Kg Buah Pala...pawn in a political game

High Chaparral: The tale of the villagers || by Indrani Kopal

|| For the past few months, the story of once little known Kampung Buah Pala on the island of Penang and its inhabitants have seem to be the only talk of the island.

Also popularly known as 'Tamil High Chaparral' to Penangites due to its traditional population of cowherds, this old settlement is located at the heart of the rapidly developing eastern part of Georgetown.

The plight of the Kampung Buah Pala villagers hit the headlines recently after they received a court order to vacate their old village of which three generations have lived to make way for a modern condominium.

Local historians claim the village had existed for more than 150 years. It was part of a large coconut plantation owned by the family of a Margaret Brown.

Certainly there seems to be a document testifying that Margaret Brown had stated before leaving for Britain that the land is to be left to the people who were living and working there. This was in 19XX. The current residents are believed to be descendents of the original settlers.

Because of this bit of history, there are parties who are pushing for Kampung Buah Pala to be gazette as heritage property. Its perhaps the only way to save this village from certain disappearance.

Malaysiakini visited the village to document for posterity a peace of history that is about to be wiped out in one fell swoop.

We were expecting to see a large settlement of 300 villagers, in 33 houses with 50 or more families living harmoniously in a highly cultured village because it was referred to as a model Tamil Hindu settlement, with a traditional population of cowherds and many other essences of Tamil heritage.

But we were disappointed. There wasnt even an old Hindu temple central to a Tamil settlement.

Kampung Buah Pala in reality is a stretch of road lined by less than 30 houses standing next to modern residential properties.

The hey-day of a bustling coconut plantation population has certainly left Kampung Buah Pala many, many years ago.




Produced by Indrani Kopal
Narration by Nick Josh Karean

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• High Chaparral
• Kampung Buah Pala

[selebet77]

walaupun kerajaan BN memerintah ada hak menutup kampung buah pala. tetapi GERAKAN tidak sampai hati buat macam tu dan biarkan orang INDIA terus duduk dikampung itu. Apa DAP buat ni? kata DARI RAKYAT UNTUK RAKYAT? PR(penipu rakyat) memang dah lebih. tidak menghiraukan sensitiviti antara kaum lansung!

[TheMeanmachines]

That area is so green and peaceful, why demolish it to build condominiums for the rich ? You are effectively chasing poor people out of their village to build condos for the rich. The fault is with the BN govt who sold the land to the developer(at a very cheap price) in the first place. I suspect there must have been some corrupt BN officers who did it. Lim Guan Eng is now in an impossible position of having to think of a solution acceptable to both the developer and the villagers.