This book presents a tale of heritage politics in the Malaysian historical city par excellence. Already celebrated as the first Malay sultanate and an important colonial trading port, Melaka has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2008, on the strength of its multi-ethnic and multi-religious urban fabric. Yet, contrary to the expectations of heritage experts and aficionados, the global mission of safeguarding cultural heritage has become a tumultuous issue on the ground in Melaka. World Heritage and Urban Politics in Malaysia analyses how the World Heritage 'label' is being used by different actors- such as international organizations, nation states, and society at large- to generate new economic revenues and to attract investment for large-scale real estate development projects. In doing so, it reveals the complex and often contradictory stories behind heritage designations in urban milieus.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Starter: Into a World Heritage City
- 1. A Cityscape below the Winds
- World Heritage on the Ground
- On Melaka
- Fieldwork in and beyond Melaka
- Outline of the Chapters
- 2. Heritage Affairs: Mouse-Deer, White Elephants, and Watchdogs
- Antiquities: The Beginning
- Museumification and Replication
- Projects of a Developmentalist State
- ‘Where There Is Sugar, There Are Ants’
- Restructuring National Heritage
- Society and Heritage Affairs
- A Multilayered Heritage Haze
- 3. UNESCO and the City
- Tentative Steps: World Heritage Ambitions
- The Hybrid State of Nomination
- The State Party of Inscription
- The Negeri of Conservation
- Learning in the World Heritage Arena
- 4. Melakan Row Houses from the Ground Up
- Row Houses of Old Melaka: A Background
- Forsaken Buildings: The Post-war Period
- Revaluation: From RUMAH Kedai to Rumah KEDAI
- Housing Heritage: Some Approaches to Conservation
- Modellers of Conservation
- Mr. Chwee: A Lifelong Resident
- Mr. Billy: A Returnee
- Façadomy of Private World Heritage Properties
- The Malleability of Conservation Rules
- 5. Divide and Brand: Public Space, Politics, and Tourism
- ‘To Visit Historic Melaka Means to Visit Malaysia’
- Branding Streets in the Consociational Way
- From Jonker Street to Jonker Walk
- A Walk for Cari Makan
- ‘We Do Not Need a “Harmony Street” – We Are the City of Harmony!’
- A Political Tsunami in Jonker Street
- Politicized Heritage
- 6. A Melakan Ancestral Village beyond World Heritage
- The Chetti Community: A Background
- The Properties of the Ancestors
- The Making of a Kampung Warisan
- ‘We Are Sitting on a Gold Mine!’
- The Kampungscape and the High-rise
- ‘See You on the Thirteenth Floor!’
- What World Heritage Thresholds Do
- 7. Epilogue of a Blessing and a Curse
- Ethnographies of World Heritage Cities
- A Transnational Mis(s-)understanding
- World Heritage Topographies of Exclusion
- Postscript: Inheriting the Cityscape
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Figures and Tables
- Table
- Table 4.1 Reasons to Preserve the Row Houses
- Figures
- Figure A St. Paul’s Church
- Figure B Statue of St. Francis Xavier
- Figure C Porta de Santiago
- Figure D Tourists posing in the Dutch Square. In the background: The Stadthuys, Tan Beng Swee Clock Tower, and Queen Victoria Fountain
- Figure E A view of historical shophouses and townhouses from Bastion Middleburg
- Figure F Kampung Kling Mosque
- Figure G Cheng Hoon Teng Temple
- Figure 1.1 Ruins of Bastion Victoria
- Figure 1.2 Map of Malaysia and ‘Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca’
- Figure 1.3 Map of Melaka and the World Heritage site
- Figure 1.4 Elected members of the Melaka State Legislative Assembly in 2008, 2013, and 2018
- Figure 2.1 The Melaka Islamic Museum
- Figure 2.2 Replica of the Sultanate Palace
- Figure 2.3 Replica of a Dutch windmill in front of the Stadthuys
- Figure 2.4 Dataran Pahlawan
- Figure 2.5 A view of the Shore under construction from St. Paul’s Hill
- Figure 2.6 The promotion board of Melaka Gateway
- Figure 2.7 The main institutions managing urban heritage in Melaka and federal/state divisions of responsibilities
- Figure 3.1 The certificate of inscription
- Figure 3.2 The Taming Sari Tower
- Figure 3.3 Issues concerning the Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca at the World Heritage Committee sessions
- Figure 4.1 Row houses in Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Heeren Street
- Figure 4.2 Ground floors of Case A and Case B
- Figure 4.3 A model of conservation
- Figure 4.4 Altar for ancestors in a townhouse
- Figure 4.5 Painting on a shophouse used as an art studio and shop
- Figure 4.6 Renovation works retaining only the façade
- Figure 4.7 Example of criticized air conditioning units
- Figure 4.8 Graffiti of a high-rise on a shophouse
- Figure 4.9a Height limits and infill development in the World Heritage property
- Figure 4.9b Height limits in the World Heritage buffer zone
- Figure 4.10 The Hard Rock Café under construction
- Figure 5.1 Jonker Walk stage
- Figure 5.2 Gan Boon Leong’s statue
- Figure 5.3 Jonker Walk arch and night market
- Figure 5.4 Protests against the closure of Jonker Walk
- Figure 5.5 Tourist posing with ‘Save Jonker Walk’ banners
- Figure 6.1 Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple
- Figure 6.2 Map of Kampung Chetti and other Chetti properties
- Figure 6.3 Decorations at a Chetti house
- Figure 6.4 The Chetti Museum
- Figure 6.5a Sri Muthu Mariamman Temple in the 1950s
- Figure 6.5b Sri Muthu Mariamman Temple today
- Figure 6.6 Mr. Osman’s sketch of the future World Heritage boundary
- Figure 6.7 The High-rise
- Figure 7.1 Chetti welcoming the UNESCO director-general in 2013
- Figure 7.2 The Shore under construction and Kampung Morten
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