KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Fifteen years ago, Malaysia's iconic Merdeka Stadium, the nation’s first independence building, was a crumbling white elephant in the heart of the city and doomed to a date with the demolition man.
It was saved from an ignoble death thanks to a massive public outcry in the 1990s. The owner, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, then undertook to fund its restoration last year.
Its effort was finally rewarded three days ago, on the eve of the nation's 51st anniversary independence, when Unesco granted it the 2008 excellence award for Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.
"We are tremendously pleased, as are the owners and the Merdeka Heritage Trust," said Elizabeth Cardosa, executive director of Badan Warisan, the lead conservation consultant behind the restoration project.
Stadium Merdeka is one of only two such sites in the region to have received the honour — the other being Herat Old City in Afghanistan.
"It's an international award that covers the whole of the Asia-Pacific region. Also, it was judged from 45 entries across the region. It was judged against China, India, Australia, Pakistan...," said Cardosa, rather breathless in her excitement.
She sounded overwhelmed by the enormity of the honour when contacted by The Malaysian Insider earlier this afternoon and credited the owner, PNB, for its courageous decision "to go against the grain of the time".
"Stadium Merdeka is not an object of beauty but is an engineering and scientific monument... For us, it vindicated the action of restoring the building."
Cardosa noted it was also the first time that Unesco had awarded more than one award of excellence. It is also the first time that a contemporary building has won the excellence award.
"For us, the importance of it, the significance of it, generally speaking, is within the psyche, the agenda that something has expanded. Mostly people look at fairly old monuments.
"We are also working with the Merdeka Heritage Trust to bring back not just the physical space but the emotional, social space. I feel something like this is not just a mere symbol but can be used," she explained.
This has reinvigorated the heritage body's efforts to push ahead with the complete restoration of the architectural structure.
They are now working towards restoring other parts of the stadium, including the toilets, the national crest and saluting platform, which they hope to finish entirely by the middle of next year.
"Tunku's vision was for a healthy sports centre in the city," Cardosa said, referring to the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.
"For Tunku, it was to be a commemorative building which will be used and could have life beyond part of its original intention."
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