Move to preserve church

In ruins: Plants growing on and around the French Gothic style Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Pagar Tras in Sungai Lembu. The state government is looking into ways to preserve this historic building.

BUKIT MERTAJAM: A remnant of Malaysian history nestled in a cemetery just under 500m from mainland Penang’s eastern border with Kedah may soon be preserved for future generations.

Ruins of the once-hallowed walls of the abandoned 138-year-old Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Pagar Tras hide tales of the people’s struggle with the Japanese Occupation and then the Communist threat which directly led to this church being forsaken.

Even as the forces of nature tear at the walls today, the last remaining belfry bears architectural testament to the French missionaries who founded this church had wanted to make it look like a “mini” Notre-Dame de Paris, along with the French Gothic style of extremely tall windows.

Before what remains end up as rubble, the state government is looking at ways to preserve the ruins.

State tourism development, heritage, culture and arts committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said a discussion will soon be held with relevant agencies and stakeholders on a viable course of action to preserve the ruins.

“This is one of the sites which has been identified as having potential to be listed as a Category II heritage building, ” he said.

He said while the age of the ruins, built in 1882, was venerable in itself, the history behind how the British made the local Catholics abandon their homes and their church because of the Communist threat in the 1950s was also a worthy heritage to preserve for future generations to appreciate what early Malaysians went through before gaining a peaceful nation.

Seberang Prai City Council (MBSP) mayor Datuk Rozali Mohamud said the church is currently listed in MBSP’s heritage inventory.

“The old church is managed by the new church in Kulim and the Penang Diocese. In MBSP, we have produced a short documentary to create public awareness of the church ruins, ” he said.

Kedah’s Kulim assemblyman Yeo Keng Chuan, who originates from Kampung Sungai Lembu near here, said Pagar Tras was populated by Hakka farmers who were pioneer settlers.

He said 80 years after Captain Francis Light founded Penang, French missionaries arrived in 1866 and went to Pagar Tras. They had the church built in 1882.

“The whole community converted to Catholicism after witnessing the willingness and hard work of the priests in their effort to enhance their quality of life, ” he said.

(Christian missionaries of old paid attention to community welfare including education, healthcare and social services while governments focused on trade and war.)

But after the ravages of the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, the Communist threat that followed shortly in the 1950s compelled the British government to evacuate the villagers to new village settlements in Machang Bubok, Sungai Lembu and Kulim.

Fully fenced up, these settlements made it easier for the military and police to keep Communist insurgents away from the villagers, but it caused the abandonment of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Pagar Tras.

Descendants of those buried in the cemetery beside the church still visit the grounds on All Souls Day once a year till today and would spare a glance at the ruins of the church hall, which measures 38m from the lone-standing bell tower to the rear wall.

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built in Kulim in 1957 as a replacement.

Historians recovered two stained glass windows, several consecrated statues and an old signboard dating back to the founding of the original church with “faith, hope and love” carved in Chinese characters from the abandoned church that are now in the new church.