THE Simanggang government rest house, site of the signing of the peace agreement on March 6, 1974 between the Sarawak government and the communists who had then waged a decade-long insurgency, will be declared a heritage building in October.

Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the rest house, which provides accommodation to civil servants on their outstation travels when hotels are scarce in rural Sarawak in the 1970s-1980s, will be the town’s museum.

The main exhibit will be dedicated to the signing of the treaty between then chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya’kub and North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) leader Bong Kee Chok, Karim told reporters when discussing the government’s plan on old buildings that have heritage value.

The surrender of Bong, along with more than 400 of his supporters, dealt a crippling blow to the insurgency, although it did not end it.

The insurgency in Sarawak only ended in 1990 when the remaining NKCP insurgents signed another peace agreement on October 17, 1990.

Karim said not many Sarawak people are aware of the historical significance of the peace treaty or why the name of Simanggang town, 132km from Kuching, was changed to Bandar Sri Aman.

“It will be reflected in (the museum),” he said.

In 2019, Premier Abang Johari Openg, however, officially reverted the town’s name to Simanggang due to popular demand.

Yesterday, Abang Johari confirmed the General Post Office (GPO) building in Kuching is one of the 52 landed properties that the federal government will return to the state.

On July 12, Karim had threatened to declare the 92-year-old GPO building a heritage structure if Pos Malaysia continues to baulk at returning the building.

Once declared a heritage structure under the Sarawak Heritage Ordinance 2019, the building could be next to worthless for Pos Malaysia.

No date has been fixed to hand over the building, but Karim said it would no longer be a post office and neither would Pos Malaysia use it as its state head office.

He said they would have to move out.

He said the state government will decide later what the building will become, but the first thing on the to-do list is a restoration work similar to what it did to the 132 year-old Sarawak museum building.

“A lot needs to be fixed. Whether it will be a cultural or arts gallery, a museum or even a restaurant will be decided later, after we get the building back,” he said. – July 20, 2023.