An excavator makes light work of the demolition of the old building at Jalan Masjid.
KUCHING (April 27): A half-century old building which used to house the State Information Department at Jalan Masjid is being demolished to make way for new development.
Demolition work started on April 26 and is expected to end on May 2.
According to the department in a statement today, the building was used as the department’s state headquarters for more than 40 years before moving to the present building at Jalan Diplomatik in 2006.
It was then used as the office for Kuching and Samarahan divisions information department.
An organisational restructuring in 2018 saw the office turned into Kuching District information office that year.
The district information office moved to a new premises at Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce in June last year, leaving the building vacant.
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District information officer Magdellina Alfred Jeho said the building holds a special place in her memory as it was where she reported for duty upon returning to the state.
As for Zainab Othman, 56, she said the building was visited by former information minister the late Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat many years ago during a general election.
Having spent 37 years at the department, she said she started as a daily paid staff before being offered and accepted as permanent staff in 1996.
A retiree Mariyati Oerip Marsono, 59, also has fond memories of the building particularly when she was the Kuching Information officer from 2007 to 2009.
“I cannot forget how I used to supervise and assign personnel because there were many of them in Kuching compared to other districts.
“The district information office had the task of monitoring the most number of state constituencies and it was very challenging,” said Mariyati.
She said the unique feature of the old building was its location in the city centre in close proximity to Padang Merdeka where many big events are held.
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