A COLONIAL era mansion built by an influential Malay official during the regime of Sarawak White Rajah, could find a place in keeping with its heritage and history, as a show piece in Kuching city’s urban renewal plan.

Darul Kurnia, built in the 1930s, is presently the rundown administration building of Chung Hua Middle School No. 4.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said administrators wanted the school on Jalan Haji Taha to be relocated.

He said the present site was no longer suitable for a school and if it was relocated, the old colonial building could be preserved for its heritage.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting progress of projects within the enclave earmarked for urban renewal, Abang Johari said there is also no prospect for the school to be expanded.

Sitting on a prime piece of land, this school, which has a student population of around 1,200, is hemmed in on two sides by two busy thoroughfares, a commercial centre and an urban Malay village to its rear.

“They requested to be relocated, because the current site is not suitable for a school,” he said, adding that negotiations were ongoing and he hoped the school would make the decision by next year.

A relocation like this would likely involve finding a larger plot of land plus some financial assistance for the school, with the state government acquiring the school’s present site in exchange.

Abang Johari said it was premature to disclose the state’s plans for Darul Kurnia now but would do “once we have the land”.

Darul Kurnia was the residence of Abang Abdillah, considered to be a Sarawak independence patriot, renowned for spearheading the anti-cession movement to stop the last white rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, from ceding Sarawak to the UK as a crown colony after the Second World War.

Brooke wanted to sell Sarawak because his government was bankrupt and could not rebuild the war ravaged state.

Darul Kurnia is historically significant because it was a venue for a peaceful protest by hundreds of civil servants of the Brooke administration who feared they could lose their job in a handover. – August 8, 2020.