‘Some trying to manipulate history’

Eddin Khoo welcomes the idea to recognise Bujang Valley under the Unesco heritage list but questioned the authorities for not taking any action.

PETALING JAYA: While welcoming the move to recognise Bujang Valley as a World Heritage site under the Unesco list, Pusaka founder Eddin Khoo Bu-Eng has questioned the Malaysian authorities’ failure to gazette the area under the National Heritage Act

Eddin, who set up Pusaka – a cultural centre more than 10 years ago, also expressed his anger at the authorities for neglecting the importance of national history.

“It is a good move to be recognised as a World Heritage site but why is Bujang Valley not gazetted under our own act?” he asked.

He added that reconstructing Lembah Bujang would not solve the problem because there were many questions that need to the answered first.

“The site is under the Tourism and Culture Ministry and they did nothing about it,” said Khoo.

Khoo, a poet and an independent curator, also criticised the National Museum for not issuing any statement on the incident.

“Certain parties are trying to manipulate national history.

“The National Museum has yet to issue any statement and it is a place where you can only see dolls in costumes and their ghost exhibition is a joke.

“On the other hand we have people who are more Islamic than others and trying to construct the history of the Malays,” he added, referring to right-wing Malay nationalist groups.

Bujang Valley is one of the earliest entry points to the peninsula which even pre-dates the Malacca empire. Sailors from India had used Gunung Jerai as a reference point to the ancient maritime city.

Excavations at the archeological site had revealed remains of a jetty, iron-smelting areas and a clay-brick monument dating back to 110AD, which makes it the oldest man-made structure known in South-east Asia.

Last Friday, a non-governmental organisation conducting research of the historical site, told FMT that a developer had bulldozed the candi (temple) for a housing project.

Several others candi have been destroyed in the last few years to make way for development.

The desecration of the historical site caused a massive uproar among Malaysians, who urged the government to issue a stop-work order on the site.

Unesco’s criteria
According to Unesco, to be included on the World Heritage list, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of then selection criteria.

The criteria are regularly revised by committee to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept.

Selection criteria:

• to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;

• to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;

• to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;

• to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;

• to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;

• to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);

• to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;

• to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;

• to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;

• to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.