Joint Statement made by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong
1st December 2019
In response to the allegation from the Ministry of Education stating that Dong Jiao Zong only notified the Ministry of Education one hour prior to the submission of its memorandum, Dong Jiao Zong herewith rectifies that it is not the true fact.
In the morning of 28th November 2019, when the chairman of both Dong Zong and Jiao Zong decided to personally present the memorandum to the Ministry of Education at 3.00 pm the next day (29th November 2019), immediately they submitted a notification to an official of the Ministry of Education through WhatsApp together with a phone call to make the appointment. Unfortunately, no reply was received from the official. However, in the morning of 29th November 2019, Dong Jiao Zong still persistently strove to reach out to the official of the Education Ministry through various ways and finally received a reply at 1.58 pm. The reply informed that the office would arrange a reception for Dong Jiao Zong. But there was no mention in the reply from the official pointing out whether 3.00 pm on the day was an appropriate time. Attributed to this, it was taken that both parties had agreed upon the time, viz., 3.00 pm (November 29, 2019), to submit and collect the memorandum.
In fact, official from the Ministry of Education Secretary office informed that they had arranged an official to attend to delegates from Dong Jiao Zong, but this official was unavailable at the last minute without leaving a word so eventually it led to this dubiety. All this proves that Dong Jiao Zong had requested for an appointment in advance, and the Ministry of Education had known about it. Thus, it is fair to conclude that the incident emerged because of the internal coordination of the Ministry of Education. As such, reports on the media saying that Dong Jiao Zong did not make any appointment in advance to the Ministry of Education was unfounded.
Anyhow, it is significant just yet that the Ministry of Education had received a memorandum from Dong Jiao Zong, and Dong Jiao Zong urges the Ministry of Education to see to it as soon as possible.