Where’s the love for vanished Seremban Convent?
If one missionary school tradition in Kuala Lumpur was maintained last week with the rescue of Convent Bukit Nanas, murmurings of discontent rose afresh in Seremban over another Convent that was destroyed 27 years ago.
The anger never really went away: How could it when the former site of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) remains the biggest eyesore in the heart of the city?
The blemish is a stinking pond – about 0.4ha in size and some 6m deep – that came into being when the development project at the Convent site was abandoned in 1997 during the economic recession.
The pond emerged after two levels of underground parking had been completed. Work to construct the super structure was stopped. Plans for a multi-storey shopping complex and apartment building was shelved because the developers do not see it as viable.
It is an undeserved reminder about the proud institution of CHIJ that, in some ways, grew and struggled with Seremban, and the country.
When the project will resume is anyone’s guess as the cost to revive it would be enormous.
Why a plan to build a RM200,000 floating fountain to beautify the pond did not materialise is up in the air.
It is appalling that the mosquito-infested pool has been left as a major embarrassment to Malaysia’s newest city.
So, when the government last week granted a 60-year lease extension to SMK Convent Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur, Seremban residents and past pupils of CHIJ reflected on what could have been.
Few know the background to CHIJ losing its missionary school status as well as Seremban resident and civil structural consultant, Thomas Thamboe, who was at the centre of a redevelopment and relocation plan by the Convent in the mid-70s.
That was around the time when St Paul’s Institution (SPI primary), on what was then Paul Street in the town centre, was torn down to make way for a shopping complex.
As with the Convent site, the remains of the SPI Primary site is a mess: a rundown Punca Emas shopping complex that has further tainted the city’s image.
CHIJ was located near the Seremban bus terminal and the railway station. The nuns of the convent asked him to do the costing for a proposed new school, with 60 classrooms to cater for the English, Chinese and Tamil streams and three playing fields, each with a 400m track.
That would have required 8ha of land and cost about RM30 million, so the idea was shelved, he added.
The grand plan was seen as an attempt to safeguard the institution of the convent, but CHIJ’s biggest challenge came in the late 1980s when the state government pressured them to relocate.
Then menteri besar Mohd Isa Abdul Samad suggested that CHIJ had to be demolished because the buildings housing the primary and secondary schools were unsafe for occupation.
Isa also reasoned that the relocation was inevitable due to at least one child dying every year while crossing the busy roads surrounding the school.
The nuns did not want a fight with the state and surrendered their ownership of about an acre of the school land as did the church that owned the balance. The field belonged to the government.
The CHIJ buildings were torn down in 1994 despite widespread disapproval amid findings that the buildings were structurally sound. The only convent in the state was no more.
The land went into private hands and the new schools were renamed Sekolah Kebangsaan Puteri Seremban and SMK Puteri Seremban and relocated 5km away to Taman AST.
The beginnings of the unsightly pond were set in motion. Two levels of the basement carpark were completed before the economic crisis in 1997 forced work to be discontinued.
Thamboe said when work stopped, the structure experienced a buoyancy effect from the high water table prevalent in Seremban town.
He said: “They made openings on the perimeter walls on the sides and allowed the water to come in so that it doesn’t cause a buoyancy effect.”
The water is said to be two storeys deep (each storey being 10ft high). Asked if the water could be pumped out now, Thamboe said:
“That could be done after building roughly eight storeys to weigh down the boat-like condition of the structure and prevent it from being lifted up.
“If the water were to be pumped out now, the whole structure will float due to the buoyancy. This, in turn, will cause the basement to come up and impact the buildings that are immediately across on Jalan Dato Bandar Tunggal (formerly Birch Road).”
So that raises the question of why soil investigations did not pick up the high water table before construction and the fact that the convent was often flooded during the rainy season.
The whole of Seremban town is ex-tin mining land, and it sits on a basin: You hit water 1m below the ground along the main roads.
In the mid-90s, Indah Water Konsortium had difficulty laying sewer pipes along Birch Road due to the high water table. They faced the same problem when they dug up backlanes in some parts of the town.
There is nothing like unfairness to stoke up a feeling of anger and the CHIJ and SPI episodes reek of questionable decisions made by the authorities in favour of commercial enterprises.
There is a serious problem when the government does not act against a company that refuses to at least spruce up an unsightly pond that is bereft of purpose.
There is every reason for past students of these schools to be gutted to see the area where their former school once stood in a deplorable state.
They are not wrong in making connections between incursions on educational liberty and commercial gain.
One more thing: the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the grotto at the convent was not destroyed during the demolition of the CHIJ structures. Thamboe said the statue is now at the Church of the Visitation. -FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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