James Chong, lead coordinator of Rumah Pusaka Chow Kit, believes Rumah Degil is a vital reminder Kuala Lumpur’s multiracial past. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — On February 19, the ad hoc conservationist group that runs the Rumah Pusaka Chow Kit project posted a farewell message on its Facebook page.

After two years of hard toil, coughing money out of their own pockets, the group told its followers that Rumah Degil or “Stubborn House” — a century-old wooden Malay house built by a relative of a Mandailing man believed to be the founder of Kuala Lumpur — may never see the light of day again.

For James Chong, one of the project’s lead coordinators, it was a crushing moment. Especially since the project had a promising start: their proposal that the house be dismantled, preserved and rebuilt as a creative and historical centre for those looking to understand their city better, had overwhelming response.

Investors poured in, James recalled. Some made promising offers and the project proceeded in 2015. With everything in place at the time, James and company thought the house, which got its name for having survived World War II, the Communist Insurgency and the May 13 race riots, could withstand perhaps its most parlous test to date — development.

But the euphoria didn’t last long. For reasons unknown (perhaps the softening economy?), investors began pulling out. At the same time, the land’s new owner needed the capital back. A two-year delay of development over prime land was taking its toll financially.

Rumah Degil is now running out of time.

“For two years we have been seeing various parties,” Chong told Malay Mail Online in an interview arranged just a few days after his group informed supporters that the project may be abandoned.

“Of course we don’t want to be talking to too many parties so we wanted to talk to a genuinely interested party that sees this (project) either as a gift back to the people to say that this is our legacy.

“But unfortunately the people that we spoke to, for different reasons, didn’t want to proceed,” he added.

Migrants and KL’s identity

Rumah Degil was built in 1926 purportedly by Haji Jaafar Sutan Sinombar, believed to be a relative of Sutan Puasa, a Mandailing Muslim man who migrated from Sumatra to Kuala Lumpur in the 1830s.

There hasn’t been much historical documentation on Sutan Puasa found so far. But some historians, like Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim, believe the man founded Kuala Lumpur by turning the farming Mandailing settlements on the Gombak and Klang river into a bustling trading post.

Yap Ah Loy, which mainstream history has held as the Chinese kongsi leader who founded the city from his tin mining enterprise, only came into the picture in the 1850s when the settlements had already become a business hub, Khoo said in an interview with Malay daily Berita Harian published recently.

But looking above the polemic, Chong said the new discovery about the origins of Kuala Lumpur pointed to a rich cosmopolitan history. From the Mandailing pioneers, with the help of Bugis Malays and later Chinese migrants, the city was built by migrants.

“KL is like New York city. We are a city of migrants. From Sutan Puasa who was a migrant from Indonesia. As we go along there are migrants from other states and when the British came, there were migrants from other countries. These races all came together to build this city,” Chong said.

And for the Rumah Pusaka Chow Kit group, Rumah Degil as an edifice erected by the kin of the city’s migrant founder provides that vital link to Kuala Lumpur’s multi-racial past, and helps inculcate a sense of appreciation for diversity and what it has done for the city.

“Even today the city is still being built by migrants. Not only the Chinese and Indians but the Burmese and Bangladeshis, the Filipinos, the Indonesians, they are coming here to build this city.

“That perspective is something that we hope we can inculcate through this house. I know it’s just a house but it’s what it triggers, the emotional thing,” he said.

A new hope

KC Tan, an architect and also the project's co-ordinator, is in charge of overseeing the reconstruction of Rumah Degil.— Pictures by Saw Siow Feng

Currently the parts used to build the house are stored on the Chow Kit land with nowhere to go. Rumah Degil was dismantled in 2015 after its last tenant, Puan Norma, left to live with her daughter in Putrajaya.

While the cost to move the raw materials and house reconstruction is estimated to be only around half a million ringgit, finding land for the project has become a source of headache.

“Nobody can afford to buy land in Kuala Lumpur anymore. It’s one of the major problems,” KC Tan, Chong’s cousin and the architect who was initially hired to redevelop the Rumah Degil land, told Malay Mail Online.

Surprisingly, a project of such significant importance to the city’s historical identity with extensive coverage given by the press, received no interest from the government or City Hall. Tan said the group had approached City Hall, but nobody there appeared keen, although Chong was quick to admit that they may have used the “wrong approach.”

But despite the snub, both Tan and Chong feel that there may be a glimmer of hope that City Hall or anyone in the government may change their minds after Khoo made the assertion about Sutan Puasa’s role in founding Kuala Lumpur in that interview with Berita Harian.

“Maybe we took the wrong approach maybe if we pointed the news out to the right people, who knows? It’s not right to put anyone down so now we just want to put it out there and see who might come,” he said.

And thanks to Khoo’s interview on Sutan Puasa and the group’s farewell message on Facebook, the project has managed to revive interest again.

Private messages on Facebook from the public began pouring in with many expressing interest in helping out.

“We are engaging again various parties are providing feedback and a lot of people are responding to our Facebook update and have come forward to help spread the message,” Chong said, adding that the group has been given a new impetus to approach the authorities again following recent developments.

Chong and Tan said they’ve given themselves a June deadline to get funders and get the project going. A tall order, Chong admitted, but they are optimistic.

“I’m sure something will come up,” he said.