Trips Office Matters |
| Notes from the Council of Badan Warisan Malaysia April 2007 The demolition of Bok House began on 14 December and four days later, by 5pm on Sunday 17 December 2006, all that was left was a huge pile of rubble.
Bakhtiar Talhah, one of our members, whose office looks directly onto the site of Bok House, called on Thursday, anxious because he saw that roof tiles were being removed, and by that afternoon, the timber battens one side of the house were completely exposed. I happened to be in Kedah that week, and immediately phoned several of our members, and also some press contacts to see if anyone could find out if this was a prelude to repairs, or to demolition. By Friday morning, the excavators and bulldozers had moved in and the first columns were demolished.
This “event” was covered in a number of news reports in print as well as on television. It generated a fair amount of comment from members of the public, which for most part, were expressions of distress and concern; while key regulatory authorities by and large commented on the lack of heritage worthiness of the building.
The Council of Badan Warisan Malaysia immediately issued a press statement on 15 December (http://www.badanwarisan.org.my/content/?cid=154) decrying the act. This was followed by an article written by Elizabeth Cardosa (New Straits Times, 18 December 2006) which challenged the excuses put forward for its demolition. And over the next week or so, there was much debate by different parties in the press, but sadly, as with all such matters, the controversy was quickly overtaken by other events.
In the ensuing weeks, it was apparent to Council that most people only had a superficial understanding of what constituted a heritage building. It was also clear that there was no one to adjudicate in the debate of the diagrammatically opposing positions held by Badan Warisan Malaysia and some other key stakeholders. The President, Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji, therefore proposed we organise a workshop to clarify several of the key issues which had emerged.
On 6 and 7 February 2007, a workshop, “Heritage Matters: Promoting and Protecting Place” was held. It attracted over 60 participants comprising professionals, academics, educationists, heritage conservation NGOs, representatives from local authorities and other government agencies interested in the issues raised, and members of the legal fraternity. The discussions were facilitated by Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji, Richard Engelhardt who is the Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific in the UNESCO Bangkok office and Dr Johannes Widodo, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore. A report on the outcomes of the discussion will be completed in April 2007, and it is intended that Badan Warisan Malaysia will present this with our recommendations to the relevant authorities and also the local media.
In the meantime, Badan Warisan Malaysia will continue to nominate buildings which we believe should be gazetted as National Heritage. We welcome members nominating any buildings you believe are of great cultural significance which should be included on the Heritage Register, especially those which are under threat of demolition, are rapidly deteriorating or in a grave state of dilapidation. We will be happy to work with you to nominate these buildings.
by Elizabeth Cardosa
heritage@badanwarisan.org.my
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