We must save the best of the past for the future

STARTING from early evening on Fridays and continuing through Saturdays and Sundays, Panglima Lane (previously Concubine Lane), Jalan Bandar Timah (Leech Street) and the surrounding streets in the Ipoh Old Town area will teem with visitors and tourists.

With the introduction of ride sharing Cycledios through the cycledioapp, bicycles are now permanently occupying the designated motorcycle parking lane, making it difficult for motorcycle riders to find a parking space.

Thus, the scenario along Jalan Bandar Timah, can be described thus:

A cendol hawker opposite Kong Heng restaurant is almost in the middle of the road, while some on bicycles jostle for space on a road jammed with cars and motorcycles; in the meantime, pedestrians are dashing madly across the road.

I safely dashed across and am now heading to Panglima Lane, popularly known as Concubine Lane. I remember reading this lane has a history that goes back to 1892, when parts of Ipoh Old Town were rebuilt after a fire in 1892. Mining tycoon Yao Tet Shin gave this lane to his second wife as a gift. She would then collect rent from all the shops in this lane.

Today, Concubine Lane is the most transformed lane in Ipoh Old Town. The pre-WWII shophouses have all been converted into cafes, boutique hotels, souvenir shops, shops with cacti on sale, or those offering colourful ice-balls and flower-shaped cotton candy and many more commercial items for sale. Businesses catering to tourists have become a common sight on Concubine Lane.

To make matters worse, most of the shophouses have been renovated and facades have been changed to a modern outlook.

We must remember that the streets and buildings of Ipoh Old Town are part of the historic character of Ipoh. Each township tells the story of its unique development, and gives us a sense of place, continuity and cultural identity. But it looks like the relevant authorities and the stakeholders just want to bring in tourists and turn Concubine Lane and the surroundings into a heritage theme park.

The present Pakatan Harapan state government must set an example for people to follow. They must establish a heritage zone, as George Town and Melaka City have done – ideally with a buffer zone around it. Any public or private development within that area must be managed by the state government’s heritage unit, which will balance heritage concerns with those commercial in nature.

Without such a heritage unit, commerce will forever dominate over heritage, leaving the latter to pass into history forever.

No tourist travels thousands of kilometres to see a globalised version of what they have at home. They want to see what makes us special – the pre-war buildings, colonial buildings, cenotaphs, monuments, battlefields, shipwrecks, etc.

So we need to turn these old buildings around with adaptive reuse, restoring them and putting them to use while keeping their history well maintained. Let us all help to galvanise action and focus attention on saving the best of the past for the future.