Cemetery committee makes case at KL draft plan public hearing

StarMetro’s story on July 14.

KWONG Tong Cemetery management committee is optimistic that the heritage status of the 147ha site will be preserved after making its case at the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan (KLSP) 2040 public hearing.

It appealed for the cemetery to be excluded in the proposed widening of the central business district (CBD) boundary under the draft KLSP 2040.

Committee president Lee Chun Kong said it wanted Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to preserve the cemetery as a heritage site and that they were in the midst of applying for Unesco world heritage status.

“The cemetery has borne witness to the development of Kuala Lumpur and has important cultural significance.

“We also want to turn it into a tourism site as we have been actively promoting the place as a green park, ” he said in a press conference yesterday at Menara DBKL after the public hearing for the Cheras constituency.

Also present were four panellists from the public hearing committee (JKPPA).

Established since 1895, the 125-year-old Kwong Tong Cemetery is jointly managed by six Chinese guilds that are public trustees for the cemetery, which sits on government land.

The cemetery is the final resting place of Chinese kapitans including Yap Ah Loy and Yap Kwan Seng.

The planned 862ha expansion to the existing 1,814ha CBD boundary in KLSP 2040 would encroach on cemetery land.

Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, who was present at the hearing, said they were not against the widening of CBD boundaries but these heritage areas should be protected from any commercial development and maintained as a historical site.

“The chairman of the JKPPA told me that the cemetery land will not be affected despite it being listed within the CBD boundary, but we still hope it will be excluded.

“Old cemeteries are priceless treasures of historical significance that must be preserved, ” he said.

Tan also raised other issues in his constituency including the relocation of a concrete batching plant in Jalan Chan Sow Lin, revitalisation and regeneration of old public housing, comprehensive public transport coverage as well as adding an egress and ingress ramp connecting Jalan Loke Yew and Setiawangsa-Pantai Expressway.

Tan also requested that DBKL show Kuala Lumpur MPs the completed KLSP 2040 before gazetting it.