I believe that the City council do have a list of 25 buildings/sites that they recognise as worthwhile heritage buildings/sites and another 72 buildings/sites that they have listed as potential heritage buildings/sites. I am sure the Convent School will be in the first group.

Secondly there is a very old Heritage Act still in force that penalises anybody who damages a gazetted heritage building or site, but the penalty is very small and in no way a deterrent even if the law was enforced. The key word in the above sentence is "gazetted", because that means by the Federal Government and very few buildings fall in to that category. Certainly none of the Potential sites and maybe very few of the first 25 have got that far to date. To get a building gazetted one requires City, State and Federal agreement. Not an easy task!

At the last election a new Ministry was created to include Heritage. A great step forward for Malaysia. A new Heritage Act with severe penalties and a complete new set of rules was expected in April this year. It has been delayed and I have no idea of the new date. It cannot come too soon.

I look forward to great things in the future, hopefully not the too distant future for Malaysia and particularly Ipoh and Perak still have a wonderful heritage to save.

I hope this helps you understand where Heritage has got to (assuming I have got it right!). If I have made some errors in this summary I will be happy to be corrected.