PENANG'S HERITAGE OF DESTRUCTION -- HERITAGE PRESUMED GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT!
Penang's precious treasures, if not Malaysia's, today face the prospect of the death penalty with those without voice or power striving to be heard and to protect those things which, once gone, are gone forever.
Their only crime is to be situated on an expensive piece of real estate with unimaginable profit potential.
"Heritage is already heritage prior to being listed, inventoried or gazetted." So says, Alex Koenig, Former Senior Urban Conservation and Planning officer at Penang Island City Council; Former Advisor for Urban and regional development at Thai Prime Minister's Office; Former Lecturer at School of Housing, Building & Planning at University Sains Malaysia (USM).
And rightly so. Precious articles of art and history, with stories of their own to be discovered, stand at the brink of an extinction they have no voice and no power with which to prevent.
Unlike criminal justice systems ancient and modern, from results, from what we have seen of the events leading to their destruction or their saving, there is no presumption of innocence for them.
What is the presumption of innocence and why have legal systems held to this principle?
The presumption of innocence is a principle that presumes that an accused person is considered to be innocent until his guilt is proven.
Why has this principle been long cherished by those who seek to uphold justice?
Because it was believed that the powerful were strong and the weak were powerless and Justice seeks to redress this imbalance.
More important, because it was deemed better to let the guilty walk free than to punish the innocent.
Under the principle of the Presumption of Innocence, the burden of proof lies with those who would bring and prosecute an action against someone else.
Thus, the onus was on the accuser to prove guilt and not on the accused to prove innocence.
In most cases the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, failing which, the accused is acquitted.
We should be intimately aware of this if we have followed the proceedings of the SRC case involving a former prime minister who now resides in prison, having been judged guilty by a High Court Judge, three Court of Appeal Judges and five Federal Court Judges.
And yet, built heritage which faces penalties much more terminal than a mere million Ringgit fine or loss of freedom -- there is nothing more terminal than death -- is made to work many times harder just to be heard, let alone judged.
In many cases, before there can even be an adjudication, the death sentence falls on them, not by the decision of any Judge, but by the hands of those who would, in a case involving a human being, be the prosecutor.
Lawmakers need to change this. And if they do not, we need to change our lawmakers.
In Parliament. And in State Assemblies.
If heritage is important to us, then those who represent us need to know this, and they need to make this part of their jobs to fight for and make laws that save the innocent and keep the guilty at bay, instead of allowing errant landowners and develoees to get away with murder.
Such appears, so far, to be the case with the destruction of a 138-year-old ornate granite monument set up on a commanding knoll off Jalan Bunga Telang, Fettes Park Penang, by Capitan Chung Keng Quee in 1884 to memorialise his tsia or principal wife, Foo Teng Nyong, who died in childbirth the year before.
Having exerted much influence over his career and success as Clement Liang finds from historical records, it is no wonder that Chung spared no expense and took as much time as he did to set up a magnificent tapestry in stone festooned with carved and sculpted fruit, flowers and beasts, like the rare divine dragon that gave its name to the ancient Chinese throne, or the even more rare mystical qilin, said to present itself at the birth or death of a sage or illustrious leader.
What may have taken up to a year to put together was reduced to rubble in less than a day. There is, as yet, no word of any action being taken against the offender for the destruction of a priceless example of 19th century Chinese creativity, design, artistry and craftsmanship, the finest perhaps outside of China.
Months have past yet NOTHING has been done to bring the culprit to book for the destruction of what should be a national, let alone state, treasure.
Each time another treasure is taken from us, it is gone. Forever. There is a great need to push back, and push back hard. And people united have the power to do this.
Do please copy these:
1. Government to require developer restore the tomb as government required of another developer when the Hotel Metropole (Northam Road) was destroyed.
2. Government to require developer to retrieve the remains of Foo Teng Nyong they caused to be removed and interred in Batu Gantong, to be reinterred in the restored tomb.
3. Government to gazette tomb and land of Foo Teng Nyong tomb a heritage site.
4. Government to immediately take action to put up signages at the site of the tomb of Chung Thye Phin, and to fence up and padlock the site.
5. Government to gazette the land and tomb of Capitan Chung Thye Phin a heritage site.
6. Government to immediately order the prohibition of any exhumation at the site of the tomb of Capitan Chung Thye Phin.
and paste them into a single email addressed to these officials:
Governor of Penang: Ahmad Fuzi bin Hj Abdul Razak
care of his Confidential Secretary
mrahman@penang.gov.my
Deputy Governor
mbak@pdc.gov.my
Chief Minister of Penang: Chow Kon Yeow
chowkonyeow@penang.gov.my
State Assemblyman [ADUN] for Tanjong Bunga: Zairil Khir Johari
zairil@penang.gov.my
State Assemblyman [ADUN] for Kebun Bunga: Ong Khan Lee
ongkhanlee@penang.gov.my
Exec. Councillor for Tourism, Arts and Creative Economy: Yeoh Soon Hin
yeohsoonhin@penang.gov.my
Mayor of the City of Penang Island (Datuk Bandar Pulau Pinang)
datukbandar@mbpp.gov.my
Prime Minister of Malaysia
ismailsabri@pmo.gov.my
Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia
nancyshukri@motac.gov.my
Timbalan Ketua Pengarah, Jabatan Warisan Negara
muda@heritage.gov.my
Choose to make a difference today.
"Heritage is already heritage prior to being listed, inventoried or gazetted."
