Penang Watch

George Town won WHC status recently, but it may lose its WHC status just as quickly that it won it. Why? The policy for conservation is still unknown to most people-even the original proposal to UNESCO on the application for the WHC is not publicly available-though some folks say they can get it from the State Government through personal contacts. That is not good enough -any public documents need to be made publicly available to every citizen who want it. If the document is kept secret -it may well turn into history when the WHC status pass into history. This secretive information policy should be consigned to a list of our unwanted `heritage'!

Penang warned on heritage status
Himanshu Bhatt(Sun)

GEORGE TOWN (Nov 18, 2008) : A senior Unesco official has warned that plans to have new high-rise structures in George Town could affect its World Heritage Site status, now shared with Malacca, when it is reviewed in July next year.

Richard Engelhardt
Richard Engelhardt, the Unesco regional adviser for Asia-Pacific, said he has been told there there was "quick scrambling" to approve certain projects between the time when the application for Unesco heritage status was made and when it was approved in early July.

He noted that Unesco had stripped a German heritage site of its status after an inappropriate modern bridge was built there.

At a talk on "How to Manage a World Heritage Site" organised by Khazanah Nasional here today, Engelhardt said the review is a "very serious" process with vetting of reports from various heritage sites.

He said the sincerity of an authority would be put into question if inappropriate structures were approved after application for heritage status has been made.

"Certainly, I am sure the World Heritage Committee (WHC) will look askance to that and take it as a sign of not serious management," he said.

He said new development projects should ideally be submitted to the WHC and reviewed by its advisory body before being implemented.

While a "good government" would submit such projects beforehand to the WHC, a government that neglects such an obligation would be taken to task.

"One could certainly call into question the sincerity of pushing through (building) permission after an application (for heritage listing) has already been submitted," he said.

It has been reported that the Penang government had approval four hotels in the heritage zone, including a 23-storey property on Jalan Sultan Ahmad, on June 26, just 10 days before Unesco heritage status was granted.

The other projects are a 17-storey hotel on Farquhar Street and two hotels on Weld Quay.

The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP), however, is understood to have drafted stringent new conservation guidelines prohibiting new buildings within the heritage zone from exceeding a height of 18m or about five storeys.

Engelhardt also lamented that the site inscription of Malacca and Penang had been done without a detailed management plan.

"We don’t have a sufficiently detailed management plan for people to know what their jobs entail," he said.

"The World Heritage Committee has asked the Malaysian government to do this and do it fast because everyday we are losing something."

He said he will be meeting the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry to discuss progress in devising separate management plans for Malacca and George Town.