MCA is no longer relevant

Koon Yew Yin 17 Nov 2019 

This episode reminds me of my shocking experience with MCA and how it rejected my Rm 30 million donation offer to build student hostels within the university campus.  

I am nearly 87 years old and like all human beings, I realise that when I die, I cannot take any of my assets with me. It is better to use my money effectively while I am still alive instead of letting my children spend it for themselves. 

Up till now, I have given more than 300 financially poor students to help them complete their tertiary education. Those who wish to know more about my scholarships offer, should click the following 2 links. 

Almost all my scholarships were/are given to financially poor students of UTAR which offers reasonably high stand standard of educaion at cheaper prices than many other private Universities.   

I know the Perak State Barisan National Government had given 1,100 acres to MCA to build UTAR in Kampar, Perak. About 7 years ago, I offered to donate Rm 30 million for the construction of student hostels within the university campus with no profit incentive. I appointed Dr Lim Teck Ghee, Architect Lee Thean Hock and my wife Tan Kit Pheng as my advisers/ representatives in the management committee of the hostels. My only condition for my donation was that all profit generated from the rental income should be used to build more hostels. 

Why MCA rejected my Rm 30 million donation?

We were shocked to know that MCA rejected my Rm 30 million donation offer because MCA leader, Tan Sri Hew See Toong who owned all the land outside the university campus did not want the student hostels to disrupt his lucrative property development business. If the hostels were built, students could live and walk to lecture halls. 

Currently there are more than 20,000 UTAR students and they had to pay high rental for small dingy rooms outside the university campus. Moreover, they have to cycle or take busses to attend lectures.  

This bad publicity was not published by the normal media because MCA and the BN Government controlled all the newspapers and television. I am 100% sure that this article will not be published by the Star because one billionaire MCA leader owns the Star. 

But by the power of the internet this bad publicity spread like wild fire. As a result, MCA lost all their seats except 1 in the last 2 general elections. 

I distinctively remember how I campaigned for DAP Dr Ko Chung Sen, a heart surgent from Ipoh Specialist Hospital, to fight against MCA Dato Lee Chee Leong. There were hundreds of UTAR students and lecturers listening and I told them about MCA’s rejection of my Rm 30 million donation offer. They were so angry. As a result, Dr Ko won more than 5,000 votes. You may like to know more about Dato Lee Chee Leong. 

Dato’ Lee Chee Leong (Chinese: 李志亮; pinyin: Li Zhìliàng; born 22 October 1957) is a … He served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 2008 to June 2010 and Deputy Home Minister and Member from June 2010 to May 2013.

UTAR is not a charity organisation:

All private Universities are profitable business. They are not charity organisations. That is why so many private universities springing up like mushrooms. I am sure UTAR is making a lot of money if MCA dare to publish its account. 

When MCA was with the Barisan National Government, MCA dared not say a word against Najib for stealing our money. That is why I am writing this article “MCA is no longer relevant”. In fact, MCA is useless. 

If you know of any financially poor students whose family income is less than Rm 3,000 per month, please tell them to write to my wife who is charge of my scholarships offer, [email protected]. As you know there are so many private universities and they are competing for more students by lowering their entry requirement. As a result, we insist that all applicants for my scholarships must have a minimum of 6 A in SPM and with an offer letter from a recognised university. I offer scholarships for all courses except for medicine. My scholarship covers the fees for the foundation course. All student must take the Government PTPTN loan and we may provide some subsidy for the degree courses depending on the financial need of the students. My wife and I reserve the right to decide the among of subsidy to each student.  

All my scholarship recipients do not require to work for me or pay back the money I spent on them. I want them to remember that when they were poor, I helped them and when they have some spare money, they should help other poor students. I believe many of them will continue to help poor students and as time goes by there will be more and more charity workers.