THE fate of a 100-year-old raintree on the grounds of the Ipoh Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) is in the hands of the alumni who are hoping to dissuade the school board from uprooting it to make way for a multipurpose hall.

The 8m-high tree has been at the centre of a dispute between MGS Ipoh’s alumni association and the school board since the middle of last year.

The tree’s canopy and roots are already damaged from the first attempted relocation, which was stopped by the Ipoh City Council in July.

The board, which wants to re-plant the tree in another part of the school grounds to make way for an expansion project, was stopped from relocating the tree again after a second attempt in November.

Spokesman for the school’s old girls’ association Linda Mustaffa said they want a clear answer from the board and the Methodist Education Council (MEC), which they have written to repeatedly, to no avail.

“It is understood that the school board is still adamant in having the tree relocated despite the condition that it has been reduced to due to repeated abuse,” she said in a press statement.

The alumni is now turning to the media to draw attention to the school board’s actions, which they say was illegal and in violation of the city council’s orders.

Linda said the old girls had repeatedly sought dialogue with the school board after the council’s first stop-work order on attempts to uproot the tree in July.

She said their correspondence included a petition signed by more than 500 old girls to the board and the MEC in August, to which no reply was received.

The alumni then turned to Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh for help and he set up a meeting with the school board chairman Ting Cheh Sing and architect for the expansion plan.

Linda said the school board at the meeting, held in late October, revealed that the tree would be relocated to another site within the school grounds as the construction plan for the multipurpose hall could not accommodate it at its present site.

“We were assured that the board had engaged qualified professional(s) to ensure the relocation was feasible and who had assured that there was ‘90% chance of survival’ for the tree post-relocation.

“We requested for a detailed assessment and proposal from the board’s arborist to be submitted for our perusal, which was then duly agreed,” Linda said.

However, two weeks later, the alumni came to hear of a second attempt at uprooting and relocating the tree on November 9.

“To our shock and horror, the school board chairman was reported to be at the site actively instructing and overseeing the relocation of the tree.”

Linda said some alumni members, upon rushing to the school, found that some of the mature roots had already been damaged.

A trench had been dug using a backhoe around the base of the tree and workers were in the midst of sawing off other roots to prepare the tree to be hoisted by a crane the next day and relocated to another part of the school field.

Alumni members confronted Ting, asking him to furnish written approval from the city council for the tree’s relocation, but Linda said he could not.

Ting also denied that the school board had agreed to provide an arborist’s assessment for the alumni association’s perusal before any move to relocate the tree.

“He also insisted he had the city council’s approval to relocate the tree under the supervision of an arborist, but none was present.

“A quick telephone call to Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (Ipoh City Council) established that indeed no approval had been granted. The city council then sent personnel from its enforcement team and once again cordoned off the tree,” said Linda.

The old girls proceeded to fire off more letters to the school board and the MEC but received no reply.

An arborist they engaged to assess and care for the tree has found that its roots and “topping” (removal) of branches were not cut according to accepted guidelines, while the new site for the tree was unsuitable as soil there was water logged and lacked oxygen for the tree to survive the transplant.

“The damage is irreparable and any further attempts to relocate the tree would leave the tree with a low chance of survival,” Linda said, citing a report by Raintree Arborist Sdn Bhd.

The arborist recommended that the tree be immediately preserved and treated.

With no response forthcoming from the school board, Linda said the alumni association wanted the board to be held accountable for ignoring two warning letters from the city council and for action to be taken against this violation “to set an example”.

“How could this brazen behaviour of ignoring the authorities and flouting the law (twice!) be condoned?

“As an educational institution, where lies the morals and accountability in exercising such poor behaviour that is unlawful in nature?” she said.

The Ipoh Methodist Girls’ School was founded in 1895 as the Anglo-Chinese Girls’ School.

When contacted, Ting, the school board chairman, said he had no comment on the issue and that the alumni association’s grouses should not be dealt with through the media.  – January 12, 2019.