MALACCA RIVERSIDE RAPE PLANNED?

The view from St. Paul's Hill is these days, of a concrete jungle, can't even see the sea!
The lighthouse has long been useless.

Once again the historic town of Malacca is going to suffer, already the building of a monstrosity of a mega shopping centre on what was the seaside green, known as Padang Pahlawan, the historic ground where Tunku Abdul Rahman declared Malaysia Independent, has disappeared, and the massive coastal reclamation and other misguided projects have changed Malacca beyond recognition, and have totally cut the town off from the sea.

In the quaint narrow streets, the air is now choked with dust and the exhaust fumes of vehicles as there are no longer any sea breezes to disperse them. The temperature in the town seems to be several degrees warmer too.

Yet, once again the historic heritage of Malacca is going to be tarnished, by a harebrained scheme to try to transform the town into the "Venice of the East", what a joke!

The newly sheet piled riverbank

The Malaysian print media reported, yesterday, 21 February 2008, that the owners of 143 pre-war shop-houses and houses in old Malacca town were shocked when they told the state had gazetted their buildings for acquisition.

They only knew about the state’s secret intentions after opposition party DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng showed them a letter dated 17th January 2008, from the state Land and Mines Department.

However, state Housing and Development Committee chairman Koh Nai Kwong urged the building owners to ignore the letter, claiming it was a mistake.

“We will investigate how the letter was leaked. I want to stress here that the letter referred only to abandoned buildings or buildings found to be in ruins,” said Koh.

He visited the site recently and found that many of the shops and houses were occupied and in good condition.

“In that afternoon, I directed officials of the state Land and Mines Department to conduct a thorough inspection before proposing which buildings were for gazette,” he said.

The 143 buildings are situated along Malacca River stretching from Kampung Hulu to Kampung Pantai and Jalan Hang Jebat.

They include a bank, warehouses, shops and several homes – some may have been proposed to be classified as heritage buildigs.

The Malacca state government has come up with a plan to restore the Malacca Riverside as the “Venice of the East”.

The plan includes river beautification, RM91.2mil was spent on a water treatment plant, a river walk, a board walk, landscaping and lighting, and this was only the first phase.

At a press conference in late January, Lim said the letter mentioned that the buildings would be acquired in 'the public interest'.

“Such a letter would have been issued only after the state executive council under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam had deliberated on and approved it,” said Lim.

Lim said the views of the building owners should have been sought first.

Someone has now let the cat out of the bag before the General Election on 8th March, so now the denials will come out thick and fast, all will be hushed up, and then after the election, the compulsory acquisitions will probably start, unless the state government get a pounding in the election.
One can but hope for a change for the better! People power needs to come into play!
Otherwise it will be autocracy, or democracy Malaysian style, as per usual!

Cheers!