Of a Minister and Old Mansions

I was suprised to see this news article in The Star yestersay: New hope for old bungalow. Well, I guess there's also quite a number of other people that would be suprised as well by the fact that this house that used to belong to a 'welthy Muslim jeweller' some hundred years ago is deemed to be of value by Rais Yatim.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the building could “tell” the story of the inhabitants of the island during the period.

Mr. Rais, can you justify how one rich man's house in Penang could give people a glimpse of the past while another rich man's house in KL was torn down a few months ago? Why couldn't Bok House tell as much story as this Wahab House can? Man, you can compare the architecture of both houses and you can see that there's nothing like Bok House elsewhere in Malaysia. This Wahab House? Go to Kuala Kangsar, there's a lot of houses just like that.

I really believe that Mr. Rais is going through all this to hush away all the criticism about the way he handled Bok House. It's that old formula again.. you do one good deed and people will forget the previous one. We aren't blind Rais, we can see what you're doing.. Anyway, Datuk Seri Mohd Yussof Latiff of the Penang Malay Association who mentioned that it will be turned into a Jawi Peranakan Museum also gave this statement to the press:

“The building needs to be protected so that it won’t be demolished to make way for any high-rise project,”

Yeah, sure.. tell that to the rubble near Zouk, I'm sure it'll appreciate to hear his fellow old mansion up there in Penang will be saved and turned into another white elephant project..

Labels: opinion