Badan Warisan: Lembah Bujang site needs protection now

“Unless there is a rigorous management and protection regime coupled with swift and punitive actions implemented by the official custodians of our nation’s heritage, the destruction of our country’s heritage will continue and we will only be able to watch helplessly,” said Badan Warisan Malaysia today.

Speaking to Astro AWANI, Badan Warisan Malaysia Executive Director Elizabeth Cardosa expressed concern over the 'willful and intentional demolition' of one of the 8th century remnants of the ancient temple tombs.

“Badan Warisan urges the National Heritage Department and the State Government of Kedah to put immediately measures in place to halt the needless destruction of this ancient archaeological site and to accord these invaluable assets the necessary protection,” said Cardosa.

Cardosa said that her NGO believes that this archaeological site has enormous potential and outstanding values to world history and culture.

“Steps should be taken to quickly inscribe it on the Tentative List as a World Heritage Site before more monuments fall prey to further furtive and irresponsible acts of destruction."

Cardosa said that it was alarming to learn that only some of these monuments in the Sungai Batu area of the Bujang Valley have been gazetted in 2012 under the National Heritage Act.

Numerous others in the area, she said, remain without any legal protection.

Heritage enthusiasts have also called for more serious action by the authorities to ensure such ‘appalling’ desecration of historic sites do not recur.

Angela Hijjas of Rimbun Dahan said that a stop work order should be issued immediately and the contractor “should be banned from the site” and “prosecuted” after an investigation was conducted.

“This is vandalism of the highest order. Unfortunately most of the Malaysian public, as well as the cultural policy of the government, is ignorant of the site and its significance. It is shamefully ignored and now it is being desecrated,” she said.

Landscape architect Ng Sek San said that the State was the only body that has to step in to protect the site.

“They are the only ones who can do anything now, otherwise private developers will continue to do whatever they need to do,” Ng said.

Though Ng said that the government should have been more careful with giving out approvals for the site in the first place, it should now “lead the way” to rectify the situation.

“Obviously the developer should be severely reprimanded... to destroy something like that... they can’t just be fined a sum that is too paltry to be of deterrent.”

“This is the problem in a lot of cities. They(the developers) know it is a heritage building but keep quiet about it and start demolishing. By the time the public and state find out, it is too late,” he added.

Ng said that it was important to preserve Malaysia’s history as “we have such a short history, there is very little to be left behind.”

On Nov 30, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr P. Ramasamy reportedly said that the prehistoric ruins at an archaeological site were secretly demolished by a land developer.

Ramasamy said he saw the site, candi (tomb temple) number 11, dug up and cast aside in a pile of debris.

The site is said to be some 1,200 years old and is being sought by Badan Warisan Malaysia to list the historical spot as a Unesco world heritage site.

Lembah Bujang, in the Merbok district of Kedah, is known as the richest archaeological site in Malaysia, with more than 50 ancient candi at the site.