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By Richard Ho.
Penang’s waterfront precincts hold tremendous potential for the state’s heritage tourism as Singapore’s successes have clearly demonstrated. The Prangin Canal area, for example, can become Penang’s Clarke Quay.  PENANG'S history and development has always been linked to the sea. Since the British East India Company sailed into Penang’s coastal waters and established George Town on the island’s north-east tip, waterways have configured Penang’s development in fundamentals ways.
The port’s waterfront was what convinced the British to continue maintaining the island beyond the first years, making it their first trading outpost east of India. Over time, settlements spread into the island and on the mainland, and inner George Town declined in importance. After Penang lost its free port status in the 1960s, its entrepot trade activities were eventually replaced by the manufacturing and services sectors. The sea routes that for centuries nurtured the state’s cosmopolitanism and wealth and brought people and trade were replaced by land and air travel networks. Today, the rise of heritage tourism calls for a reassessment of the role and worth of Penang’s faded waterfront resources and old river “hotspots”. Many of the old seafront and inner city areas contain infrastructure and resources that have great historical and heritage value, recognised internationally in George Town’s listing as a Unesco World Heritage site. Prangin Canal area The Prangin Canal is a neglected waterfront resource with substantial, untapped heritage tourism and commercial potential and is a good example of a once thriving riverside community based around a traditional wet market. The wet market (popularly known as “Seah Boey” in Hokkien) straddled the Prangin Canal on both sides, and was a depot for the landing and selling of fresh goods brought by small boats. Before it was closed down, the market was known to have hosted one of the island’s largest Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations annually, and was a base for traditional food trades such as salted foodstuff and pastries. The dwindling of the actual Prangin River itself (which originally marked a boundary of 19th century George Town) into a large canal and then subsequently, into a strangled murky monsoon drain is perhaps emblematic of the general area’s slow socio-economic and cultural descent into inner city oblivion, as the river-linked functions, lifestyles and relevance were all gradually eclipsed by the tides of economic development, change, increasing suburban prosperity and social mobility, or even just plain apathy built up over time. The final closure of the Prangin wet market several years ago marked the end of an era, and seemed to confirm the trend of continued neglect of the area. With the increase in global tourists seeking a unique travel experience following the conferment of Unesco World Heritage status to George Town in 2007, the time is right for Penang to seriously redevelop the Prangin Canal neighbourhood. But can the process be jumpstarted? Penang need look no further than Singapore, where the Singapore government has successfully revitalised old quays and waterfront areas along the Singapore River and recreated a thriving entertainment, dining and sightseeing zone that appeals to a wide patron base. The Singapore River: A successful redevelopment story The Singapore River’s old Boat Quay area, formerly a riverside landing depot and godown zone, has been transformed into a chic and bustling entertainment district that caters to a wide range of visitors – the young clubbing-and-pubbing crowd, fine dining aficionados and families.  It all started when the Singapore government targeted the redevelopment of 96 hectares of what constituted the original British landing site back in 1819.
The riverbank was a hub of activity by the late 19th century. Besides port activities, warehouses, shophouses, temples, etc. provided the setting for employment, street storytelling, acrobatic, opera and musical performances, religious ceremonies, street peddling and backyard industries. Just as in the case of George Town’s port area, the tides of development brought many socio-economic infrastructural changes to Singapore in the last few decades, and the Singapore River’s bustling cargo and trade activities were subsequently diverted to the city state’s modern container port in the 1970s. So for about two decades, the old Singapore riverside docking areas slipped into the shadow of neglect, similar to Penang’s waterfront areas. However, the Singapore government targeted the old river waterfront areas for revitalisation and the Concept Plan of 1991 was rolled out to turn the area into a dynamic new “activity corridor”, with shops and offices as well as residential developments running along its flanks by 2000. The Urban Redevelopment Authority aimed to turn the abandoned derelict quays into popular “people places” with a recreational and new commercial focus, with the bulk of shophouses in Boat Quay and godowns in Robertson and Clarke Quay earmarked for conservation. Under this plan and through subsequent eff orts, the Singapore River was successfully transformed from a sleepy and decaying colonial wharf into a chic bustling entertainment-by-the-river district right in the historic heart of Singapore. The attractions of the new Singapore River are eclectic, chic and unique, and cater to a wide range of patrons and entertainment tastes. The refurbished waterfront zone blends the romance of history with the natural beauty of a cleanedup riverbank area, as well as upmarket dining and shopping outlets. Redeveloping the Prangin Canal area The Singapore River revitalisation is a model that the Prangin Canal area can emulate. Just like in Singapore, Penang’s inner city riverbank enclaves and port areas were historically the nerve centre of residential and commercial activities. As with Singapore’s Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, the Prangin Canal area is contained within a compact quarter, making conservation and redevelopment efforts easier. However, in considering the Singapore River revitalization project, the relevance to Penang especially lies in the emulation of the proactive spirit and consciousness towards conservation and rehabilitation of heritage areas within the historic waterfront areas. The Singapore revitalisation project was a complex blueprint spearheaded by the Singapore government and was well supported by various urban development, tourism and environmental agencies. It was designed from the start as a synergistic venture that would be economically self-sustaining, while meeting the core objective of heritage conservation and revival. These two core agendas – profitability and conservation – seldom sit harmoniously together in the absence of a clear plan on how to make things work right at the blueprint stage. Connective factors such as support infrastructure (for example, vastly improved and efficient road systems to cater to a higher density of patrons) and underlying environmental factors (such as the basic need to have cleaned-up, unpolluted water flowing through the Singapore River, which would drastically affect overall “environmental quality” in these proposed revitalized riverside zones) were all meticulously considered, with legislation and policies rolling out to pave the way in the earlier years. Staying power and long-term commitment were seen in the periodic reviews and expansions upon the base framework – from 2008 to the present, efforts were continued to improve the infrastructure, driven by the new philosophy of rebranding Singapore as a “cool and fun city by night”. This approach of improving the so-called “hardware” factor (infrastructure) to complement a greater variety of “soft ware” (activities and events) supports the latest phase of the Singapore River project, which is targeted to bring in 17 million visitors and rake in SG$30bil (RM70bil) in tourism receipts by 2015. These figures alone should inspire Penang to think about its own neglected waterfronts. The first small steps along the path to rejuvenation will be taken. ** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the September 2010 issue of the Penang Economic Monthly. Richard Ho is the assistant manager of SERI.
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