KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Heritage Council must explain why nothing has been done to restore the city’s Community Hall, gutted by a fire over a year ago.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said the centre was one of 19 sites and buildings gazetted as protected heritage conservation sites under the Sabah Cultural (Conservation) Enactment 1997.
He said the enactment has since been replaced by the Sabah Heritage Enactment 2017, but the KK Community Hall remains protected and was placed under the Sabah Heritage Council.
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"After more than one year since the fire that damaged the historic site, I call on the council to immediately get on with its job," he said on Monday (Sept 7).
"At a site inspection today, I saw that the hall is now in a state of dilapidation. The building is boarded up, shrubs are growing on the concrete walls, and the canvas covers are already torn.
"It is a heartbreaking and sorrowful sight right in the centre of the city," said the former chief minister.
He said the council, which is under the purview of the state Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, is entrusted to protect and conserve Sabah's heritage.
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"Preventing this kind of abandonment and dilapidation of precious, irreplaceable heritage sites is exactly the reason why the council was set up, first in 1997 and then revised in 2017.
"There are very few heritage sites that shape the identity and collective consciousness of Sabahans. Has the Sabah Heritage Council failed in its statutory duty and functions entrusted to it?" he asked.
He also wanted the council to disclose whether or not it has drawn up a conservation and management plan for the site's rehabilitation and restoration.
"The council and the ministry should also explain their planned course of action," he added.
