the World Heritage Committee meeting in quebec xty has added eight new cultural sites to UNESCO’s world heritage list on the morning of the 7 of July, and george town, penang, where i was born and grew up, is one of them.

joy and elation greeted the news as george town and also malacca, the historic city, becomes cultural world heritage sites.

according to jeff ooi’s post:

In the case of Georgetown, which is to be inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List, is an effort by Malaysia since 2004. The core areas that made up of historical sites in Georgetown include the Lebuh Acheh historical enclave and sites such as the Lebuh Acheh Malay Mosque, Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Kling Mosque, the Goddess of Mercy Temple, Sri Mariamman Temple, Khoo Kongsi, St George’s Church, Assumption Church, St Xavier’s Institution, Convent Light Street, Little India, the museum and court building, the commercial area of Beach Street, Fort Cornwallis, Esplanade, City Hall, the clan jetties and the port areas.

well jeff ooi is now a MP in penang so naturally he blogs enthusiastically on this good news. another famous blogger, who is a penangite, who of course will not missed out blogging on it is anil netto.

i’m glad to note that the oldest catholic church, the assumption church (which is part of the church of the parish i belongs to, known as ‘city parish‘. picture of the church seen here) is on the list.  most of those places mentioned above are all within walking distance of each other, especially of course the assumption church, st george’s church, convent light street and st xavier’s instituion, which are just next/opposite each other. (incidentally, the convent light street and st xavier’s schools are catholic missionary schools).

it seemed that the existence of many pre-war houses in george town also contributed to it’s world heritage listing but wasn’t it that pre-war houses are now a dying breed? many had been torn down. i hope the new government will maintain those few existing pre-war houses. also hope that other heritage sites would be preserved, and not undiscriminately bull-dozed down for development, like what had happened before to some heritage sites in penang, i believe.

yes, as a penangite, i’m proud of this new status of my city but i hope as what state local government, traffic management and environment committee chairman, chow kon yeow had said, the state government has great responsibility to protect and maintain the world heritage site status. if not, unesco will strip george town off the heritage city status.