During the construction of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH), there was an economic depression, the prices of local products fell, and the market was sluggish. The fundraising results were far below the expected targets. To prevent the construction from halting due to financial difficulties, SCAH convened a second conference of overseas Chinese to discuss countermeasures. It was decided that various associations and guilds in Kuala Lumpur would serve as permanent directors to strengthen SCAH and organize a large-scale fundraising campaign. The term “permanent director” appeared for the first time in SCAH documents. In short, “permanent directors” emerged from a specific historical context, laying the social foundation of SCAH.

The historical origins of the “permanent directors” in SCAH stem from a controversy over the naming of the grand hall, which led to the resignation of individual directors. To prevent a lack individual directors, 22 groups were invited to serve as permanent directors. Apart from 17 guild organizations and three industry-related organizations, Renjingshe and Zuele Drama Societies were also invited due to their relentless efforts in raising construction funds for SCAH. In summary, the emergence of the 22 permanent directors was a result of historical circumstances, not a product of their active pursuit or a specially designed system. The leaders of the Engchoon Guild in Kuala Lumpur were invited to become permanent directors because they took on the heavy responsibility of the fundraising committee during the controversy over the hall’s name and the resultant difficulty in raising construction funds.

The issue of “permanent directors” arose mainly due to changes in the Chinese community in the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur regions. With the growth of the Chinese population and the increase in Chinese organizations, the membership structure of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) also needed to be adjusted. After 1975, under the leadership of Li Yannian, SCAH’s organizational culture began to transform. With an open-door policy, SCAH’s membership expanded from the original 22 Chinese organizations to 197. Although this expansion broadened SCAH’s social foundation, it also intensified the later controversy over whether to abolish the permanent director status during leadership re-elections.

At the 1986 General Assembly, the Selangor Peng Clan Association once again proposed to review the automatic director status of the 22 permanent members. However, this proposal was not passed due to non-compliance with the procedures for amending the constitution. Nonetheless, another related proposal by Peng Gumeng, a representative of the Selangor Peng Clan Association, was approved: “This General Assembly authorizes the next Board of Directors to amend the constitution of the association and its non-profit limited company, to study the clause regarding the automatic directorship of the 22 permanent members, and to establish a new regulation stipulating that all directors be elected by the General Assembly to conform to the spirit of democracy.” At the first meeting of the 23rd Board of Directors on May 24 of the same year, a nine-member committee was established to amend the constitution. It was decided that before any amendments, the opinions of the 22 permanent members must be sought. Furthermore, any suggestions from the committee had to be discussed by the Board of Directors before a decision was made. On March 11, 1987, the resolution received a joint opposition from 20 of the 22 permanent members (automatic directors), firmly against abolishing the automatic directorship of the 22 members. Clearly, during this period, directors from different camps were competing over the issue of permanent directors.

On April 26, 1999, SCAH held an extraordinary general meeting and passed the proposal to abolish the permanent directors with 155 votes to 29 votes. From then on, the “permanent director” became a historical term. However, Li Shantu, a representative of Renjingshe, took the matter to court in an attempt to retain the status of the 22 permanent directors, but the court rejected the application. In response, Liu Panshi, president of the Selangor Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, one of the groups represented among the permanent directors, established the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall. This action forced SCAH to rename itself the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH), to prevent a split and confusion regarding the highest representative body for Chinese affairs in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Although it took over a decade of debate to abolish the permanent directors, we cannot ignore the contributions of these 22 Chinese organizations in stabilizing the foundation of SCAH in its early days. Initially, the permanent director position was created to stabilize the leadership and prevent a leadership vacuum caused by directors resigning over the hall naming controversy. This was a product of historical conditions. The status of permanent directors was not meant to be immutable and needed to be reviewed in response to changes in social environment and organizational growth. Whether to partially retain or completely abolish it often depended on human factors rather than being handled solely from the perspective of historical contributions.

From the historical development of the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur, the Engchoon people have always held significant positions in major Chinese organizations. From the early days of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall’s (SCAH) establishment, Engchoon people played key roles in the fundraising committee. After independence, Engchoon people began to enter the core leadership of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Li Yannian simultaneously served as president or held important positions in the Kuala Lumpur Engchoon Association, Selangor Hokkien Association, Yong Lian Association, Malaysian Hokkien Federation, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Malaysian Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and SCAH. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Malaysian Chinese community entered the Li Yannian era in the 1970s. During this period, the core leadership of the Kuala Lumpur Engchoon community also reached the pinnacle of the Malaysian Chinese community. Following Li Yannian, Qiu Xiangchi and Lin Yuqing also led SCAH. Later, Lin Yuqing served as the leader of the top Chinese organization, the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia, the predecessor of the Malaysian Chinese Association .

Chinese organizations need to adjust their pace in response to the current development. The controversy over the 22 permanent directors of SCAH took many years to resolve. During this controversy period, the Kuala Lumpur Engchoon Association, as a permanent director, had already expressed its own position. Although the status of permanent directors was abolished, the Kuala Lumpur Engchoon Association did not withdraw from SCAH, demonstrating its respect for the spirit of democracy.