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COMMUNICATION that engages as many stakeholders as possible is fundamental to achieving sustainable cultural development. This is especially so in a diverse social setting like George Town where, save for religious practices and street food, living culture is as fragile as many of its dilapidated pre-war buildings.
Discourse needs to happen under certain conditions. True communication occurs when people, each without overusing his or her power, take part in finding out the real nature of things, engage each other in deciding what to do and set out to do what is possible to achieve these common ends.
Such an ideal communications nexus is something worth striving for -- if not we risk the wanton destruction of entire cultural forms as the juggernaut of modernisation rolls indiscriminately over them.
George Town is already hollowing out, like the high streets of small British towns. But this need not be our fate. Look at the provincial urban enclaves in France and Italy, where people take pride in their distinctness. Florence in Tuscany is a great example of a city that has successfully adapted to modernity and yet manages to retain its various charms.
It is true that the social conditions that allowed our old practices to thrive are long gone. For example, Nyonya food, made each day by platoons of female relatives and char bor kan under the scrutiny of matriarchs, cannot be replicated in the modern nuclear family home. This genre of intricately-prepared food, however, has now found its place in the restaurant.
New platforms within sensitive environments must be found for the old that are worth preserving.
To be sure, we are not looking for purism or a return to the past. Many purists are not interested in discursive and participatory development, preferring to stick to dogmas that are sometimes impractical and at worst destructive – because unrelenting hindrance can lead to inaction. This allows others, less sensitive to the social environment, to move in, to be the main agents of change.
Needless to say, we cannot place George Town’s future in the hands of unbridled business interests which are insensitive to the historical and cultural value of a diverse living heritage.
While we move ahead we must look to a future which is linked as richly as possible to the past, for it is these connections that anchor our identity; that make us want to be part of greater, nobler endeavours; that make us see things beyond their monetary, commoditised values; and that, above all, encourage us to work as a group with a distinctive past in mind to determine a future that takes this history into consideration.
Much has been done by some Penangites, especially the heritage non-governmental organisations and the state, to ensure George Town and Melaka achieved World Heritage Site status. Being a WHS has certainly started a process where efforts are being galvanised to make both cities more liveable. We must now engage more people, especially the common folk and the Penang diaspora. One of iGeorgeTown’s main aims is to be a platform and a catalyst for this discursive development.
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