Cultural landscapes as heritage in Malaysia Potentials, threats & current practices Raziah Ahmad ISBN 978 90 5972 810 3 Uitgeverij Eburon Postbus 2867 2601 CW Delft tel.: 015 213 14 84 / fax: 015 214 68 88 [email protected] / www.eburon.nl Cover design: Raziah Ahmad & Margot Stoete Cover photo: Rice paddy landscape in Alor Setar, Kedah. (Photograph by Dato’ Professor Dr. Jamaludin Mohaiadin) Cartography and figures: Communication & Marketing (8543), Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University Copyright © 2013 Raziah Ahmad . All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publishers. Cultural landscapes as heritage in Malaysia Potentials, threats, and current practices Cultureel landschap als erfgoed in Maleisiё: Potentieel, bedreigingen, en de huidige praktijk (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Landskap budaya sebagai warisan di Malaysia: Potensi, ancaman, dan amalan semasa (dengan ringkasan dalam bahasa Melayu) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 20 december 2013 des ochtends te 10.30 uur door Raziah binti Ahmad geboren op 25 maart 1970 te Selangor, Maleisiё Promotoren: Prof. dr. R.J.F.M. van der Vaart Prof. dr. J. Renes This thesis was accomplished with financial support from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. To my family, Past, present, and future Contents List of figures xi List of tables xiv List of text boxes xiv Abbreviations xv Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Theme of the study 1 1.2 Goals, research questions, and design of the study 2 1.3 Scope of the study 4 1.4 Cultural landscape and heritage in Malaysia: the rising interest 6 2 Concepts, practices, and context 11 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 (Cultural) landscape 11 2.2.1 Traditional visions of landscape 11 2.2.2 The constructivist vision 13 2.2.3 The synthetic vision 14 2.3 Heritage and conservation 15 2.4 (Cultural) landscape as heritage 17 2.4.1 The discovery of landscape heritage 17 2.4.2 Knowledge and practice: bridging the gap 20 2.4.3 Landscape and heritage in Asia 21 2.5 Peninsular Malaysia: landscape, planning, and heritage conservation 23 2.5.1 Malaysian landscapes: a brief historical overview 23 2.5.2 The planning system in Malaysia 26 2.5.3 The National Vision 2020 29 2.5.4 Heritage conservation 29 vii 3 Cultural landscapes and heritage in Peninsular Malaysia: typology, values and threats 33 3.1 Introduction 33 3.2 Land use typology 33 3.3 Rural landscapes as potential national heritage 36 3.3.1 Selection criteria 36 3.3.2 Six rural heritage landscapes 38 3.3.3 Rice cultivation landscapes in Kedah 41 3.3.4 First FELDA settlement of Lurah Bilut 44 3.3.5 East Coast villages in Terengganu 46 3.3.6 West Coast fishing village: Kuala Sepetang and Kuala Sangga 48 3.3.7 Minangkabau settlements: Rembau and Kuala Pilah 53 3.3.8 Cameron Highlands 56 3.4 Threats to the rural heritage landscapes 59 3.5 Concluding remarks 65 4 Cultural landscape and heritage conservation in Malaysia: perspectives from Malaysian experts 67 4.1 Introduction 67 4.2 Questionnaire and interviews 67 4.3 Expert’s understanding and opinions: results 71 4.3.1 Familiarity and awareness of rural cultural landscape 71 4.3.2 Appreciation of the rural cultural landscape 74 4.3.3 Landscape policy 80 4.4 Concluding remarks 87 5 Landscape discourse in Malaysian government documents 89 5.1 Introduction 89 5.2 Selected documents: the National Physical Plan 2, National Landscape Policy, and National Heritage Act 90 5.2.1 The National Physical Plan 2 (NPP-2) 90 5.2.2 The National Landscape Policy (NLP) 92 5.2.3 The National Heritage Act (NHA) 93 5.3 The landscape concept 94 5.4 Context: sustainable development 96 5.5 Landscape values 99 5.6 Institutional links 100 5.7 Intermezzo: evidence from the interviews 104 5.8 Landscape discourse in the documents 109 viii 6 Workshops with Malaysian experts 111 6.1 Introduction 111 6.2 Design of the workshops 111 6.3 Identification of valuable rural cultural landscapes 115 6.3.1 North Region 116 6.3.2 East Coast Region 117 6.3.3 Central Region 119 6.3.4 South Region 121 6.4 Identification of threats 122 6.5 Identification and selection criteria for national heritage landscapes 125 6.6 Selection of national heritage landscapes 127 6.7 Building a case for national heritage landscapes 132 6.8 Concluding remarks 136 7 Conclusion and discussion 137 7.1 Introduction 137 7.2 Summary of main findings 137 7.3 Discussion 140 References 145 Appendices 157 1 Heritage criteria 158 2 ICOMOS-Threats to World Heritage Sites 1994-2004: an analysis 160 3 Category of threats to heritage landscapes 163 4 Survey questionnaire 166 5 Workshop programmes 181 Samenvatting 185 Ringkasan 190 Summary 197 Curriculum vitae 202 ix x List of figures 1.1 Conversion of palm oil plantations into industrial complexes in Selangor 2 1.2 The study area-Peninsular Malaysia 4 1.3 Distribution of Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia 6 2.1 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia by (a) category and (b) sub-category 18 2.2 Peninsular Malaysia: elevation and rivers 24 2.3 National development framework 27 2.4 Malaysia’s national heritage by (a) category and (b)sub-category 30 3.1 The four rural land use types of Peninsular Malaysia 35 3.2 Spatial distributions of the proposed rural heritage landscapes 39 3.3 Rice cultivation areas of the Merbok and Muda River basins and the Kedah plain 42 3.4 The Kedah River (Sungai Kedah) is important for irrigation in the vicinity of Alor Setar 43 3.5 (a) Ring form with irregular elliptical village, (b) ribbon settlement pattern along the road, and (c) dumbbell pattern where rivers always divide the north-south ridges 43 3.6 Many cluster settlements are shared property of members of one family 44 3.7 Small structures such as this traditionally rest place for peasants are now quite rare 44 3.8 Aerial view of Lurah Bilut 45 3.9 Lurah Bilut in the late 1950’s 45 3.10 The welcome sign at FELDA Bilut that highlights Lurah Bilut (Bilut Valley) as the first FELDA settlement in the world 46 3.11 A typical architectural style of fishermen houses in Kuala Besut painted white or silver 47 3.12 Part of the Tanjung area at Kuala Terengganu in 1963 47 3.13 The scenic view of a fishing village near Kuala Besut, Terengganu 48 3.14 Artisanal construction of traditional fishing boats at Pulau Duyong 48 3.15 Kuala Sepetang and surrounding area 49 3.16 The only evidence left in Kuala Sepetang of the first Malaysian railway 50 3.17 Two of the six common fishing village settlement patterns found in the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia as studied by Hassan (a) The outward water village; (b) the parallel water village 51 xi 3.18 The aerial view of Kuala Sepetang 51 3.19 The sawn timber and zinc roofs remain as main features of Kuala Sangga, but some old wooden walkways have been replaced by concrete 52 3.20 Charcoal factory in Kuala Sepetang 52 3.21 Fisherman at Kuala Sangga sorting blood clams according to size 52 3.22 The location of Rembau and Kuala Pilah 54 3.23 Examples of Minangkabau houses and their surroundings 54 3.24 Spatial distribution of clans in Bogang, according to Peletz 55 3.25 Tanjung Ipoh in the Kuala Pilah district in 2011, with homestead and rice cultivation 55 3.26 Adoption of Minangkabau roofing style at the entrance of Seri Menanti 56 3.27 Old Palace in Seri Menanti constructed in the early twentieth century and which has now been turned into a royal museum 56 3.28 The spatial distributions of settlements, tea plantations, and mixed farming in Cameron Highlands 58 3.29 The scenic view of the tea plantations 58 3.30 The Smokehouse Hotel in Tudor style, constructed in 1937 58 3.31 The four regional economic corridor regions of the Ninth and Tenth Malaysia Plans 61 3.32 Development along the East Coast: (a) ongoing construction at Kuantan Port; (b) tourist resort development in Setiu, Terengganu 62 3.33 Encroachment of housing development into the rice paddy landscape of Kedah in 2008 62 3.34 (a) Coastal erosion in Pantai Rhu, Terengganu; (b) Granite seawall to protect recreational area in Terengganu 63 3.35 Evidence of deforestation in the Cameron Highlands 63 3.36 The most recent evidence of hydrological disturbance that caused mud flood at Bertam Valley in Cameron Highlands on 23rd October 2013 64 3.37 Kuala Pilah: (a) vacant traditional house; (b) abandoned house in decline 64 3.38 FELDA Lurah Bilut settlement: (a) abandoned house of original design; (b) modern concrete house 65 4.1 The profile of the group of respondents 70 4.2 Familiarity with the term ‘cultural landscape’ by subgroup 72 4.3 Experts’ preferences for landscape types 74 4.4 Landscape appreciation – regional preferences 75 4.5 Preferred characteristics of rural cultural landscapes 76 4.6 Appreciation for rural cultural landscape values 77 4.7 Appreciation for historical values (such as events), by subgroup 77 4.8 Preference for rural cultural landscape types as national heritage 78 4.9 Familiarity with the National Heritage Act by subgroup 81 4.10 Experts’ involvement in policy making 82 xii 4.11 Respondents’ views on the current focus of heritage conservation in Malaysia 82 4.12 Experts’ opinion on threats to the rural cultural landscape in Malaysia 83 4.13 Experts’ opinion on the extent to which rural cultural landscape has been considered in both planning acts and