Bukit Keledang ikon pelancongan

Oleh WAN RAMLI WAN MUHAMAD

utusanterengganu@utusan.com.my

SALAH satu sudut Bukit Keledang yang terletak di Kuala Terengganu menyimpan seribu cerita dan misteri sejarah kesultanan Terengganu.

KUALA TERENGGANU 25 April – Bukit Keledang yang terletak di pinggir Sungai Terengganu kini menjadi ikon pelancongan baru negeri apabila Jabatan Warisan Negara mewartakan kawasan itu sebagai salah sebuah tapak warisan bersejarah.

Pengarah Muzium Negeri Terengganu, Mohd. Yusof Abdullah (gambar) berkata, pengiktirafan tersebut bukan sahaja mengangkat nama bukit tersebut dari sudut sejarah malah menjadikannya aset penting pelancongan negara.

Berikutan itu jelasnya, penyelenggaraan bukit tersebut kini berada di bawah penyeliaan Jabatan Warisan Negara manakala penjagaan rumput dan aspek lain diserahkan kepada pihak muzium.

‘‘Keputusan tersebut wajar kerana Bukit Keledang menjadi tapak awal sejarah kesultanan Terengganu,” katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini hari ini.

Utusan Malaysia sebelum ini pernah menyiarkan laporan mengenai kedudukan Bukit Keledang yang seolah-olah dibiarkan begitu sahaja sedangkan ia kaya dengan unsur sejarah dan mampu menjadi ikon pelancongan negeri sekiranya dimajukan.

Mengulas lanjut Mohd. Yusof berkata, Bukit Keledang pernah menjadi pangkalan kepada pedagang dari hulu Sungai Terengganu memunggah hasil dagangan pada abad ke-18.

Katanya, selain itu Bukit Keledang pernah menjadi lokasi awal pusat pemerintahan Sultan Terengganu pertama, Sultan Zainal Abidin I (1708-1733M) yang mendirikan istana dan sebuah kota yang dikenali sebagai Kota Lama.

Di kota itu Sultan Zainal Abidin 1 menjalankan urusan pentadbiran negeri sehingga baginda mangkat dan jenazahnya turut dimakamkan di atas bukit itu.

Sementara itu penjaga makam Bukit Keledang, Abdullah Said, 58, berkata, makam diraja di Bukit Keledang amat dihormati kerana ia adalah bekas tapak Kota Lama yang menjadi lokasi pemerintahan Sultan Zainal Abidin 1 selepas berhijrah dari Hulu Terengganu.

Katanya, walaupun bersejarah namun kehadiran pengunjung di bukit bersejarah itu ternyata amat mendukacitakan.

‘‘Mungkin orang ramai tidak mengetahui kepentingan Bukit Keledang dari segi sejarah atau mereka sendiri tidak menghargai sejarah tempatan,” katanya.

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Gone and Can Never Be Rebuilt

from: http://sulaimanian.wordpress.com/

It has been a while that this Sulaimanian blog was not updated (two weeks now). The pain was too much after knowing that the historic row of shop-houses at Keda Payang (Jalan Bandar) being demolished. As Awang Goneng said it well in Earth-Trembling Barbarism and Mabuk Kepayang, I was rather speechless or actually “hilang habis mood nak menaip”.

The final row of historic 100-years old concrete (not the shabby wooden one eh) shoplot at Keda Payang is now gone FOREVER!!! One cannot rebuilt it with whatever technology they have today. Even if they do – it will be a new one – a value void. What more when the new one is alien to the cultural and historical values of the town.

Six months ago, the traders along the row of Jalan Bandar and Jalan Banggol were issued a notice to evacuate the premise – just when they were preparing for the Raya sales. Together with the traders, we set-up the Action Committee (Badan Bertindak Peniaga Jalan Bandar dan Jalan Banggol) [Read our protest]. We only managed to voice out our protest and to delay the evacuation notice – well and good for the traders (I am happy to be able to do that little things for them).  (Read – the justification why a 30-days notice was such hooligan idea)

But we were unable to stop the ultimate demolition by the hooligans who things development must destroy strongly built structure and replace with sans historical values. Never had they learn the many “monetary motivated” projects that had collapsed or poorly built (especially in Terengganu). All their justifications to demolish the area does not stand at all. (read more: here)

I would be ashamed if those involved in the hooligan decision to destroy whatever heritage under the name of Heritage Board (Lembaga Tabung Warisan Amanah Negeri Terengganu) are Sulaimanians (shame shame on you!!!). (Read how a 14th year old girl values heritage) As that should not be the way we value culture, heritage and history. (also read Pokku’s article here)

But then our school had also faced similar destruction. An old building which was part of Sultan Sulaiman’s palace area given for the school that were later used as the scout den where we had our gatherings and meetings.

I was shocked after visiting the school many years ago to see the historical building is gone FOREVER !!! Replaced with a sans value water tower.We do not oppose the need to build such a water reservoir but is that the only location they can build it? With such a large 44.4 acres of land area the school have – why must it be there?

The building has its historical value. Picture below shows His Highness Almarhum Sultan Sulaiman photo session after greeting the group of business entourage from China and some local Chinese traders (including the three Al-Yunani’s) with the “scout den” as the background. The fact that the building was used as the backdrop to treatised the end of their meeting shows the significant of the building. Also seen in the picture were Almarhum Sultan Ali (then as a boy sitting next to his father) and Almarhum Sultan Ismail (then Tengku Paduka).

One has to see the building to appreciate. The flooring was with such a beautiful floral “mosaic/tile” that one can never find anymore. The carving in the interior, the unique carving on the roof top, and amazingly not a single piece of the wood used for the building show its age. The only damage one can see then (when the scout took over for its den) were the broken roof tiles which we then collected some money in the early 70s and had it repaired.

Why must our sans value development be made in the expense of our heritage and historical memorials?

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MB Masih Tidak Faham-faham

Merujuk kepada laporan akhbar Utusan Malaysia 19hb Januari 2010, nampaknya MB Dato Ahmad Said masih tidak faham-faham atau sengaja tidak mahu faham untuk maksud mencapai tujuan tertentu.

Utusan melaporkan berikut (komen dengan warna biru):

Kedai 100 tahun Jalan Bandar diroboh

Deretan kedai lama dua tingkat di Jalan Bandar, Kuala Terengganu yang berusia 100 tahun mula dirobohkan, kelmarin.

KUALA TERENGGANU 18 Jan. – Kini semuanya hanya tinggal kenangan.

Begitulah nasib yang menimpa deretan kedai lama dua tingkat di Jalan Bandar di sini.

Kedai-kedai yang berusia lebih 100 tahun itu akhirnya hilang daripada pandangan apabila ia mula dirobohkan beberapa hari lalu. [sila baca komen Awang Goneng di sini: Earth-Trembling Barbarism]

Rumah kedai yang sinonim dengan kegiatan perniagaan satu masa dahulu itu diroboh bagi memberi laluan kepada pembangunan semula bangunan perniagaan dan pejabat yang lebih sempurna. [sila baca: Diganti Tanpa Nilai Budaya dan Sejarah]

Kesemua peniaga diarah mengosongkan bangunan tersebut oleh Lembaga Tabung Amanah Warisan Negeri Terengganu (LTAWNT) pada 13 Ogos lalu.[sila baca: ]

Difahamkan 35 kedai di bangunan dua tingkat itu dirobohkan walaupun mendapat bantahan ramai peniaga di kawasan tersebut.[sila baca: Bantahan Aman 13 Ogos 2009]

Dakwa mereka, bangunan tersebut seharusnya dipelihara memandangkan ia menyimpan nilai-nilai sejarah seiring pembangunan Kuala Terengganu. [sila baca: Say “NO” to the plan to demolish a heritage row in Kuala Terengganu]

Bagaimanapun, mereka terpaksa akur apabila bermula minggu lalu operasi meroboh bangunan tersebut mula dijalankan oleh pihak berkuasa tempatan. [sila baca: GONE!]

Menteri Besar Terengganu, Datuk Ahmad Said dalam kenyataan akhbar sebelum ini berkata, tindakan meroboh bangunan tersebut penting agar bangunan usang dan uzur tidak lagi mengisi pemandangan di Kuala Terengganu. [USANG? Baca ini: MB Kata Usang! –  UZUR? – suruh MB lihat deretan kedai di Kg. China yang dikekalkan – jauh lebih uzur – baca ini: Mungkin Ini Yang MB Maksudkan Usang?]

Katanya, tidak timbul kerajaan negeri mengabaikan kepentingan peniaga asal di kedai tersebut dengan meroboh bangunan berkenaan.

“Kita telah memberi notis yang secukupnya kepada peniaga tersebut, maka tidak timbul soal kerajaan tidak realistik dalam arahan mengosongkan kawasan itu dalam masa yang telah ditetapkan,” katanya. [MB mudah lupa: Pindah 30 hari tidak realistik atau dia tidak reti baca surat ini: Rayuan Kepada Menteri Besar]

MB memang tidak faham dan keliru dengan bantahan – MB Tidak Berapa Faham Dengan Isu Peniaga Jalan Bandar dan Jalan Banggol

Apakah MB sekadar melaksanakan janji-janji yang telah diberikan mereka kepada pemilik projek untuk janji pemilik projek untuk mereka pula? Kenapa tergesa-gesa? Kenapa tidak mendapat pandangan orang ramai – kerana suara bantahan telah pun dihebah.

Keperluan memulihara warisan sejarah dan budaya negeri amat perlu. Bukannya semua tanah di bandaraya Kuala Terengganu telah dibangunkan – banyak lagi tanah yang terbiar – kenapa hendak dirobohkan bangunan bersejarah yang kukuh dan kekal tegap walaupun sudah 100 tahun. (Jauh bezanya dengan pelbagai bangunan baru yang runtuh satu demi satu!)

Di mana perginya Persatuan Sejarah?

Di mana pihak Muzium Negeri?

Apa jadi dengan Lembaga Tabung Warisan Amanah Terengganu – yang bukan menjaga warisan tetapi meruntuhkan bangunan warisan bersejarah.

Mana pergi slogan kerajaan “Terengganu – Where Nature Embraces Heritage” apakah sudah bertukar menjadi “Terengganu Government Embarrasses Nature and Heritage“ ??? Malu … amat memalukan.

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GONE!

IT IS NOW GONE FOREVER  …

Before:

26 December 2009 – getting ready to demolish:

Getting ready to get rid of the historical buildings

Rear View - 26 December 2009

15 Jan 2010:

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Earth-Trembling Barbarism

by Awang Goneng – http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com/

Two weeks before it came crumbling down

Ignorance may be a misfortune, albeit a voluntary one, but vandals are a curse on the land no matter who they are or whatever their name. By their words and by their deeds they have blotted our landscape and despoiled our land, and now on a pile of rubble they are standing triumphant on the remains of what used to be a row of fine shop houses in Kedai Payang.This is the deed of people with no care nor love for the land. They are a product of generations that they do not love, their forefathers are buried in the sand, the glory of their past work now piled on them, but they in the present care not for history nor our precious inheritance.

We shall all now hang down our heads in shame.

None of the reasons given by the goverment are valid. Historical means dilipidated to the MB (http://akarimomar.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/mb-kata-usang/)

We have raised voices for the sake of that historic lot on this sacred earth. The centre of Kuala Terengganu with its cloistered walkways and the old Abdullah Alyunani bookshop. The cafe that served sweet roti kaya and sold satay for breakfast (perhaps the first in the land), and the Kedai Fernandez, and the Redi Photo Studio (formerly known as Kedai Yamada), and the limbless Orang Timun (the Cucumber Man) who was placed on the five-footway on Friday and Saturday morns, begging for alms, and fierce Nepalese men selling their concoctions and semi precious stones and rude coils of animal genitalia with their implicit promises of flagging men reborn – they are now all gone.

Kampung China may have been the commercial centre but Kedai Payang was the hub of town. There was the Duyung Ikhwan, a shop where our Uncle Daud sold Pfaf sewing machines in a general store owned by his friend Wang Ngah of Duyung. In the back of this row of shop houses was the famous Pasar Kedai Payang (not Pasar Payang, the name given to it by people who do not know the town ), there were watermelons heaped in piles and durians encased in thorns, and rambutan on plastic sheets and people and noise and the blaring of cars, and the shrill sound of taxi horns.

In one fell swoop they are all gone.

Masjid Bukit Besar - 2008

What is left of Masjid Bukit Besar. The minaret the last to be demolished.

We should not pretend to be surprised as this is not the first time the dastardly deed is done. In the last few years they have mown down the Masjid Chendering, a heritage building much loved by Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, a gentle man who photographed with great skill his great inheritance in this land. In another swing of their beastly ball and chain they broke another Mosque in Bukit Besar, a rare heritage building that was unequalled in Darul Iman. And the broken bits and hearts and flowers and tendrils of work that witnessed the vicissitudes of our past, they left them to weep silently on the ground.

We hear that the rubble of the historic shophouses of Kedai Payang was sold to the highest bidder. It is left to them to take the broken bits as keepsakes and to wonder at the beauty of past times; they – the vandals – were too mean and cowardly even to let the local Terengganu museum keep and display them as mementoes of our barbarism.

Masjid Chendering no more

Even as the earth was being broken by the weight of falling stones, our buried past emerged from the ground: coins and artefacts and narratives of olden times. Not surprising as on the land on which these shops were built was a thriving community of local sailors and traders who travelled to as far away as Sambas in the Nusantara, and to Senggora in the North. Our grandmother lived in a tumbledown house in the back of the shop and I remember seeing her sitting up in the dark, beneath intricate fretwork pieces and hefty pillars. The remains of that community whose past has been disturbed and unearthed with no ceremony nor respect. O the ghosts how they seek revenge!

Our children and we ourselves shall continue to curse those who did the deed, whoever they be whatever their name, and the filthy lucre in their hands.

DON’T CHANGE THE OFFICIAL SLOGAN FROM

“Terengganu – Where Nature Embraces Heritage”

TO

“Terengganu Government Embarrasses Nature and Heritage“

Previous posting on similar topic by Awang Goneng (http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com/):

• Mabuk Kepayang

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Yang Baru Dibina Runtuh Yang Lama Pun Nak DIRUNTUHKAN Juga

Tidak cukup dengan bangunan-bangunan baru yang dibina runtuh nampaknya kerajaan negeri Terengganu berkeras untuk meneruskan usaha meruntuh dan memusnahkan bangunan warisan tinggalan sejarah yang tidak dapat dicari ganti lagi.

Ini adalah rakaman terbaru keadaan bangunan bersejarah di Jalan Bandar yang ingin dimusnahkan.

http://akarimomar.wordpress.com/

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Rayuan demi rayuan

Para peniaga secara kumpulan kini telah membuat pelbagai rayuan melalui pelbagai saluran yang mungkin untuk memohon agar notis mengosongkan deretan bangunan lama dan bersejarah di Jalan Bandar dan Jalan Banggol dapat ditangguhkan.

Beberapa hari lalu sekumpulan peniaga Melayu telah berjumpa dan merayu belas dan ihsan dari Tuan Haji Talhah Setiausaha LTAWNT (yang menandatangan arahan notis tersebut). Namun, para peniaga tersebut mengatakan mereka dihampakan.

Pagi tadi sekumpulan lagi para peniaga pelbagai bangsa sekali lagi ke pejabat Haji Talhah merayu agar mereka diberi ruang untuk mengadu nasib mereka dan memohon penangguhan notis tersebut. Janji Tuan Haji Talhah ialah bahawa dia akan membawanya untuk diputuskan dalam mesyuarat. Alangkah terkejutnya, tidak sampai beberapa jam selepas itu, para peniaga menerima surat rasmi bahawa rayuan mereka ditolak dan arahan notis mengosongkan deretan bangunan lama yang bersejarah tersebut kekal.

Para peniaga turut memohon sokongan Adun Bandar, untuk menyokong serta membela nasib mereka dan sebagai ahli majlis exco Negeri semoga dapat melakukan sesuatu untuk merayu penangguhan arahan tersebut.

Terbaru, dalam mesyuarat petang tadi, para peniaga juga memohon agar Majlis Permuafakatan Rakyat Terengganu (MAMPAT) dapat membantu mereka dalam usaha merayu kepada pihak LTAWNT agar diberi masa yang munasabah kepada para peniaga untuk mencari serta mengubahsuai premis baru serta memberi masa yang sesuai untuk berpindah. Mereka juga merayu kerajaan memberi pampasan yang munasabah untuk menanggung kos perpindahan yang terpaksa ditanggung ini.

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