Heritage mansion levelled
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| NST pic by Roslan Khamis |
PART OF HISTORY: 150-year-old house was owned by Wong Ah Fook
JOHOR BARU: JOHOR lost a piece of its history on Wednesday when a 150-year-old mansion along Jalan Lumba Kuda was reduced to rubble about 11pm.The eight-room mansion was once owned by philanthropist and contractor Wong Ah Fook who is a part of Johor's modern history and even has a road in the city named after him.
A check by the New Straits Times yesterday revealed nothing but rubble where the house once stood.
When news broke recently that the Wong Ah Fook mansion would be demolished, Stulang assemblyman Andrew Chen Kah Eng reportedly handed a memorandum to the state government to urge them to preserve the old mansion.
Community leaders from the Johor Baru Tiong Hua Association also rallied to prepare a formal appeal to the Johor Menteri Besar's Office.
Besides the old mansion, there were also two Taoist temples and squatters in the area.
It was learnt that the squatters were given some money to vacate the premises last month and the temple committee had been paying a monthly rental of RM140 to occupy the premises for the past 14 years.
Wong, who had close ties to the then state ruler Sultan Abu Bakar in the mid-1800s, had built some of the most recognisable heritage buildings in Johor, including Istana Besar, Balai Zaharah, the residence of the state's first menteri besar Datuk Jaafar Mohamed at Bukit Senyum and the Johor Baru prison in Jalan Ayer Molek.
Wong, who was born in 1837 in Canton, died in 1918 at the age of 81 in his home in Kampong Java Road in Singapore.
Johor Baru City Council corporate communications and public relations director Abdul Aziz Ithnin said the local council would conduct a probe into the issue.
Meanwhile, prominent Johor Baru resident and local history buff Albert Tan said the demolition was a loss of heritage for Johor.
However, he felt that over the years, the place had not been properly maintained and had become an eyesore.
"For the historians to come out now and say they want to preserve the mansion as a heritage is a bit too late, especially now that an investor has forked out a huge sum of money to develop the site."
Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage exco Datuk Zulkurnain Kamisan said that he was equally shocked to learn that the building had been demolished.
ReplyDelete"We are in the midst of gazetting the building and suddenly the owners decided to do this," he said adding that the land was under the name of 12 individuals.
He said it would be difficult to take action against the owners as the building had yet to be gazetted under the Heritage Act - The Star