Despite assurances from state authorities that the historical Kg Chitty in Malacca would not be directly affected by the construction of a condominium and a hotel right next to the heritage village, documents have revealed a proposed plan to build a road that cuts right through the village, which means at least 13 houses could be demolished.

Kg Chitty action committee spokesperson T Sithambaram Pillay (left) said that he obtained the blueprint issued and approved by the Urban and Town Planning Unit of the state, which states the plan of building Jalan Pelanduk Putih, a 30.3m-wide road.

“At the moment this project does not have an access road, so this seems to be the access road,” he said while showing the alignment of the road, which clearly ventures into the heart of the village in order to connect the project to the main road.

This means that the village is not only facing a threat to its lifestyle of peace, but also a threat to its very existence.

“Imagine a 30m road running through the village. At best, it will be divided into two,” Sithambaram noted.

At the moment, the village’s roads are only wide enough to accommodate one car at any given time, and villagers constantly roam around visiting each other’s houses.

Kg Chitty is within the Unesco World Heritage site buffer zone, thus the construction of any building above four levels there is prohibited by Unesco. It was also gazetted as a National Heritage Village in 2008.

But villagers are still at a loss as to how the Malacca state government agreed to approve a development project adjacent to the heritage site without considering the consequences.

“The mayor has said that the roads to the project won’t directly impact the village, but the Town Planning Init still lists down this road which cuts through our village,” Sithambaram said.

He said that the villagers need a black-and-white confirmation about the status of the road before they can be fully assured that the project won’t impact them.

According to the plan, Sithambaram said that the sewage system of the project will be placed just over 100m from the Mariamman temple where Chittys host their main annual festival that sees crowd up to 4,000 people at its peak.

Distinct lifestyle of their own

About 300 Chetti villagers stay in over 30 houses in the small, tightly-knit village with a distinct lifestyle of their own. They have three temples within the village itself, all of which, by official records, are at least 125 years old.

One of the temples, the Angala Parameswari temple, was declared a national heritage site as well, and with its unique domes that does not resemble the typical domes of other Hindu temples in the country, stands just 100m away from the start area of the construction site.

Given that the construction lot is directly neighbouring the village, there is hardly any road in the village that can escape the sight of tall blue fences erected for the construction.

The project was halted by former state chief minister Ali Rustam during Deepavali 2012, but work resumed straight after elections, villagers say.

Despite current Chief Minister Idris Haron ordering an investigation into the approval of the project, villagers want a stop-work order while investigations are being carried out.

Right now however, with land clearing completed, piling works being done, and some structures already being built due to the active construction works, it might cost the state government a hefty sum to stop the project.

Villagers are keen to impress that their heritage, one of its kind in Malaysia, is more valuable than RM50 million of commercial value, given the tourism potential that their village brings in.

And almost all of them hold a similar opinion when asked how they envision their village after the construction - it would appear like squatter homes dwarfed by the 22-storey condominiums next to them.