nst online
2008/07/11
By : SYED Z.A. IDID, Urban Design & Conservation Research Unit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai
I WAS over the moon when a friend in Quebec sent me an SMS on Monday night on the joint inscription of Malacca and George Town into Unesco's World Heritage List.
I sat through till midnight switching back and forth between TV3's Nightline and TV2's Dateline waiting for that wonderful news to be announced. But soon after, I realised that the SMS from Quebec was all the news I would get that night.
A report on Wednesday wrongly said that George Town and Malacca had been individually selected for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
In fact, Malacca and George Town are a joint selection, which means one is a part of the other and cannot be seen as individual selections. George Town became connected to Malacca by virtue of their sharing of common cultural links.
In contrast to the laid-back Malaysian reaction, the people of Cambodia took to the streets in Phnom Penh to celebrate the listing of the controversial Watt Preah Vihear at the Thai-Cambodian border. This shows how much the World Heritage Listing means to Cambodia, which has more than a dozen sites and monuments listed as World Heritage.
This is our first "historic city" and it should mean the world to us (literally), but where are our celebrations? No one seems too excited, perhaps because it means little to us as we are unsure what the status of a "World Heritage" means.
What really frightens me is that if we are unsure of its significance, there will also be less awareness of how to take care of something that is hard to come by.
With the listing comes responsibility; now it is no more "our local" heritage but the "world's heritage". If the state authority in the past had been a little hesitant in employing all measures to safeguard "our local heritage", now it must show a vigorous and conscientious effort to maintain what the world regards as significant to its heritage. Ma-lacca and George Town are now both recognised as "World Historic City" and this means that all manner of urban conservation will have to be of world standard.
After 20 years of waiting for this special moment, some perhaps are tired and some may have forgotten what we were waiting for. But whatever the case, the moment is here.
We should rejoice and be proud of the recognition and pledge that we will keep "our treasure" as best as we can for the world to share.
2008/07/11
By : SYED Z.A. IDID, Urban Design & Conservation Research Unit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai
I WAS over the moon when a friend in Quebec sent me an SMS on Monday night on the joint inscription of Malacca and George Town into Unesco's World Heritage List.
I sat through till midnight switching back and forth between TV3's Nightline and TV2's Dateline waiting for that wonderful news to be announced. But soon after, I realised that the SMS from Quebec was all the news I would get that night.
A report on Wednesday wrongly said that George Town and Malacca had been individually selected for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
In fact, Malacca and George Town are a joint selection, which means one is a part of the other and cannot be seen as individual selections. George Town became connected to Malacca by virtue of their sharing of common cultural links.
In contrast to the laid-back Malaysian reaction, the people of Cambodia took to the streets in Phnom Penh to celebrate the listing of the controversial Watt Preah Vihear at the Thai-Cambodian border. This shows how much the World Heritage Listing means to Cambodia, which has more than a dozen sites and monuments listed as World Heritage.
This is our first "historic city" and it should mean the world to us (literally), but where are our celebrations? No one seems too excited, perhaps because it means little to us as we are unsure what the status of a "World Heritage" means.
What really frightens me is that if we are unsure of its significance, there will also be less awareness of how to take care of something that is hard to come by.
With the listing comes responsibility; now it is no more "our local" heritage but the "world's heritage". If the state authority in the past had been a little hesitant in employing all measures to safeguard "our local heritage", now it must show a vigorous and conscientious effort to maintain what the world regards as significant to its heritage. Ma-lacca and George Town are now both recognised as "World Historic City" and this means that all manner of urban conservation will have to be of world standard.
After 20 years of waiting for this special moment, some perhaps are tired and some may have forgotten what we were waiting for. But whatever the case, the moment is here.
We should rejoice and be proud of the recognition and pledge that we will keep "our treasure" as best as we can for the world to share.
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