18 Penang buildings waiting to be gazetted as national heritage

PENANG (Dec 8): The National Heritage Department has been waiting for years for the Penang government to give its consent to gazette 18 buildings in the state as "national heritage".

Heritage commissioner Dr Zainah Ibrahim said since George Town was inscripted as a Unesco World Heritage Site, the department had identified the buildings to be gazetted.

However, under Section 30 of the National Heritage Act 2005, the Commissioner is required to obtain consent from the state authority before any site located in the state is gazetted.

"That has not been forthcoming. Maybe this is because Penang has yet to finalise its local plan and the Special Area Plan (SAP) for the Unesco heritage zone.

"There may be other technicalities but we appeal to the state to speed things up. The faster we can gazette the buildings, the better we can protect them," Zainah told reporters at the Unesco Regional Conference on Harmonising Actions to Reduce Risks for Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Pacific in Penang yesterday.

Among the buildings to be gazetted are the Penang Immigration Department building, the Standard Chartered Bank, state Islamic Affairs Department on Lebuh Pantai, Wisma Kastam (state Customs Department) on Lebuh Cina, the state legislative assembly building on Lebuh Light, state mosque and Suffolk House on Jalan Air Itam, and the Penang Free School on Jalan Masjid Negeri.

The others include Masjid Jamek Alim Shah Walley and Nagore Durgha Sheriff on Lebuh Chulia, the Tuanku Fauziah museum and gallery at Universiti Sains Malaysia, the Segara Ninda Residence of Ku Din Ku Meh on Jalan Penang, Rumah Teh Bunga on Jalan Hutton, and the Bel Retiro on Penang Hill.

Also on the list are temples – the Thnee Kong Thnua temple on Jalan Pokok Cheri, Nin Yong (Toishan Ningyang Wui Kwon temple) on Lebuh King, Yap Temple (Lum Yeong Tong Yap temple) on Lebuh Armenian, and Wat Chaiyamangalaram Thai Buddhist on Lorong Burma.

The SAP, which will dictate management strategies, planning guidelines, implementation mechanism for the heritage site, management of land and building use, protection of built cultural heritage, vistas, enclaves and streetscapes, enhancement of urban infrastructure, public realm, guidelines for conservation areas and heritage buildings, is reportedly not gazetted yet, pending the completion of its Bahasa Malaysia translation.

National Heritage Department northern zone director Sangam@Musa Antok said there are two different heritage status for buildings.

They could either be gazetted as "heritage" buildings or as "national heritage" structures, he said.

"For the latter, the Tourism and Culture Ministry will make the declaration.

"Buildings of this class are special and they will be monitored from time to time by an enforcement unit under the department to make sure they are properly protected," he said.

Musa said the national heritage site would be subjected to a conservation management plan to promote the conservation, preservation, rehabilitation, restoration or reconstruction of the site.

According to the Act, the ministry may also impose different procedures and guidelines as may be prescribed for the management, conservation and preservation of different categories of National Heritage.

The ministry can also approve financial assistance to the site's owner, custodian or trustee to implement the procedures or guidelines.

Musa said any work carried out on national heritage sites which failed to comply with the guidelines would be punishable by a RM50,000 fine or three years' jail, or both.

"This is why it is important to get such buildings gazetted," he said.

Meanwhile, Zainah also touched briefly on the living heritage and reports that people were leaving the heritage zone in George Town due to rising living costs and other factors.

She said in Melaka's Jonker Street, the owners allowed their tenants to continue staying with reasonable rental.

"Both states received the Unesco listing due to their diverse cultures. That is part of the outstanding universal values of the two cities," she said.

Both George Town and the city of Melaka were awarded the Unesco World heritage site listing in July 2008.-- The Malaysian Insider

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