2015 PIBG AGM Chairman’s Speech

 2015  PIBG AGM  Chairman’s  Speech

This year, I have broken the tradition of the Chairman making  the opening speech. By inviting our new Headmistress to make the opening speech  , she sets the tone and that is the tone I wish to echo. Let us move forward, together for the greater good of LICK HUNG.

The themes for 2015 are Reconcile, Rebuild and Reaching for greater Heights. Before I move further , I wish to thank my fellow committee members both parents and teachers for their contributions in somewhat trying circumstances . Irrespective of their views and positions taken in the past, I believe and accept they acted with the best intentions and always for the benefit of the Children which is the primary objective of PIBG.

It is also crucial for us to acknowledge the great contributions of Mr Tan our immediate past HM . Under his leadership for the past 10 years , LICK HUNG became one of the few High Performance Schools in Malaysia turning out exceptional all rounded talents , many obtained Asean scholarships and some went on to become captains of industry in their chosen fields. We must  also pay tribute to the individual and collective contributions of the entire Teaching staff for without them LICK HUNG would not have achieved these accolades .

Over the past 9 months many of you especially a number of the  teaching staff have come under tremendous stress brought upon by my revelation of  3 unauthorised  PIBG accounts . Previous PIBG meetings  had likewise been tense because many parents were not satisfied with the financial disclosure  and the level of transparency  .  We spent more time in financial matters than anything else  when we should be focusing on how to improve our children’s welfare.We wasted time and effort to discredit each other resulting in parents losing interest in PIBG .

WHILE many of us want to know   why these accounts existed and operated outside the norm,  but Today I believe they should not be our main focus anymore .    It is time to leave   this unfortunate episode behind us so that we can move forward.

Parents, I say this because the school administration and I have agreed on many steps  to improve on the level of financial transparency , the most important  change  being –effective  within the next hour so –parent’s representative will hold the post of Treasurer .  Parents you will elect your own treasurer instead of being appointed by the school administrators  which was a long held practice of Lick Hung. In addition , the school had  closed all the unauthorised accounts and we now have ONE official account in full compliance with PIBG regulations.

Teachers AJK candidates will be approved by the parents .We will also have more regular dialog sessions between parents and school administrators.

Full credit must be given to our new Headmistress , Mdm Lee for acting so constructively and decisively so we can end the conflict between parents and school administrators .

I would like to give the benefit of the doubts to those who were inadvertently involved and with it my apology if you were affected by the negative publicity .

It is so easy to apportion blame or to criticise without knowing the full picture.  But  I must acknowledge that some parents and past AJK members and in particular 2013 parent AJK members  were deeply  hurt and traumatised by allegations  made against them and unfair actions taken against their children for their only fault was to get involved in PIBG . It is impossible to operate any entity let alone an educational institution when the stakeholders are at opposite ends; the only possible outcome is FAILURE .

Today I would like to appeal to all parents to leave the unfortunate part of our history behind us and give our full and unconditional support to our Headmistress and her staff .

To our Teachers , I hope you will welcome parents with open arms for the sake for our children . I hope we can Reconcile our past differences and if  required one day , I would like to see  a committee set up to examine the grievances of all parties . Knowing the truth enables us  to understand , with understanding we can forgive , and with forgiveness we can reconcile and finally moving on without the baggage of the past .  But at this present moment  we should focus on rebuilding/repairing  –our physical infrastructures (grounds, drains doors , fans , toilets ) , training and providing support  to our teaching staff, setting up appropriate channels to facilitate communications between teachers and parents , inviting , allowing and encouraging  parents to participate in events such as sports day, seminars  and educational tours involving the children .

To my detractors and strong supporters of our immediate past HM, I also appeal to you to work with our new HM  for the sake of the children and  more importantly to protect the legacy of Mr Tan . We will have the benefit of a better tomorrow because we were well served yesterday.

In conclusion – have I achieved what I stood for ? –namely for Greater financial transparency of PIBG LICK HUNG ?

Parents and teachers, I Believe  I Have.   And with the ending ,  I will NOT participate in this Election .

I DO admit to one failure which was providing filtered drinking water for the children

I am sure the incoming committee will fix that immediately. .

I bid farewell to PIBG –THANK YOU VERY MUCH 

Ken Koo