Sarawak PKR leader Dominique Ng has made an urgent appeal to the Unesco World Heritage Centre in France to save the Gambier Street market in Kuching.

In a letter emailed to Unesco director Francesco Bandarin, Ng asked for an immediate fact-finding and advisory mission to evaluate the value of the site.

The market sub-cluster, located in the heart of the city, is being demolished to make way for modern commercial development.

It comprises separate sections for the sale of vegetables, fish and meat.

“The sub-cluster is of such rustic charm and cultural significance that even the invading imperial forces of Japan and later the liberating forces of WWII spared the structure from destruction by bombing,” Ng claimed in the lettter.

“(It) may be considered of equal, if not more historic and cultural significance, compared to (similar) sites in Penang and Malacca, as well as the Victoria Market of Melbourne and the old market at Fremantle in Western Australia.”

The location of the market, on one bank of the Sarawak River, also “interacts dynamically” with the surviving passenger row-boats from the Malay villages sited on the opposite bank, the adjacent Court House and the landing site at the Astana (Rajah Brooke’s palace) across the river.

The market was already a hive of commercial activity when early European visitors sailed up the river some 200 years ago.

In later years, there was bustling junk-shipping from Singapore, merchant shipping, coastal shipping and riverine boat activities. A few of these riverine and southern Chinese-style fishing boats still ply the river.

“All avenues to save the Gambier Street sub-cluster by residents, community organisations and political parties have just about failed, as demolition works are going on full steam,” said Ng, who is state assemblyperson for Padungan.

Although he had raised the matter in the state assembly, there has been no interest in preserving the site.

The state government plans to extend the Kuching Waterfront to the site of the market sub-cluster.

“I can only in desperation call on Unesco to intercede with all due urgency for the powers-that-be to listen to a voiceless citizenry of Kuching, to call on the prime minister, the chief minister and state government, to immediately stop all demolition works,” said Ng.

He called on Unesco to evaluate the value of the sub-cluster as part of a greater plan to apply for Kuching to be listed as a world historical and cultural heritage site.