5/9/11 THE LOST THAT MAKES US LOOSING...

Once, the existing Jalan Masjid was Jalan Jawa. That was the place, long time ago, inhabited by the early Sambas and Javanese migrant. Now, not only it lost it Javanese name, but it also lost the soul that once makes the Malays to stand. Should I mentioned more? Arang Road, Kg Gita, Tabuan Lot, Satok, etc have we not lost much and couldn't even recalled their origin? Be mindfull of the plight and worries of the Kampung Baru, KL Malays.

(2) I was honored when Taib Mahmud, the Chief Minister of Sarawak allowed me to ponder on the problems and development needs of those villages along Seberang Hilir of the Sarawak river. He gave me the general guidelines of the type of development that we need to infuse onto the area. At first, I was thinking of modern, well organised settlement. Then, my soul was disturbed. The prepared Plan, doesn't give me the Soul of the Place. There is No Sense of Place. It is just a place to stay, not really a place to celebrate and nurtured the wake up call for the Malays. We need to transform the area into The Kuching, a must place to see, a must place to visit, and a must place to stay. Taib then outlined the revival of Darul Hana, the old Kuching. I'm searching for the elements.

(3) I don't really know why, then I used to frequent Kota Bharu. Initially was about visiting old buddies during my childhood days. Later I began to observed something great about the Malay's cultural and architectural revival. The establishment of the School of the Fine Art at the University Malaysia Kelantan gave me some que then.

(4) Begining with a development that could win the Heart to the Malays, and agreed by Taib, the Mosque must be of Malay design. Islamic architecture is not Malay, but we can make Malay's architecture Islamic. The development must take the Mosque as the axis. Business, settlements, and all other public facilities must revolve along the Mosque.

(5) But then, how would the business and the settlements setting should be organized. Some suggest, the haphazard living structure is the Malay. The Malay's is about a messy living environment. Through such environ, then the Malays developed their ability to resolve lots of messy issues. That probably why the Malays are recon as a great administrator by the colony, be they British or Japaness. Is that really the truth? Interesting then. I'm searching. My travell took me to Pattani. There I pickup some. Now I have looked at some patterns in Siam, Vientien and at Luang Prabang.

(6) The Spanish, the Portugese, and even the Dutch, all their olden settlements layout were winding, curving, in a mess in fact. That makes them diffrent from the anglos of the British, America and even Australia and New Zealand. To the angloes, that mean organised, while the Dutch, Portugese, Spanish, their winding and curving settlement patterns is about art. In fact my today early strolling along Luang Prabang gave me some ideas on the potential Water Front developementof the Darul Hana Project.

(7) As much as possible, let have Malay's architecture in place. The doors, the windows, the roof, the walls, the staircase, all those decorative designs and structures of the Malay's must be recreate in the overall development undertaking. All these would then becoming a long term asset especially to the toursim industry and cultural and tradition activists to write.

(8) Rais Yatim, wake up. Don't just be busy with that 1Malaysia slogan but without any meat in the soup.

(9) Good to have the development fast, but not good to rush. Let work on a very Malays ambient for our next generation to treasure and inherit or they may lost their Sense of Value, thus the Malay may just remain such the in the Baju Melayu or at a longr scale Keretapi Tanah Melayu!

Luang Prabang. Laos
1 Sept., 2011