HAVING called Penang home since 2008, except for the three years I was packed off to Perak due to my work, I have witnessed several traditional villages being reduced to rubble.
Scenes of demolition of Kampung Buah Pala in September 2009, amid violent skirmishes between police and villagers, are still etched in my memory. The scorching heat on the afternoon of Sept 4 further elevated the temperature level, which led to several shouting matches as tempers flared.
I remember how one of my colleague’s car got dented when a pack of cows ran into it during the commotion. He has since sold off the car, along with the dent.
Kampung Buah Pala used to be home to the Indian community, who were the descendants of plantation workers and cattlemen of the former Brown Estate. The village was popularly nicknamed High Chaparral due to its elevated location on Bukit Gelugor.
The Brown Estate used to cover much of what is known today as Gelugor and Minden. It was one of the estates belonging to the family of David Brown, the biggest property owner on Penang Island in the 19th century.
The land, on which Kampung Buah Pala once stood, was given in trust to the government of the Straits Settlement by Helen Margaret Brown, the landowner of the Brown Estate before the Brown family returned to Britain. The Brown Estate packed up in 1956. The trust to the land was then transferred to the state government. Under the state government, the villagers were given TOL (temporary occupation licence) to stay there, paying annual TOL rental. Some of the Indians living in Kampung Buah Pala then continued to lead a village lifestyle of breeding cattle, albeit seeing their pastures dwindle in size and their village becoming increasingly hemmed in by urban development.
Since returning to Penang last April, after my Perak stint, I have come across another three traditional villages which are under threat of eviction.
On Aug 24 last year, the eviction of around 500 villagers from their century-old homes in Kampung Mutiara, Batu Ferringhi was put on hold following an eleventh-hour plea. A total of 66 homes at the 1.4ha site were served with the eviction notice that ordered them to hand over vacant possession of their homes. The villagers recently lost their final appeal at the Court of Appeal. The villagers used to stay across the road but moved to the current site to facilitate the construction of a hotel at the old site. Kampung Mutiara was awarded “traditional village” status in 2004 in recognition of the Malay village’s architecture and way of life.
Early this month, villagers in Kampung Permatang Tok Subuh on mainland Bukit Mertajam formed a human barricade to prevent bulldozers from flattening their homes. They were served with eviction notice on Feb 17. There are currently 26 families with 180 people living in the village.
In the most recent case, two Thursdays ago, villages of Kampung Siam in Pulau Tikus lost their battle to protect their homes when the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the eviction of families and businesses in the village. Kampung Siam is a traditional settlement established on land awarded by the British to joint trustees of the Burmese and Siamese communities in 1845.
In the original grant, it was stated that the land is only to be used for religious and community activities. However, the land was subdivided in 1994 whereby the Siamese trustees will retain the land on which Wat Chayamangkalaram sits on whereas the Burmese trustees will receive the other part of the land which includes Kampung Siam.
Of the original 14 families and 10 businesses in the area, only three families and six businesses remain. Wan Dee Aroonratana, 93, the last Menora dancer and recipient of the Penang Heritage Trust’s (PHT) Living Heritage Treasure Award, is from one of the five Siamese families affected by this eviction. At that ripe old age, he should not be put through such a test.
Just last week, a group of academics from Universiti Sains Malaysia, sounded the clarion call for traditional villages in the state to be protected and preserved at all costs.
The PHT had even suggested that a comprehensive inventory be done of all the traditional settlements and cultural landscapes of the state.
With at least another 30 traditional villages on the brink of being wiped out, time is of the essence to come out with the inventory.
Eight years have passed since the DAP-led state government came into power. Why wasn’t there an inventory done during all those years?
What has the current administration been doing to protect and preserve all the traditional villages from threats of development? What is the state government doing in the case of Kampung Mutiara, Kampung Permatang Tok Subuh and Kampung Siam?
Maybe Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should reveal his grand plans for the traditional villages in the state. Does he want to see them all go as in the case of Kampung Buah Pala and many other villages? Or has he the political will to ensure they stand tall for generations to come?
The time has come for Lim’s administration to rethink their urbanisation paradigm and review policies pertaining to traditions and heritage affecting all places in the state.
Infrastructure development and urbanisation can’t continue in this manner at the expense of traditional and heritage villages. Unfettered urbanisation will not only create despair amongst the population, it will also destroy the very ingredient that has made Penang unique in its cultural fabric.
Every village provides a narrative of the history and heritage of Penang. Every village has a story to tell. All efforts to capture and document its history, people, culture and way of life should be conducted thoroughly.
Maybe Lim and company should start adopting the famous saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” to protect and preserve the traditional villages in the state, the very fabric that Penang is built upon. They should know by now that uprooting a population is an uncivilised practice.
Audrey Dermawan is NST’s Penang bureau chief. She enjoys the sun, the sea and the sand, from which she draws her inspiration