Malaysian Chinese save old school

Malaysian Chinese save old school

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Calling it a triumph, ethnic Chinese parents and rights activists on Wednesday welcomed the government's offer to allow them to return to a condemned school that has become a symbol of the Malaysian minority's struggle to defend its culture.

After days of protests by die-hard parents and pupils who refused to leave the Damansara National Chinese School for a new facility, Education Minister Musa Mohamad relented and said that the school can stay open if only some of the 1,500 students refuse to transfer within a week.

His statement, issued late Tuesday after a three-hour conference with the board of governors, surprised many parents and opposition leaders who were preparing for a prolonged legal battle against the ministry.

Authorities have been angry with nearly 100 Damansara students who stubbornly defied a government order to abandon their school, which the officials say is plagued by noise and air pollution and dangerously perched on a slope beside a busy highway.