MORE than 16,000 people have signed a petition to stop the Education Ministry from renaming the St Thomas primary and secondary schools in Kuantan, Pahang.

The petition “Stop changing the names of mission schools in Malaysia” was launched Tuesday and collected 10,000 signatures in 24 hours. As of this morning, the number stands at 16,292. The target is 25,000 signatures.

Many who signed the petition believed the name change was an attempt to erase the school’s history and heritage that went back to the pre-Merdeka era in 1950.

Mary Magdalen N. Arokia Das said the government should support the work of mission schools and not “obliterate them from the pages of history for some whimsical reasons”.

“Education was brought to Malaysia and developed by the Christian missionaries who came in the 15th century.

“Of these, the Infant Jesus sisters, the La Salle Brothers, the Gabrielite Brothers, the Good Shepherd Sisters and a few others stand out in the field of early education in Malaysia.

“The least we can do to honour their contribution is to preserve the mission schools. These are considered heritage of the country’s past to be preserved,” she wrote on the petition on change.org.

Another supporter VM Mellina wrote that the government should “leave history alone”.

“What is wrong with maintaining the names of those missionary schools? They were, after all, set up by Christian missionaries! Leave history alone!” she said after signing the petition on change.org.

Wong Chee Fatt wrote: “I am signing this is because our authorities are ignoring history and trying to whitewash away historical facts.”

“Wow! This school has such a rich heritage. It’s such a shame and unnecessary to change its name. Keep it so that its alumni can reminisce with pride,” Thomas Goh wrote.

Another signee Ten Poh Yap commented: “Education and history. Don’t want them to be manipulated and distorted by unscrupulous politicians!!”

Pahang Health, Human Resources and Special Functions Committee chairman Norol Azali Sulaiman was reported to have said recently that the St Thomas primary and secondary schools would change their name to Sekolah Mahkota Abdullah when they moved into a new building.

The Economic Planning Unit has given the Education Ministry leave, along with an RM56 million allocation to build a new complex in Kemunting for the two schools. Construction is expected to start next year.

Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau and secretary-general Liang Teck Meng disagreed with the name change, saying the name was acknowledgment of the people who had built the schools.

“The name of the school is important. It cannot be simply changed. It also has historical impact,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“All these people who put in efforts to build the schools must be remembered. My stand is the name  St Thomas should be maintained and retained,” said Lau.

Liang asked if the the Pahang Education Department had consulted the stakeholders including the alumni, parent-teacher associations and the local community before deciding on a name change.

He urged authorities to take heed of the overwhelming response to the online petition.

“The state education department should explain why the historic name of St Thomas mission schools has been deemed to be “no longer suitable” after being in place since the school was founded in 1950.

“What could possibly lead to the ‘unsuitability’ that warrants a change?” Liang said.

However, Federation of Councils of Christian Mission Schools of Malaysia chairman Moey Yoke Lai said the group believed that the   naming of the school should be left to the government.

She said St Thomas schools were no longer mission schools after the church took back the land, leading the government to relocate and rebuild the two schools.

“The schools will no longer bear any Christian characteristics.

“Why keep the name if the school is not going to have the ethos of a mission school?” she said. – November 30, 2017.