Whither these government quarters?

FOR sometime, I had been planning to take pictures of as many of the old buildings in Kuching as possible for a personal collection but I put off implementation of the plan for some reason or other.

Lame excuse, really. Until the end of last year.

Last Monday, I set out to cover a couple of localities in the city referred to by Asian civil servants in the 1950’s as the Colonial Enclaves – The Uplands, Midlands and the Low Lands, and the Rodway Road and Maxwell Road.

You will not believe what I saw there.

Follow my trail if you have time, take along your camera or hand phone that can take pictures as well, and you will be as depressed as I was.

Ong Tiang Swee, Jalan Kenny Hill, Jalan Bidayuh, Jalan Bisaya

Many houses solidly built in the 1950’s and in the early years of Malaysia to strict PWD standards and specifications are sadly neglected by their owners – state or federal (I don’t know which is which). They stand sad and forlorn, their compounds overgrown with unsightly bushes and strewn with rubbish.

I counted one, two, three … nine, ten at Jalan Kenny Hill, and more at Jalan Bidayuh and along Jalan Ong Tiang Swee itself.

However, a number of bungalows have been converted into offices for various organisations. At least, they are being put to good use.

A far cry from their heyday when these beautiful homes were well kept and maintained by the PWD, their compounds planted with the magnolias and other ornamental plants, their lawns meticulously trimmed.

“Some of them are haunted,” according to a karaoke friend who claims he has the power to communicate with the ghosts.

When he has one too many, he sees a spirit behind every tree but take his word with a generous pinch of salt.

I wanted to take pictures of house Number 5 at Jalan Bisaya.

In 1970, Rosalind Tan of the State Financial Secretary’s office had kindly allocated that lovely bungalow for me.

As an official in the Ministry for Sarawak Affairs, I was entitled under the government housing scheme to occupy a quarters free of charge. It is of sentimental value to me and I wanted to photograph it again. My two kids were raised there for two years before I moved out for a greener pasture in terms of vocation.

The house is gone. After we moved out, the house was left empty. The roof eventually caved in and the whole building had to be demolished.

However, next to it there still stands another bungalow once occupied by a PWD engineer, Mr George, from Kerala. This place, fully fenced around, has now been converted into a Community-based Rehabilitation Centre. Whatever is being rehabilitated there, I would not know. At least, it is utilised for some good cause.

After the formation of Malaysia in 1963, a number of senior officers of the Malayan Civil Service were transferred to Sarawak to man the federalised departments.

They were allocated these quarters during their stints of service here. The houses were well maintained until these officers left on transfer elsewhere. Then they became homes to senior officers of the State Civil Service until these officers had built their own houses in town.

Jalan Rodway, Jalan Maxwell

There you still can see several old beautiful buildings owned by the government. Some are in a bad shape, others being used other than for residential purposes.

One house at Rodway Road was the residence of the Director of Broadcasting. Seeing this house – tumbled down and totally neglected, and better down than allowed to stand in such a sorry condition – brings back memories.

This was where Peter Ratcliffe initiated me into the mysteries of BGA in 1959. Not that I was an unwilling student, I must shamefully admit now; it didn’t take me long to find out that it means “brandy-ginger-ale.”

After teaching the whole week at St Thomas’ School, I was looking forward to the weekend and an evening at Radcliffe’s.

It was there that I learned the rudiments of power politics and overheard from other guests about what the British had planned for Sarawak’s political future – either a grand federation with Brunei and North Borneo or with Malaya and Singapore.

Next to the house allocated for Temenggong Jugah as Minister for Sarawak Affairs was another bungalow – this was reserved for the Minister of Communications and Works, Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Later, it was occupied by the Deputy Chief Minister Simon Dembab Maja, then by the other Deputy Chief Minister Daniel Tajem. Later, another house in the same area was reserved for another Deputy Chief Minister, Alfred Jabu.

If the walls of these houses could talk, political analysts would be able to learn about the many intrigues and plots as well as plans for development for the state thought out by the occupants of those houses, and about their election strategies or plans for retirement.

I had an office down the road that led to the Minister’s residence which Alfred Mason, the Prime Minister’s political secretary, called “Bukit Batu.”

That building is gone – I could not see it from the road anyway. It is a shame I had not taken a photo of it while it was still there. It would be a historical building where discussions on the formation of the coalition government on July 5 and 6, 1970, were being held between SNAP and Pesaka leaders.

So the walls of that building could have shed some more light on the politics of the 1970’s.

Suggestions  

I recommend that the government quarters at Jalan Ong Tiang Swee and the various jalans either be properly repaired and fully filled by the government servants who have not bought their own houses in Kuching, sell them to individuals who can afford them, or else pull them down and convert the area into a recreational park, thus creating another lung for the city.

Those on the Rodway Road and Maxwell Road are still sound enough to be renovated. They can do with a new coat of paint, with the lawns restored to green. The longer these houses are left unoccupied, the longer they will harbour mosquitoes, rats and snakes, and other pests, including the two-legged jean-wearing variety.

At Ong Tiang Swee Road, pull down the ruins and make a lovely green lung! Those who have been to Auckland University remember how Prince Albert Park fits in perfectly well with the University’s buildings.

How’s that for an idea?

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