The principal of the country's oldest Chinese independent school has been issued a show-cause letter by the institution's board of governors last week asking him to explain why he should not be terminated.

The letter dated Sept 27 accused Goh Kean Seng, the principal of the Confucian Private Secondary School, or Zunkong, that the statements he made to Chinese dailies Sin Chew Jit Poh and China Press in July were in violation of his contract.

"You should explain why the contract signed between the board and you should not be terminated within seven days," said the letter, which was signed by the school's board of governors chairperson Lee Yam Hooi.

The letter cited a series of news articles in the dailies accompanied with headlines such as "Goh declares war", "Goh vows to fight against the governors", and "Boycott the governors" as reasons for the contract violation.

In response, Goh explained in his Oct 5 letter that he had "declared war" on a number of governors because he could no longer condone the year-long interference of the board's deputy chairperson Liew Kon Seng, and its adviser Kok Kim Tong, in the school's administration.

"The way in which both individuals belittle the teachers could no longer be tolerated. I have no choice but to fight back," Goh said in his letter.

Goh reiterated that he was not "at war" with the entire board, but only Liew and Kok.

PTA outraged

The charges of the board's interference in the school exploded into a crisis in July when teachers and members of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) walked out from a meeting called by the school's management committee to discuss the grading of students' performance.

During the meeting, the committee which comprises, among others, Liew and Kok, were said to have insulted the teachers.

A week later, the outraged PTA passed a resolution at their annual meeting calling on the governors to apologise for hurting the pride of the teachers.

However, the board's chairperson was reported to have said that both Liew and Kok need not apologise.

Following that, Lee and a few governors were asked to resign by the Safeguard Confucian School Action Committee (SCSAC) - an ad-hoc committee formed to support the school's embattled principal consisting of governors, teachers, parents and a number of Chinese organisations.

Chow Siew Hon, the chairman of the SCSAC, said Lee has issued the show-cause letter without getting prior consent from the board's 14-member executive committee as well as the whole 45-member board.

"I, as the vice-chairman and the other governors are not informed at all. No meeting has been held about the plan to sack Goh. At least, Lee should have consulted the executive meeting. Even the secretary and the treasurer are not aware of the show-cause letter," he lamented.

According to him, the executive committee announced on Sept 11 that the controversy would be settled after the board of governors received the reports from the feuding parties at a meeting this Sunday.

The hiring and sacking of the principal required the approval from the full board of governors.

"Lee has unilaterally ignored the agreement of Sept 11, and sought to fire Goh. His autocratic ways and his flaunting of democratic procedures proved his claim to the media that 'he did not intend to fire the principal' are lies," he said.

'Errant governors'

Chow identified five or six governors, whom he said were the real culprits.

He urged Lee, Liew and Kok to resign from their posts.

"Zunkong does not belong to 45 governors or the school's 1,500 sponsors. The school is owned by the over five million Chinese. Any damaging action against the school would go against the will the Chinese community," he stressed.

He called on all the governors to support Goh at the meeting of the full board this Sunday. A signature campaign launched by the Committee to Support Goh has received over 10,000 signatures from the public since mid-September.

Meanwhile, PTA chairperson Dr Paul Cheng said the controversy of Zunkong is not merely a "private dispute", but involved the future of Malaysia's oldest independent Chinese school.

He explained that a quarter of governors have tried to sack Goh since last year.

Now they are using the statements made by Goh to the media after the crisis exploded out in the open in July as reasons to fire the 51-year-old principal.

"This shows that the board has no real reasons to sack him," he said.

However, Cheng conceded that the school staff might fail in its bid to save the school's principal from being fired at the full board meeting this weekend.

But he vowed that the SCSAC would campaign to "expel" the errant governors from the school.

One of the most respected Chinese educationist, the late Lim Lian Geok, was a former staff of the school during the 1950s. He was stripped of his Malaysian citizenship for his role in campaigning for the right of mother-tongue education.