Proposed RM 50 million donation to Penang State Government for building student hostels

Koon Yew Yin

On 15th Sept 2015, I met the Penang State EXCO which has accepted my RM 50 million donation under the following terms and conditions:

I wish to donate RM 50 million for building student hostels to help students studying in Penang, especially students from poor families, in their access to tertiary education.

1. All the RM50 million and the subsequent profit from the rental and other income must be used for building hostels and other associated buildings for the use of students studying in Penang. These students can come from Penang and other states in the country or even be foreign students in keeping with Penang’s need to draw on the best talent from a globalized world.

2. All construction contracts exceeding RM10,000 must be open to competitive tenders.

3. A task force will be established to take full charge of the donation programme and the implementation of the hostels. The task force is to be composed of 7 members; 4 members to be nominated by the Penang State Government and including the Chief Minister as Chair, and 3 members to be nominated by myself or by my nominee.

4. I will be appointed as Adviser to the Task Force. The role of Adviser must be spelled out and agreeable to me. This position will be a life long one. Any change to be made to this position has to be sanctioned by me or by the executors of my estate.

5. The State Government will be responsible for the following

a) provision of state land for the hostels and associated facilities necessary for sports, parking, etc.

b) recruiting and defraying the costs of a team of professional staff to run and manage the hostels on a commercial basis.

6. The rental rate must be competitive and profitable but at the same time must not burden the student residents.

7. Koon Yew Yin and his estate reserve the right to authorize the state government to use a portion of the net income to establish a Koon Yew Yin Charitable Foundation to help poor students through loan scholarships to study in Penang.

8. To honour my donation, I wish to have a tablet prominently displayed in the hostel complex with the following words inscribed

Recipients of Koon Yew Yin scholarships and residents of Koon Yew Yin’s hostels have to promise that when they graduate and are financially solvent, they will help other poor people.

9. The entire complex of student hostels is to be named Koon Yew Yin Residential Complex. Each hostel in the complex is to be named after the fundamental rights of citizens such as Liberty, Justice, Equality, Fraternity, Freedom, Integrity, etc.

The Penang Government has allocated a piece of land with an area of 60,000 sq ft situated directly opposite USM which has a student population of 18,000 students. USM has hostel accommodation for only the 1st year students.

The land is zoned for high rise flats up to 36 storey high.

I have appointed my wife, Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and Architect Lee Thean Hock as my representatives in the management committee.

My architect has just started planning and designing for the project.

Note: All my wealth is from share investment. I have written in my will that all my remaining assets will be donated for charity preferably to help poor students. I have been giving scholarships in the last 8 years and up till now, I have given about 300 scholarships. All my scholar recipients do not need to pay me back the money I spent on them but they have to promise me that when they are financially solvent, they must help other poor students.

I trust some of my scholarship recipients will continue to do charity to help poor and needy students after I die.

I believe some of my followers who have benefitted from my share investment advice, will do charity to help poor people.

We all must bear in mind that we cannot take our money along when we die. After we have given a good education to our children and discharge all our responsibilities, we must do charity to help the poor.

I know it is difficult to give away some of our hard earned money at the beginning. But gradually, we will feel happy in giving away money to help the poor to make them happy. We all must remember that our ultimate aim in life is happiness. When you see poor people happy, you will also feel happy.

I hope this announcement will encourage some readers to do some charity to make people happy. Even a kind word can make a difference.