Chinese independent schools to decide on donation from controversial foundation
KUCHING: A Chinese independent school here was recently contacted by a representative of the controversial ‘Zhang Jian Jewellery Education Foundation’ for a cash donation for the school.
Chairman of Board of Management for Kuching Chung Hua Middle Schools (CHMS) No 1, 3 and 4 Dato Richard Wee confirmed yesterday that the principal of CHMS No 1 had received a call from the foundation.
“I think they (the foundation) contacted the principals rather than the school board. The school board has not been contacted by them.
“So far, only the principal of CHMS No 1 reported to me about having received a call from them (the foundation), that they wished to do a donation,” he said when contacted here.
The principal of CHMS No 4, Johnny Kon, when contacted yesterday said he had not received any call from the foundation. He added that even if the foundation had contacted him, he would still leave it to the board to decide whether to accept the donation.
Wee said he would bring up the matter to chairman of the Sarawak United Association of Private Chinese Secondary Schools Management Board Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau.
He said a meeting should be called to arrive at a collective decision on whether to accept the donation.
“We will call for a meeting when the chairman (Lau) is back and have a meeting to make a decision together. If there is a unanimous decision, then every school will follow the decision,” added Wee.
Lau, who is also chairman of the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), told a national Chinese daily on Friday that a representative of the foundation contacted the association two months ago, to give donations to all the Chinese independent schools in the country. He said Dong Zong rejected the offer due to the controversy surrounding its founder Zhang Jian, a Chinese national and head of an international multi-level marketing scheme.
However, Lau added that it was up to the individual schools to accept the offer.
“We (Dong Zong) did not accept (the offer). It could be because of this, they (the foundation) began to approach the respective schools.”
According to him, the foundation said that it wanted to donate RM3 million cash which would work out to be RM50,000 for each school if the amount were distributed evenly.
The same news report also mentioned that 18 Chinese independent schools in Peninsular Malaysia and six from Sabah had accepted the donation. It is said that representatives of the foundation are expected to visit Sarawak next month.
Zhang, who was arrested by Indonesian police on Tuesday, is suspected to be behind several pyramid schemes involving at least 600 million yuan (or US$ 88.2 million).
Zhang, the self-claimed ‘future richest man in the world’, has been sent back to China where he would face legal action.