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Penang, A Vanishing
Heritage
| Spending
a long afternoon strolling around the old centre of George Town, Penang
you will find a hive of activity spilling out into the street from open
shop fronts, the merging of private and public spaces, the mingling of
diverse cultures, the interactions between buyer and seller and the
activities of home. Family based industries like the barbers, groceries,
coffee, rubber and meat shops, and handicrafts are entwined into the town’s
fabric.
The vitality of these old family
skills of craft, trade and home are currently under threat. Penang’s
heritage is dissipating due to the all too familiar powers of the market.
Families that have lived in these streets since the earliest beginnings of
Penang are being forced out of their homes, and with it home-based
industries are vanishing. |
Typical street elevation of Penang's shop-houses
|
| Why?
The repeal of the control of rent
act, 1966 effecting premises constructed before 1.1.1948. The tenants of
these premises have been protected under the control of rent act 1966, but
as from the 1.1.2000 they were no longer protected. Penang is the most
effected state in Malaysia because it has the most numerous pre-war
shop-houses |
 |
|
Site of 10 demolished pre-war
shop-houses |
Report and photos compiled by Christopher
Wilson and Susanne Lettau CASE Sept 2000
Next Page
2 What does it mean and who is suffering
Then Page 3
SOS CAP and the Government |
