SIBU: The plight of an outstanding achiever, who scored 10A’s in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) last year, was highlighted during SMK St Elizabeth’s annual speech day yesterday.
In his address, the school principal, Clement Chieng, disclosed that Chieng Mei Mei, who scored A in all subjects, is stateless, meaning that she is not a citizen of this country or any other country though her father and siblings are Malaysians.
“We are saddened by this. She wants to be a teacher but cannot further her studies. She is here now to receive a special award. A ‘Yang Berhormat’ is helping her and I understand that she has yet to receive her Malaysian citizenship,” he said.
According to him, the story of her classmates helping her began last March 13 after the 2018 Form Five result was released.
Saying that yesterday was one of his happiest days as the school principal, Clement enjoyed the speech day with some of his best friends and former classmates especially Datuk Thomas Ngu for having helped raise fund to help needy students.
“I am very happy that my former classmates from Sacred Heart School Form Five class of 1981 are helping needy students in our school,” he said.
“Datuk Thomas called me up several times to offer help, to get citizenship for Mei Mei through his connections.
“Then I told him that there are other needy students whom the school have been helping for the past few years.
“We have been providing them with daily meals, pay for their school bus fares and buy workbooks and stationeries.”
Clement said during an annual reunion of his class of ‘81 at the end of last March, Thomas proposed that the SHS Class of 1981 help poor students for which he and his family had pledged a substantial sum of money.
“The proposal received an amazing response which garnered RM30,000 in total,” he said.
He hoped it would be a good example for the attendees, especially the students, to follow when they have achieved success in life.
Thomas, who was the guest of honour at the gathering, recalled that the idea for the Class of 1981’s ‘Help the Needy Students Fund’ came when he read an article in a newspaper about a student, Mei Mei, who scored excellent results in the 2018 SPM examination but could not go to university as she is stateless.
“I remembered my Rotary Club managed to help a stateless boy obtain some travel documents to travel to Penang for a lifesaving operation a few years back.
“I immediately called Clement to see if our Rotary Club of Kuching Central could help Mei Mei. Unfortunately, his was a federal government matter and there was nothing we could do,” he said.
Among those present were the chairman of the school board of management Reverend Bishop Joseph Hii; chairperson of St Elizabeth Old Students Association (Seosa), Teresa Lau; and chairperson of St Elizabeth’s Secondary School’s parent-teacher association, Josephine Oui.
