By Edgar Ong onJust another point of view
Two workers from the civic centre carting away the polycarbonate roofing piece measuring 20 feet by four feet from the garden of the house in the neighbourhood.
ON Monday, a huge piece of the strangely curved heavy-duty polycarbonate roofing, which was part of and belonged to the Kuching Civic Centre at Jalan Taman Budaya, had fallen smack right into the garden of a residential house within its nearby vicinity.
It had measured no less than 20 feet long and four feet wide, and needed two adults to carry.
When broken, the material cuts like a knife; if it had smashed into a passing motorcycle, the impact would have literally sliced the biker into half, having flown/fallen from the height of the civic centre’s tower block!
Luckily, it had landed on greenery, and had not fallen on any passing pedestrian, vehicle or at the carpark with joggers and ordinary folks doing their various exercises – just imagine the harm and injuries that it could have inflicted.
The civic centre was opened on Aug 1, 1988. The structure itself has never been properly maintained, and the peculiar and strangely-designed roofing has seen better days. It now appears that age, corrosion and decay has set in.
If a roof cladding like this one can simply loosen itself and fly off, when can we expect a chain reaction and the other similar claddings to do so as well?
How safe is the building itself? Does anyone actually know?
It is my understanding that the ‘ownership’ and ‘maintenance’ of this building have been passed from one agency to another, like some unloved orphan child!
It was supposed to be under the then-Ministry of Social Development to start with, then ‘landed’ at the Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) under the Datuk Bandar’s Office.
For a while, it was ‘motherless’ and then, it became ‘bundled off’ to the Ministry of Tourism.
On Wednesday (April 9), it was reported that Deputy Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Sarawak Datuk Gerald Rentap Jabu said all civic centres were now under the ministry’s purview and would come under a redevelopment masterplan.
He also said: “We will get our people to have a look at the rest of the structure of the roof.
A view of the Kuching Civic Centre from where a piece of the 20-feet polycarbonate ceiling had recently fallen into a resident’s garden in the neighbourhood.
“Ever since Covid-19, we’ve had a lot of issues around here. A lot of buildings are not under maintenance; some issues like wear and tear. Plus, the weather again.”
According to Rentap, the Kuching Civic Centre has ‘outlived its original purpose’.
A lady at the civic centre management, who had arranged the ‘removal of the fallen roof cladding’ from the garden mentioned, had advised that currently, ‘the Kuching Civic Centre comes under MYSED (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Sarawak), but that the actual maintenance has been tasked to JKR (Public Works Department)’.
She also mentioned that the response to her many enquiries with regard to regular schedules for maintenance of the building itself, had always been met with the comments: “We have no budget, or there’s no budget for it.”
I suppose that they would have to urgently find or locate some emergency budget from somewhere once one of those roof claddings happened to strike and injure (or God forbid) kill an innocent passer-by on the road either walking on the footpath, on a motorbike, or inside a vehicle.
The oldest and most despicable phrase that I have heard over the years dealing with government departments, agencies and others of their ilk has been this much repeated response: “We have no budget!”
Can’t you make a budget for it? If you know very well that there are areas or places where things are falling apart or will be falling apart – JUST DO IT!
A close up shot of Kuching Civic Centre’s roof indicates that there are at least two sheets already blown off from the roof at this angle. Encircled sections show where the roof claddings are missing.
Exactly in a feature entitled ‘Run-down Kuching Civic Centre to see better days’ written by Galileo Petingi (March 15, 2021) in The Borneo Post, he had reported this after the handing-over from Ministry of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Sarawak to MYSED: “He (minister of MYSED) revealed that his ministry was now in the process of acquiring the provisions for maintenance and repairs to the complex here, adding that this effort was not limited to the Kuching Civic Centre, but also covers other civic centres located throughout Sarawak.
“We are still doing the study and we need to come up with the expected cost (for upgrading and repairs), which we will then present to the state government.
“We still have to wait from the state government: we don’t want to do it on a piecemeal basis as a lot of them are quite run down.
“Normally when it comes to depreciation, things need to be repaired or replaced, it has to go through the Sarawak Public Works Department.
“We are still in the process of finalising it.”
Sadly, and tragically, that was spoken exactly four years ago!
We are talking about the Kuching Civic Centre – it is a prime structure sited within Kuching’s central downtown area, sitting right in the middle of several other prime tourist attractions, all within the radius of walking distances of less than a mile or so.
To its north is the nation’s oldest family social private club, the Sarawak Club (founded in 1876 by the then-Rajah Charles Brooke for its colonial officers); it is older than Kuala Lumpur’s Royal Selangor Club by eight years (the latter was founded in 1884).
Facing the south of the club is the open-air Kuching Amphitheatre – the much-underutilised facility amidst splendid greenery and beautiful hilly surroundings.
To its northeast is Unity Park (formerly Reservoir Park), which was reopened after much renovation at the end of 2023.
Slightly further afield to its north and south are such minor attractions like the old Chinese Pavilion (now abandoned and disused) as well as the Bandstand Pergola, which was used on Sundays for open air performances in the 1960s.
Towards the Park Lane/Jalan Ong Kee Hui section, there is the last Rajah’s ‘Summer Retreat’ on the hillock, which houses a beautiful ‘Tree of Life’ mural on its wall by Tusau Padan.
Facing this modest wooden retreat is the Japanese Occupation-era (1941-45) air-raid bomb shelter, dug in and built into the hillsides of the small hill adjacent to the Unity Park.
It is the columnist’s view that Kuching’s unique civic centre tower can and should be given a new lease of life.
It is a guaranteed tourist attraction, but only if and when the entire structure has been renovated and restored and proclaimed to be safe for use.
During its early years, at different periods, it had housed restaurants, bistros and karaoke joints, and also a reference library, a gymnasium and was a popular venue for events, festivals and stage performances.
Among locals and tourists, its elevated height of 243 feet (74 metres) on an already-high ground (the surrounding elevation is 100 feet above sea level) had ensured a splendid panoramic bird’s eye view of most of Kuching City as far as the eyes could see.
On a clear day, brilliant Instagram shots can be shared hundreds…nay thousands of times!
(Imagine all that free advertising for Sarawak’s tourism efforts!
It is imperative that the current roof cladding and overall design be totally reviewed and overhauled.
A new roof cladding is definitely needed: having yet another curved plastic or polycarbonate roof will deteriorate in less than 10 years again, and just be repeating past mistakes.
It will be a total waste of money.
Happily, there is an alternative.
Someone in the know suggested that even if the current existing curved trusses were maintained should they be still structurally-sound, normal metal roofing sheets could be used to replace those current ones: it’s a matter of redesigning the material and the supports.
The lifts, which have long been out of service, need to be replaced.
At the viewing deck, the perimeter glass needs to be re-installed to a height of a minimum of 2.4 metres for safety reasons.
The upper level, which used to house eateries, could be either tendered or concessioned out and fitted for ‘medium-priced’ eating stalls similar to the ‘Top Spot’ concept at the multi-storey carpark in the city.
It would certainly bring life back to this attraction once again, considering that the nearby carpark is ample enough to cater for prospective customers.
For visitors and tourists, they would be able to take away with them a memory or memento of their Kuching visit with a selfie or wefie of them with an elevated view of Kuching City in the background.
Since the boom of the social media and influencer era, this has not been possible as this special spot in Kuching has been closed for the past two decades.
There we have it. We need urgent immediate attention to an important landmark building that is almost 40 years old and is already showing us signs that it is physically starting to shed off parts of its structure – posing a clear and present danger to the surrounding environment threatening human lives and properties.
There is an opportunity to revitalise, renovate and rejuvenate its original potential as a tourist attraction, and add on an additional venue for locals to congregate and socialise at its potentially popular exhibition halls and eateries, as well as gyms and sports venues.
One certainly hopes that this plea falls upon the right ears, and that we do not have to wait for another four years, or God-forbid, some more serious accidents to occur, before we could take real proactive action.
* The opinions expressed in this article are the columnist’s own and do not reflect the view of the newspaper.
dilapidated Kuching Civic Centre roofing
