Hometown Blues

Malaysia has been trying to get its “cities” of Malacca and Penang classified as a joint World Heritage site since 2001.

No, seriously.

Apparently, we didn’t get the memo on how the aim of identifying World Heritage sites via UNESCO is to “catalogue, name and preserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind.

Is it any wonder then, that five years down the road there is still no World Heritage listing in site?

Today, the Star reports that “Malaysia suspects that there are double standards when it comes to awarding World Heritage status to sites in Asian countries”.

Presumably sharing such suspicion, our Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage concludes faster than a speeding bullet train from KL to Singapore that “Asian countries need their own benchmark to evaluate heritage sites”.

Typical. Your gang dowan to play with me, done, I make my own gang. Hmmph.

I know!! Kan??

For the record, there are 830 World Heritage Sites. Of that, the bulk are in Europe and North America (407), but the region with the next most sites is the Asia Pacific (175), followed by Latin America – Caribbean (116), Africa (70) and Arab states (62). It might be instructive to remember that Asia includes most of the ‘stan (Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc) countries.

Of greater pertinence – There are only 197 cities in the world with World Heritage status. Neither London nor Lisbon is on that list. Nor any American city. Nor is Goa (although its churches and convents are), nor Beijing nor Athens. If you haven’t fulfilled your quota of useful trivia today, go here. Don’t point out to me that there is a contradiction in terms in this paragraph, unless you realise that it’s actually an oxymoron.

Doesn’t anyone in government read National Geographic magazine?? In fact, every parent willing to pay however much it is to send a child to Gymboree to crawl or for whatever extra-curricular class is deemed necessary to keep up with the Kiasus these days ought to just subscribe to NatGeo instead. It’s only RM145 per year. Teach your kid something about existing on this planet for once.

Sorry, off-tangent rant.

I’ve only been to one World Heritage city. Florence, in Italy. Of the many reasons why I love that city, the most relevant for this discussion explains exactly why I’ve grown to hate going back to Malacca, my hometown.

I won’t go into Penang, which, despite having a better track record in heritage preservation, I think would still not by itself qualify against the criteria. Which is probably why UNESCO suggested that a joint application be made.

Despite its antiquity, Florence manages to exist as a modern city. The impetus of urban development is balanced with the preservation and celebration of its rich history, culture and architecture. The pride that Florentines must have, and deservedly so, in their city is apparent by the focus of civic life in the city’s ancient piazzas. There are no multi-storey glass & steel office buildings. It’s amazingly difficult to find a supermarket. Instead, there are the tabacci, alimentari, forno, macelleria – tobacconist, grocers, bakeries and butchers. Daily life takes place literally on the streets, on foot.

Sure, there are throngs of tourists and locals at every turn but you never quite lose that sense of wonder of how it must have been like in the Middle Ages or at the height of the Roman Empire as you walk its cobblestone streets. Visiting its museums and civic buildings is like walking through time. It’s the birthplace of the Renaissance and it shows.

The historical character of Florence is without doubt central to the daily lives of Florentines; it’s the epitome of a living heritage.

That’s the kind of league in which Malaysia imagines itself capable of playing. Any concerns that UNESCO or even our own Badan Warisan may have to the contrary is dismissed with typical Malaysia Boleh chest-beating.


Back in reality where you and me and the rest of the world - but not some people:- the leaders of the US, UK, Germany and Israel (again, I digress) - like to live, I can only look at the mess that is Malacca and wonder…hello??

Have you been to Malacca in the last 5 years?

Heritage buildings painted in nursery school monotone cartoon colours, uncontrolled (and brainless) development, bad traffic planning, traditional traders forced out of heritage buildings and replaced with cheap-trinket shops, dusty understaffed (qualified) primary-school standard museum exhibits, heritage zones being turned into what amounts to a pasar malam, destruction of heritage architecture, man-made irrelevant “attractions”, chicken rice-ball shops proliferating virus-like. The list goes on.

Padang Pahlawan, where Tunku Abdul Rahman uttered the words that gave birth to Malaysia (and inspired the phenomenon of “patriotic songs”), is being developed into some kind of mega mall because Malacca doesn’t have enough public spaces for kutu masyarakat to lean aimlessly on or over railings and spread cancer via second-hand smoke.


We break here for a community service announcement. Please note the difference between sarcasm and fact lest I be accused of causing the "public to lose faith in the nation’s economic policies". Cintailah Malaysia, sebab Keranamu Malaysia saya dapat menikmati pelbagai keselesaan dan kemajuan yang tak terhingga. End of announcement.


During the course of the field’s excavation, structures of the Portuguese-constructed Malacca Fort, A’ Famosa, were found. You’d think that these finds would be of immense archaeological value, given that up till this discovery it was believed that Porta Santiago was the only remaining structure after the fort was destroyed in 1807.

Development of the mega mall continues unabated, with the authorities generously allowing a mere 10 feet of buffer between the finds and the mall’s foundation.

Malaysia Boleh!

The Malacca in my memories no longer exists in reality. Given the thinking that led to the recent production of an academic document (guidebook, textbook, does its form even matter??) containing an... alternative... perspective of our country’s history, I would not be surprised if Malacca’s historical role as a true cultural melting pot is eventually glossed over in the education system.

I’m reminded of one of my favourite stories - Neil Gaiman’s Ramadan, a comic-book story written just after the first Gulf War in 2001. It tells of how a great Caliph barters with the Lord of Dreams to take his Baghdad, at the height of its Golden Age, into the realm of dreams. That way, the dream of the magical city of Baghdad would live on forever in the imagination of man. The Caliph couldn't bear the thought of his beautiful city falling into decline after the Golden Age, or worse, being forgotten.

Well, whose imagination has not been enriched by the tales of the Arabian Nights? Good call, Caliph!

On the last few pages of Ramadan, we discover that the Caliph's story is told by a beggar to a disabled boy in the bombed-out rubble of present day (in 2001) Baghdad. It ends with the boy picking his way through the reality of his life with a smile on his face and a head filled with visions of "towers and jewels and djinn, carpets and rings and wild afreets, kings and princes and cities of brass."

Pure genius. And so true, especially given the state that Baghdad is in these days.

I’d like to think that there’s more than just a few of us who will always pronounce Tengkera as Tranquerah, refer to Newcome Road, First, Second and Third Cross Streets, Bailey Bridge, Wolferston Road and in whose memories live the stories of pelanduks, the court of Parameswara, the warriors –Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat (whom I think was right) and the lesser Hangs, the princess - Hang Li Poh, the wise vizier - Tun Perak, the ambassador - Laksamana Cheng Ho, the original Peranakans and the conqueror - Alfonso de Albuquerque.

For us and some of the next generation (I only have hope enough to take a chance on just one generation, forget about future ones), there is this. Cover pictured here. Poignantly beautiful. I saw it at MPH once and leafed through.

The pictures are only more heartbreaking when you realise that the bygone world of Malacca only exists when captured in still shots.