After a long period of dormancy (since 2008), the former Rubber Research Institute Experiment Station (RRIES) in Sungai Buloh, now re-named Kwasa Damansara, was sold to the Employees Provident Fund by the Federal Government.
Since then, the pace of development has gathered greater momentum, with earthworks and hectic construction mainly focused on residential condominiums and apartments in both the Petaling Jaya City Council and Shah Alam City Council sectors.
The new townships are expected to host tens of thousands of residents as Kwasa Damansara occupies an ideal and strategic position, being nestled between Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam.
It is well served with a network of roads, highways, the MRT, and is also very close to Subang Airport.
Various infrastructural projects are in place for the transformation of Kwasa Damansara into a booming mega metropolis in a few years from now.
It would be good if a clump of healthy rubber trees could be left in some of the proposed parks to showcase the legacy of the RRIES, which was started in 1926 by the colonial government to focus on rubber research and buttress the rubber industry.
Rubber exports were then the main pillar of the nation’s economy.
Now that the naming of the roads in Kwasa Damansara is in progress, it would be appropriate to name some of the main thoroughfares after the various personalities who contributed much to the growth of the rubber industry.
Pioneers and other major contributors should be remembered, not forgotten!
Those such as Sir Henry Wickham, Sir Henry Ridley, Tan Sri BC Sekhar, Tan Sri Ani Arope and Dr Ong Eng Long should not have their contributions confined to the Rubber Museum.
Still on Kwasa Damansara, the latest guidelines issued by the Selangor government for non-Muslim houses of worship for new developments mandate churches and temples to be allocated land by the developer to cater to the needs of residents professing different faiths.
It is hoped that the new guidelines will enable smaller Christian denominations to be allocated a site for a house of worship.
In the past, allocations of land had been confined only to larger denominations such as the Catholic and Anglican churches.
A smaller Christian denomination such as the Mar Thoma, which has been in the country for 90 years, has been overlooked.
It has not obtained a single plot of land for a house of worship either from the federal or state governments.
The Mar Thoma community has contributed much to the development and growth of the rubber and oil palm industries.
This community, which hails from Kerala, India, is part of the wider Malayalee community, which in the past, was the mainstay in managing the plantations.
Many Mar Thoma members have contributed greatly to the progress of the RRIES especially in its research, innovation and related fields.
The community would very much appreciate the help of Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amiruddin Shari and also state executive councillors V. Papparaidu, Datuk Ng Suee Lim and Ng Sze Han, the co-chairmen of Limas (Special Committee for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism) regarding this matter.
V. THOMAS
Sungai Buloh
