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Malaysia Harmony Oasis Seeks RecognitionIslamOnline.net & News Agencies
GEORGE TOWN, Malaysia — While the world resounds with religious discord, multi-racial Malaysia is pushing for the island of Penang to be recognized as a historical oasis of religious and social harmony, worthy of becoming a World Heritage site.
"Penang is so unique -- a multicultural trading town, a melting pot of all the great religions, townscapes of unique architecture," Laurence Loh, a conservation architect working on submission to UNESCO's World Heritage listing, told Reuters on Monday, September 24.
"There's nowhere else in the world like it. There is only one Penang in the world. It's all that we really are, that's the whole selling point of Penang."
The island, which lies at the northern entrance of the Malacca strait, is marked with its breathtaking works of aged architecture and buildings.
Its old trading port of George Town makes a powerful assault on the senses with the sweet smell of incense from a centuries-old Chinese temple, the perfume of a Hindu shrine decked in flowers and the call to prayer from its mosques.
It is seeking to be included in the UNESCO list, which features hundreds of sites worldwide with outstanding historic value such as the Great Wall of China and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Penang, named after the Malay word for betel nut, was a stop for traders as long ago as the 16thcentury.
Later in 1786, it became part of the British settlements in the Malacca straits, and the British established George Town to be a trading center in Asia.
Today, the island is one of the states of the Asian Muslim country, which has won independence from the British occupiers on August 31, 1957.
Authentic
Ahmad Chik, a council member of the Penang Heritage Trust, says that Penang's special feature is "authenticity".
"You can't very well just create a 16th century town steeped in history," he explained.
"While Penang can't compete with Bali or Phuket on beaches, on a heritage basis we are clearly ahead of the rest, a class of our own."
Experts lament, whoever, that historical treasures do not receive the appropriate care.
"Heritage conservation is still a marginal activity that is not seen as central to Malaysia's core values," said Loh, also the deputy president of the Heritage of Malaysia Trust.
"It should change because this is what we really are."
In George Town, the old shop houses are literally crumbling, their brickwork is riddled with damp.
Left without maintenance for years, many of the historic buildings are venerable to collapse.
UNESCO affirms that the government's role is crucial to preserve such treasures.
"This is why the committee wants nomination requests to feature a detailed management plan for the properties that are up for inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage list," Kishore Rao, deputy director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, told Reuters in an email.
One award-winning restoration, carried out by Loh on a magnificent old Chinese mansion, gives a vivid glimpse of the wealth and color of George Town in the late 19th century -- and is also an example of how it can regain some of its former glory.
Architecture conservatives hope the government-backed World Heritage submission would mark a turning point for the country's monuments.
"Other sites show that tourism increases by between 10 and 30 percent within a year of being inscribed as a World Heritage site," said Loh.
"All stakeholders will benefit and the government should see heritage as equally valuable to its other efforts."
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