Lembah Bujang - Muhkriz kata kerajaan BN/UMNO bagi kelulusan...

Mukhriz berkata BN/UMNO luluskan pembangunan Lembah Bujang ...

Kerajaan Kedah mendedahkan hari ini bahawa kelulusan untuk membangunkan tanah di Sungai Batu dalam Lembah Bujang bersejarah telah diberikan 20 tahun lalu.

Menteri Besar, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir berkata pemaju telah diberikan kelulusan pada tahun 1993 tetapi hanya mula memulakan kerja pecah tanah pada bulan Ogos lepas.

"Saya berasa sedih dan kesal dengan kemusnahan-kemusnahan kuil. Bahan asal usul dan peninggalan kurun ke-8 hingga ke-11 yang menjadikannya tapak warisan sepatutnya dipelihara," kata Mukhriz.

"Runtuhan2 kuil di sekitar Lembah Bujang adalah tapak warisan yang telah sekian lama tidak digunakan untuk beribadah berabad-abad lamanya," katanya.

Barisan Nasional masih berkuasa di Kedah pada tahun 1993 di bawah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Osman Aroff.

Kenyataan itu bercanggah dengan kenyataan oleh ahli Majlis Perbandaran,Sungai Petani,A. Arumugam semalam yang menuduh kelulusan untuk membangunkan tanah itu diberikan oleh  kerajaan negeri PAS pada tahun 2011.

Mukhriz berkata pentadbiran beliau telah mengarahkan menghentikan pembersihan tanah di kawasan itu, setelah ia didedahkan ke khalayak ramai bahawa salah satu kuil makam purba, Candi nombor 11,telah dimusnahkan oleh pemaju.

Muhkriz berkata bahawa kerajaan negeri Kedah memberi penekanan penting dalam memelihara tapak warisan, Mukhriz merayu kepada Kementerian Pelancongan dan Kebudayaan untuk mewartakan kira 100 tapak arkeologi sebagai tapak warisan negara.

Beliau berkata kementerian telah bersetuju untuk menimbangkan permohonan, dan menterinya Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz telah mengarahkan pemaju untuk berhenti kerja di Lembah Bujang.

Sementara itu, Syarikat pemaju Saujana Sdn Bhd yang merobohkan candi bersejarah di Lembah Bujang berusia 1,200 tahun itu berkata, mereka tidak mengetahui bahawa ia merupakan satu tinggalan sejarah.

Pengurus Projek, Saw Guan Keat, berkata mereka melakukan semakan tanah di Pejabat Tanah Kedah pada 14 Januari tahun ini sebelum membeli lapan lot tanah dari pemilik lama, satu lagi syarikat pemaju.

“Semakan dengan jelas mengatakan tanah tersebut tidak terikat dengan apa-apa. Syarikat meneruskan pembelian pada Febuari. Apabila kami melakukan semakan semula di Pejabat Tanah pada 30 Julai, sekali lagi kami mendapati ia tidak terikat dengan apa-apa,” katanya.

 Saw berkata, pelan pembangunan projek daripada syarikat pemaju sebelum ini diluluskan oleh Majlis Perbandaran Sungai Petani (MPSP) dan Exco Negeri di antara 1994 dan 1995.

“Kami melakukan lawatan tapak bermula pada September. Kami terlihat candi itu. Kami tidak tahu apa benda itu,” katanya.

Katanya, syarikat berkenaan hanya mengetahui mereka merobohkan candi selepas membaca akhbar.

“Kalau kami tahu struktur batu itu merupakan peninggalan sejarah, kami tidak akan robohkannya,” katanya.

Sebilangan candi di Lembah Bujang yang masih belum digazetkan sudah mula dimusnahkan sejak beberapa tahun lalu, kata ahli arkeologi selepas kemusnahan candi nombor 11 mendapat bantahan penduduk.

Pengerusi kumpulan kajian di kawasan itu, Datuk V Nadarajan, berkata candi Lembah Bujang dikatakan mula dibina sejak kurun ke-10 dan sesetengahnya sudah dirobohkan sejak beberapa tahun lalu tanpa pengetahuan umum.

Bagaimanapun, katanya, beliau tidak dapat memberi jumlah sebenar candi yang sudah dirobohkan dan  masih banyak yang belum digazetkan sebagai kawasan sejarah.-TMI

Nasib Lembah Bujang manifestasi Talibanisme BN

Mukhriz says BN approved Lembah Bujang development...

The Kedah state government revealed today that the approval to develop the land in Sungai Batu in the historic Lembah Bujang was granted 20 years ago.

Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir (pic) said the developer was given the approval in 1993 but only started clearing the land last August.

"We feel sadness and regret over the destruction of the temple ruin. Is origins can be traced back to the 8th to 11th ccnturies, making it a heritage site that should have been preserved,” Mukhriz said.

"Temple ruins around Lembah Bujang are all heritage sites that had not been used for worship for centuries," he said.

Barisan Nasional was in power in Kedah in 1993 under then menteri besar Datuk Seri Osman Aroff.

The statement contradicts a claim by Sungai Petani municipal councillor A. Arumugam yesterday that the approval to develop the land was given by the former PAS state government in 2011.

Mukhriz said his administration has ordered a halt on land clearing at the area, which was thrust into limelight after it was revealed that one of the ancient tomb temples, Candi number 11, was destroyed by the developer.

Saying the state places utmost importance in preserving heritage sites, Mukhriz appealed to the Tourism and Culture Ministry to gazette some 100 archaeological sites as national heritage sites.

He said the ministry has agreed to consider its application, and its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has ordered the developer to stop work at Lembah Bujang.

Meanwhile, the developer, Bandar Saujana Sdn Bhd, said it was unaware that the destroyed structure was an ancient tomb temple, or that that the site was historical.

"We saw a stone structure, we did not know what it was,” the company's project manager Saw Guan Keat told The Star, adding that he learnt about the demolished candi from media reports.

“If we had known the structure was a historical site, we would have not have cleared it.

“Our company merely took over the project, which was approved back in 1994 or 1995,” Saw was quoted as saying.

He said the company had carried out a land search at the Kedah Land Office on January 14 this year before purchasing eight lots of land from its previous owner, also a housing developer, and found the land had no encumbrances.

It then proceeded to buy the land in February.

According to Bandar Saujana's website, the project in Lembah Bujang will be part of the future Merbok Township.

News of the demolition caused a public outcry over the treatment of the country’s historical monuments.

Heritage activists and politicians demanded that the authorities take action to stop the development and to rebuild the historical structure.

Lembah Bujang is an archeological site and excavation had revealed jetty remains, iron-smelting areas and a clay-brick monument dating back 110AD, making it the oldest man-made structure to be recorded in Southeast Asia.

The site is the foundation of a flourishing Hindu-Buddhist civilisation and a centre of international trade and commerce. - TMI

'Wrecking of Bujang Valley candi federal gov't's fault'

PAS has blamed the BN-run federal government for approving the Bujang Valley developer, which acknowledged that the remains of an 8th century temple was demolished to make way for a housing project.

Bandar Saujana Sdn Bhd spokesman Saw Guan Keat had told The Star newspaper that its plans to develop Bujang Valley were approved by the Sungai Petani district council between 1994 and 1995.

Saw was reported as saying that the land was purchased from another developer in February this year and the work of levelling the land in the area began in September. 

He also acknowledged that they had destroyed the remains of the temple.

But when contacted, PAS said its responsibility was limited to the sale of the land.

Former Kedah executive councillor, Dr Hamdan Khalid, who had been in charge of the state's arts and heritage affairs committee, said the PAS-led government had then only approved land acquisition in an area of the historical site.

"Pakatan Rakyat in Kedah under (late leader) Azizan Abdul Razak as menteri besar very much supported any project under the federal government at that time.

"We supported and approved the purchase and acquisition of the land as decided by the federal government... we could only do so much.

"Everything else was under the purview of the central government (Department of National Heritage)," Hamdan (right) said in an SMS to Malaysiakini.

Electricity tariff, remember what Ahmad Maslan told us on Nov 22?

Lu declare lu untung sampai berbilion,lagi lu mau gasak rakyat punya duit, 'so necessary' kepala otak lu...

cheers.