It’s been nearly a month since the historic general election, which saw a new government taking office and a significant surge in new ministers and first-time members of parliament as well.
Fahmi Fadzil is one of those first-time MPs who won the Lembah Pantai constituency last month, and he has some big plans for his time in office!
Source: Malay Mail
According to the Malay Mail, Fahmi stated that changing Bangsar South back to its original name, Kampung Kerinchi, is one of his first pledges as Lembah Pantai’s new MP and hopes that he can accomplish this within his first 100 days in office. He told the daily,
“I raised a number of issues and one of my key promises was to return the name Kerinchi to Bangsar South. That, for me, is quite important.”
“The process needs to be done through DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall). I have to work with DBKL and they have expressed their readiness to work on this.”
“There is a process for it, which needs to be done via the OSC (One Stop Centre) where we have to submit a request for the name change.”
Source: Property Guru
Surprisingly, Fahmi discovered upon meeting with DBKL that the city hall’s senior officials had actually disagreed with renaming the area Bangsar South when it was proposed back in 2012, as local names, especially if they’re Malay names, cannot be changed, according to their rules.
“The question is why was this allowed or rather who allowed the name change? I have yet to find out, but I am keeping a close eye on this matter,” Fahmi continued.
He further explained why he was adamant on keeping the area’s old name, as there’s a lot of historical significance behind it.
Kampung Kerinchi was actually founded by a group of Sumatrans from Kerinchi, Sumatra in the late 1800s (there are also rumours that this group had werewolf-like powers, but we’re not gonna get into that lol).
Abdullah Hukum, the village’s founder, officially opened Kampung Kerinchi in the 1890s after he was granted permission to explore the Sungai Putih area (now known as Jalan Bangsar), which led to the use of Bukit Nenas in his agricultural ventures.
Kerinchi Malays were also one of the earliest settlers of Bukit Bintang, who opened farms and grew vegetables, sugar cane, and other produce.
Abdullah Hukum | Source: Kosmo! Online
For Illustration Purposes | Source: Skyscraper City
“People who are part of the Kerinchi group still speak to one another in the Kerinchi dialect they still have their sense of identity. Who are we without our sense of history? That is why we must not easily change place names,” the MP continued.
Well, let’s hope that part of our capital city’s history is retained! What do you think of this name change? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read: Highland Towers Which Collapsed in 1993 to Be Redeveloped Very Soon
