KUALA LUMPUR: Malacca wants to be divorced from Georgetown as a co-awardee of Unesco World Heritage status if Penang continues to allow the building of four high-rise hotels in the city's heritage zones.
Chief Minister Mohamad Ali Rustam said the construction in Penang's heritage core and buffer zones would violate guidelines set by the World Heritage Committee.
AWARD STATUS SEPARATELY
'We will ask Unesco if it is possible for Malacca to be awarded the status on our own merit.''
'If Penang wants to go ahead with the project, then we will ask to be divorced from Georgetown,' he told reporters after opening the National History Seminar at Universiti Malaya here yesterday.
'We will ask Unesco if it is possible for Malacca to be awarded the status on our own merit.'
Datuk Seri Mohamad Ali said it would not be fair for Malacca to lose its World Heritage status due to Penang government's stubbornness over the construction of the four hotels.
He said he did not understand why Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng could not reverse the decision on the building of the hotels, even after knowing that this could adversely affect the city's World Heritage status.
Penang and Malacca were awarded the status together by Unesco in July.
Unesco regional adviser for the Asia-Pacific Richard Engelhardt recently confirmed that any adverse effect on one of the cities would automatically affect the other.
Their fate is interlinked because they had obtained their status on July 7 under a joint bid.
Mr Mohamad Ali recounted that when Malacca wanted to build a 110m-high revolving observation tower within the heritage buffer zone, it sought approval from not only the state heritage committee but also the Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage.
The state government, he also said, changed the location of the tower, even after its foundation was laid, following the discovery of the Bastion Middlesburgh and the Fortaleza D'Malacca - two important archaeological finds - at its original site.
And that took place even before Malacca was awarded the World Heritage status, he pointed out.
