18 February 2007 (The Star) –
Govt allocates RM12.8m to reconstruct A’Famosa fort
The federal government has approved a RM12.8 million allocation for the reconstruction of Fortaleza D’Malacca or the mighty A’Famosa fort built during the Portuguese or Dutch colonial era in Bandar Hilir here.
Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said said the first phase of the rebuilding work was expected to begin in April or May.
Speaking to reporters after attending a dinner hosted by the Malacca state Wanita Umno on Saturday, he said the Cabinet had agreed for the National Heritage Department to quickly draw up the plan with the assistance of historians in Malacca and several archaeologists.
The proposed RM12.8 million plan to ‘reconstruct’ the fortress wall of A Famosa indicated in the press report is misleading since there is no visible sight of a standing wall and the original surroundings fronting the sea have been permanently altered.(by land reclaimation projects and multi milion building projects)
This ’shot in the arm’ in Malacca conservation efforts too is a tale worthy to be told. The same distinguised minister had on an earlier occasion launched a grand scale scheme to build a viewing platform which will take paying tourists for a bird-eye view of the Stadhuys, the Class I historical enclave across the Malacca River and not forgeting the remnants of A Famosa.
Despite overwhelming public objections to the proposed Viewing Tower and valid concerns that there would be unreversable damage to the area’s historical significance, he vehemently defended the state authority’s decision to go ahead with the construction of revolving tower(similar to Sentosa’s Carlsberg Tower).
Ironically, the area’s historical value finally unfolded when the initial foundation laying work took off and the structural remains of A Famosa was discovered!
It has been announced that the site of the viewing tower has been moved, assumingly to less controversial one. However, the same personel of the Antiquity Department that gave the go-ahead with the Viewing Tower now surprisingly spearheads work to locate and ‘reconstruct’ the missing 300 meter fortress wall from the same site to one near Santiago Gate.
A Famosa – the beautiful fort- almost faded into oblivion until the timingly intervention by Sir Raffles, finally enjoying the limelight it solely deserves. Or perhaps it is too premature to rejoice yet?