Kampung Baru - Kampung Baru is something of an anachronism: a kampung thriving amid the skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur.
A building under construction in Jalan Dewan Kelab Sultan Sulaiman will fit right in with the old-fashioned feel of the place. A replica of the 1932 version of the Sultan Sulaiman Club is almost complete on the lawn of the clubhouse which was built in 1969.
The building is due to be opened early next month by Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor, a descendant of Sultan Alaidin Sulaiman Shah who granted the land to the club in 1909 and after whom it is named.
The club is maintained by the Selangor government, with the sultan and menteri besar as its patrons.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo plans to use the building to hold gatherings and training sessions for youth. And the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage aims to have a gallery and hold exhibitions there, says Deputy Commissioner of Heritage Dr Yahaya Ahmad.
Almost a century old, the club was once a hotbed of Malay nationalism, and has witnessed some of Malaysia`s defining moments.
The first Pan-Malayan Malay Congress was held here on March 1, 1946, gathering Malays from all 11 states in the peninsula, representing 41 associations and parties that opposed Britain`s Mal-ayan Union plan.
And it was here that Datuk Onn Jaafar proposed forming the first mass-based Malay party, the United Malays Organisation.
Scholar Zainal Abidin Ahmad (Za`aba), who was on the working committee drafting the party constitution, proposed adding the word "National"; so Umo became Umno.
Dr Khir suggests the club is the birthplace of Umno, and not Johor Baru as stated in history books. Onn formed Umno between May 3 and 5, 1946. It was formally declared at the Istana Besar in Johor Baru on May 11, he says.
"That is why the Sultan Sulaiman Club is important. It is significant not only to the struggles of Malays, but also the country."
And although Umno supreme council member and Johor Baru member of parliament Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad has told Dr Khir to focus on Umno`s future rather than disputing facts of its history, the menteri besar remains steadfast in his belief.
Kamarul Baharin Kasim, conservation and archaeology director with the Department of National Heritage, says: "The club played a very big role in Malaysian politics."
He notes that it is also the guesthouse where the country`s early leaders stayed when they visited Kuala Lumpur.
And that`s why the ministry decided to reconstruct the 1932 version on the lawn of the present Sultan Sulaiman Club.
The clubhouse started out as a pondok (hut) in 1901, built gotong- royong style by residents of the Malay Agricultural Settlement of Kampung Baru.
In 1909, after the sultan had granted the land, a proper wooden clubhouse with a thatched roof was erected with Straits $500 from the British government, donations from the public and funds raised through cultural shows.
Club deputy president Datuk Abdul Mokhtar Ahmad says: "The English had no idea of the growing frustrations of Malaya`s people."
From the 1930s through the 1950s, it was the venue for meetings of Malay literary societies, the birthplace of the Malay Journalists` Society of Malaya (Kesatuan Wartawan Melayu SeMalaya) and the beginnings of Malay nationalism, he says.
But the building burned down in December 1930. The new clubhouse, another wooden structure, this time with a tiled roof rose in 1932. The Straits $13,000 needed to build it was collected door to door from Kampung Baru residents.
Thirty-five years later, it was so dilapidated a 9-year-old girl was killed while playing among the ruins in 1967. Yet another version rose from the ruins in 1969, with the distinctive "pineapple skin" architecture of that period, and was opened by then deputy prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.
For the next couple of decades, it hosted sports training and events, until it once again dropped out of the limelight. That`s the building left standing today, while its 1932 forebear rises from the lawn.
All the ministry had to work with for the reconstruction were the general blueprints typical of the 1930s, and a few photographs of the building, Kamarul says.
"From group photographs, we compared the dimensions of the building with the height of the people."
The research took almost a year, and local experts interviewed people who lived in the area.
They also looked at contemporary buildings in Taiping and Carey Island, since British architecture in the early 19th century had a certain template and used the same materials.
The replica will be maintained by the Selangor government. And its construction, Dr Khir says, is testimony to the building`s historical significance.
Source: www.nst.com.my (10 November 2007)
