Kota Kinabalu, Thursday, 31 July 2025
The Kota Kinabalu Community Centre, which was partially burnt recently, should be restored to its original design and structure with upgrading only to its toilets and cafe facilities in order to preserve its heritage status and culturally historic value.
As is well known locally, that Community Centre has been the site of many momentous and historic events from the colonial era to today.
The Community Centre was gazetted as a Cultural Heritage Conservation site under the Sabah Cultural Heritage Conservation Enactment 1997. It remains protected as a heritage site.
During my visit to the site today, I found that much of the original concrete walls at the main hall are not materially affected by the fire which occurred mainly on the East site of the hall. The roof, on the other hand, needs a complete reconstruction.
No demolition, please. Heritage cannot be replicated
Whatever the plans are for the site, there should be no demolition. Do not demolish and rebuild from the ground upwards because that would eliminate all memories of the historic events that occurred there and remove all traces of the historic building. I recall that in the 1980s, there were attempts to demolish the community hall and build a new commercial complex on the site. However, upon gazetting of the community centre as a cultural heritage conservation site in 1997, the hall has become a protected site, including protection from commercial interests.
I call on the City Hall and the Sabah Cultural Heritage Council to recognise the heritage value of the site, of which there are very few in Kota Kinabalu.
We should resist the temptation to build another so-called modern convention centre to replicate a convention centre or commercial building that is devoid of cultural heritage. Cultural heritage cannot be replicated. Heritage is something that has withstood the test of time and has entered the collective psyche and memory of the local people.
Datuk Yong Teck Lee
Ex-Chief Minister