH government could have resolved the issue during its short-lived stay in power.

In Singapore and in states like Penang and Melaka, heritage and colonial structures do have a value.

Singapore’s oldest school, Raffles Institution, was indeed an institution. Although it has made way for development in the form of Raffles City, some remnants of its historical architecture and heritage remain.

In Kuala Lumpur, nothing remains of the Bukit Bintang Girls’ School or St Mary’s School in their original sites.

The pursuit for profit and development, at all costs and by all means, has superseded the pursuit of quality, wholesome education.

Even when there is an oversupply in virtually all segments of the property market, we continue to build and build. - FMT