“SAVE MY ALMA MATER!”
SMK Convent Bukit Nanas is an all-girls high school located at Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur. It is one of the oldest schools in Malaysia, having been established in 1899. Twitter user @yesitshanna recently expressed her concern for her alma mater as it was facing the threat of being sold to developers. She shared a petition asking for netizens to sign in the hopes that it would make a difference.
SAVE MY ALMA MATER! Convent Bukit Nanas was founded in 1899 — that’s 122 years of irreplaceable history and architecture. Its lease is due to expire in September; renewal has been refused.
KL DOES NOT NEED ANOTHER HIGH RISE. https://t.co/ea3mqDx4fD
— Hanna Alkaf / not here (@yesitshanna) April 20, 2021
The petition has made its rounds on Twitter, with netizens sharing their concern over the possible loss of the historical landmark and school.
Please stop tearing down our historical sites
— Malik Mohamed (@MalikMaxwellRo1) April 20, 2021
Girls from other schools also showed their support for the cause:
MGSKL girl here.
I support this ?
KL is already suffering from over-development. Stop erasing history. https://t.co/kOrHjYzipr
— Sara Yasmin Talib (@Sara_Yasmin) April 20, 2021
Among those who spoke up in the hopes of protecting the school is Malaysian model, TV host and actress Vanidah Imran. The 47-year-old expressed her dissatisfaction when she found out that the lease for the land would not be renewed come 6th September later this year. In an Instagram post, the actress – who prefers to be addressed as Vee – accused greedy individuals of wanting to take away one of KL’s greatest heritages in their chase for profit.
She stated:
“If CBN is demolished, KL will lose another building of significant architectural interest. Le Coq D’Or has been turned into W Hotel, Pudu Jail into Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC), and Tasputra Perkim founded by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra into an international school, just to name a few buildings we’ve lost in the past.”
Vanidah’s statement received the thumbs-up from Netizens, including performing arts lecturer Dr Norzizi Zulkifli and singer-actress Adibah Noor who also studied in CBN.
CBN, a school that braved through World War 2 back in 1941 was once a temporary sanctuary for hundreds of civilian refugees. It’s a school that lives and breathes culture and history. It’s completely understandable how its students and alma maters feel about it being taken away from them – demolishing it would symbolically mean erasing a part of our own Malaysian history. On the 19th of April, the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Convent Bukit Nanas was today granted leave by the High Court in KL to mount a challenge against the non-renewal of its land lease but its application for a stay, pending the disposal of this judicial review, will only be heard on May 4, 2021. As of yet, more than 22,000 netizens have signed a petition urging the government to save the school.