Not another red herring in State Heritage Bill 2017
The State Legislative Assembly on 23rd November, 2017 passed the State Heritage Bill 2017, in its bid to preserve the state’s heritage in a more organized, orderly and comprehensive way. The said bill was done as the current law that governed the state’s heritage, the Enakmen Warisan Budaya (Pemuliharaan) 1997, was not comprehensive.
The new Bill will cover two aspects, namely, cultural heritage (which will be divided into ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ heritage) and natural heritage.
I believe mangrove swamp and coral reefs around our seashores and shore line once were substantial not so long ago. Could such sites be declared heritage sites although some areas have been declared park areas? So is there any distinction between heritage sites and park zones?
We are happy some wetland in Kota Kinabalu had been declared as heritage site.
If you go overseas, so much heritage sites had been conserved to bring the past alive when we visit such valuable sites.
Is what we have done in Sabah good enough even Sabah has a short history on paper?
Heritage is so wide in terms of substance and form and likely inherited by the people like various legacies. Would there be adequate laws to ensure that heritage is protected? Do we think all heritage items would be retained by any existing laws? Isn’t it human nature to preserve what we treasure on earth without compulsion of the laws? Legacies have been passed on for centuries.
What can be so valuable any heritage item is none other natural items as in Sabah the famous Mount Kinabalu as world heritage site?
Allan Chin, a prolific writer on the second world war experiences with most of the materials published in Daily Express in the 1990s and his many contributions in documents and artefacts of his time to Sabah State Museum. I got acquainted with him when I first started work in Telecom Department in 1969 for a few months. He had commissioned me to compile a book of his extra-ordinary survival life especially during the second world war in the interior of Sabah. I have yet to accomplish that effort for lack of fund.
If we go by the natural items for heritage purpose, I believe we have lost so much in term of biodiversity in a tropical country like us as biodiversity as intangible with the massive deforestations in the few decades since 1970s.
If we think cultural heritage is important in Sabah, we may yet to lose all the ethnic cultural practices with conversion to certain religions as such religions do change the diverse living practices of the local people. I have seen some adults possibly “teachers” in a pre-school place near my home showing their eyes only. Is that a new heritage for Sabah? Some call that “arabisation”? Would this be acceptable?
It is very unfortunate that Sabah has lost a lot of heritage items in the short decades of independence in the name of development without regards of the heritage value.
The late Allan Chin did share with me that heritage items handed over to the authorities like the State Museum for perpetuity as national treasures could be lost/misplaced/stolen without trace.
Just a short list of such losses like in Kota Kinabalu where coastal land had been reclaimed and likely still ongoing so much so that seashores down the southern part off Kota Kinabalu have resulted in massive erosion especially in Papar where Pantai Manis is no longer a white sandy beach but replaced by rocks to stop the erosion worsening. Any reclamation of shore would disturb the original equilibrium of water level and waves impact elsewhere over time inevitably. So the coastline along the west coast of Sabah is at varying level of erosion. Do we ever learn from such adverse developments?
Many other heritage areas of sort in Kota Kinabalu could have been replaced by commercial and industrial projects without any consideration for their heritage value. Kampong Ayer aka Singgah Mata in KK once the birth places of the many rich people is no longer there and simply reclaimed for some “white elephant” projects like the abandoned Star city for some years already. Another “posh” project is still unoccupied. Are the ghosts/spirits of the past ‘revisited’ such places?
We could have lost Likas Bay to a commercial project with massive reclamation if not with a timely intervention of opposition thereof. Is there a talk of such project again there?
There is still another commercial project near the sports complex which is still incomplete and possibly abandoned for good with eyesore since Berjaya time with very modern features?
We also could have lost the famous wooden Athkinson clock tower since 1905 with another commercial project but objected too with a judicial review. Why was the well-connected premises of Kota Kinabalu recreation club building near the Athkinson clock tower demolished prematurely?
We also lost the wreckage treasure near Kota Belud to theft.
I think every city would have a prominent active clock tower and why the clock tower of Sabah Friendship League at the Bandaran Berjaya Roundabout with the most posh building in Hap Seng Star nearby also not maintained or retained? Maybe a new rotating clock be built on the Hap Seng Star?
There is also talk of the existing KK market (now a heritage site) to give way to new commercial project.
Do we think the present Government really serious about the loss of so many heritage items in KK and elsewhere in such short period despite the latest heritage enactment 2017?
We have yet to lose our largest and most valuable green zone in Tanjung Aru Beach to what some want to call that Tanjung Aru Eco Development or TAED to some “private group”. Even the land of few hundred hectares had been alienated with little public knowledge. It is largest and most valuable as it is alleged that TAED project with economy not ecology understanding/format is worth anything like RM30billions and more. Even before the project is yet to be approved in its finality through the various processes, many buildings there could be heritage items and yet the “socalled” landowner has “allowed” such buildings to be destroyed thus losing the heritage values. Such heritage buildings should have been protected and maintained according to the terms of said land title.
We must now without wasting any value in term of heritage declare Tanjung Aru Beach (TAB) an heritage site and stop TAED in view of the latest enactment on heritage items .
By preserving TAB a priceless icon in all aspects, it is worth much more than RM30b as it can bring in more billions of tourist dollars annually for decades without incurring anything like RM5b as “renovation” expenses now for TAED.
Please don’t tell me that some people can do better than God is its natural habitat in TAB? Who are fooling who?
God has spoken of His creation in this instance especially with the passing of the latest timely heritage bill, and many concerned people have also spoken over TAB in the delayed TAED, hence it is most appropriate to save TAB with a natural heritage tag for perpetuity as God has meant it to be.
Joshua Y. C. Kong 27/11/2017
The State Legislative Assembly on 23rd November, 2017 passed the State Heritage Bill 2017, in its bid to preserve the state’s heritage in a more organized, orderly and comprehensive way. The said bill was done as the current law that governed the state’s heritage, the Enakmen Warisan Budaya (Pemuliharaan) 1997, was not comprehensive.
The new Bill will cover two aspects, namely, cultural heritage (which will be divided into ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ heritage) and natural heritage.
I believe mangrove swamp and coral reefs around our seashores and shore line once were substantial not so long ago. Could such sites be declared heritage sites although some areas have been declared park areas? So is there any distinction between heritage sites and park zones?
We are happy some wetland in Kota Kinabalu had been declared as heritage site.
If you go overseas, so much heritage sites had been conserved to bring the past alive when we visit such valuable sites.
Is what we have done in Sabah good enough even Sabah has a short history on paper?
Heritage is so wide in terms of substance and form and likely inherited by the people like various legacies. Would there be adequate laws to ensure that heritage is protected? Do we think all heritage items would be retained by any existing laws? Isn’t it human nature to preserve what we treasure on earth without compulsion of the laws? Legacies have been passed on for centuries.
What can be so valuable any heritage item is none other natural items as in Sabah the famous Mount Kinabalu as world heritage site?
Allan Chin, a prolific writer on the second world war experiences with most of the materials published in Daily Express in the 1990s and his many contributions in documents and artefacts of his time to Sabah State Museum. I got acquainted with him when I first started work in Telecom Department in 1969 for a few months. He had commissioned me to compile a book of his extra-ordinary survival life especially during the second world war in the interior of Sabah. I have yet to accomplish that effort for lack of fund.
If we go by the natural items for heritage purpose, I believe we have lost so much in term of biodiversity in a tropical country like us as biodiversity as intangible with the massive deforestations in the few decades since 1970s.
If we think cultural heritage is important in Sabah, we may yet to lose all the ethnic cultural practices with conversion to certain religions as such religions do change the diverse living practices of the local people. I have seen some adults possibly “teachers” in a pre-school place near my home showing their eyes only. Is that a new heritage for Sabah? Some call that “arabisation”? Would this be acceptable?
It is very unfortunate that Sabah has lost a lot of heritage items in the short decades of independence in the name of development without regards of the heritage value.
The late Allan Chin did share with me that heritage items handed over to the authorities like the State Museum for perpetuity as national treasures could be lost/misplaced/stolen without trace.
Just a short list of such losses like in Kota Kinabalu where coastal land had been reclaimed and likely still ongoing so much so that seashores down the southern part off Kota Kinabalu have resulted in massive erosion especially in Papar where Pantai Manis is no longer a white sandy beach but replaced by rocks to stop the erosion worsening. Any reclamation of shore would disturb the original equilibrium of water level and waves impact elsewhere over time inevitably. So the coastline along the west coast of Sabah is at varying level of erosion. Do we ever learn from such adverse developments?
Many other heritage areas of sort in Kota Kinabalu could have been replaced by commercial and industrial projects without any consideration for their heritage value. Kampong Ayer aka Singgah Mata in KK once the birth places of the many rich people is no longer there and simply reclaimed for some “white elephant” projects like the abandoned Star city for some years already. Another “posh” project is still unoccupied. Are the ghosts/spirits of the past ‘revisited’ such places?
We could have lost Likas Bay to a commercial project with massive reclamation if not with a timely intervention of opposition thereof. Is there a talk of such project again there?
There is still another commercial project near the sports complex which is still incomplete and possibly abandoned for good with eyesore since Berjaya time with very modern features?
We also could have lost the famous wooden Athkinson clock tower since 1905 with another commercial project but objected too with a judicial review. Why was the well-connected premises of Kota Kinabalu recreation club building near the Athkinson clock tower demolished prematurely?
We also lost the wreckage treasure near Kota Belud to theft.
I think every city would have a prominent active clock tower and why the clock tower of Sabah Friendship League at the Bandaran Berjaya Roundabout with the most posh building in Hap Seng Star nearby also not maintained or retained? Maybe a new rotating clock be built on the Hap Seng Star?
There is also talk of the existing KK market (now a heritage site) to give way to new commercial project.
Do we think the present Government really serious about the loss of so many heritage items in KK and elsewhere in such short period despite the latest heritage enactment 2017?
We have yet to lose our largest and most valuable green zone in Tanjung Aru Beach to what some want to call that Tanjung Aru Eco Development or TAED to some “private group”. Even the land of few hundred hectares had been alienated with little public knowledge. It is largest and most valuable as it is alleged that TAED project with economy not ecology understanding/format is worth anything like RM30billions and more. Even before the project is yet to be approved in its finality through the various processes, many buildings there could be heritage items and yet the “socalled” landowner has “allowed” such buildings to be destroyed thus losing the heritage values. Such heritage buildings should have been protected and maintained according to the terms of said land title.
We must now without wasting any value in term of heritage declare Tanjung Aru Beach (TAB) an heritage site and stop TAED in view of the latest enactment on heritage items .
By preserving TAB a priceless icon in all aspects, it is worth much more than RM30b as it can bring in more billions of tourist dollars annually for decades without incurring anything like RM5b as “renovation” expenses now for TAED.
Please don’t tell me that some people can do better than God is its natural habitat in TAB? Who are fooling who?
God has spoken of His creation in this instance especially with the passing of the latest timely heritage bill, and many concerned people have also spoken over TAB in the delayed TAED, hence it is most appropriate to save TAB with a natural heritage tag for perpetuity as God has meant it to be.
Joshua Y. C. Kong 27/11/2017
