This focus on the Atkinson Clock Tower vs Mall issue has now taken an interesting twist – a historical lesson for all :
THE person after whom the Atkinson Clock Tower is named was a member of the British troops set out to assassinate Sabah’s hero Mat Salleh back in 1900.
But to me, what we are preserving by keeping this Clock Tower and its surrounding area undisturbed are two things – this amazing piece of architecture that is an all-wood and no-nail structure built in 1905 which survived World War 2 and the pleasant forested area in a city which is becoming very congested with buildings and traffic jams.
The late Mr Atkinson and his legacy is quite irrelevant, actually.
More shopping malls is great but let’s have them somewhere else.
We want our future generation to drive into Kota Kinabalu city along Signal Hill Road past the Atkinson Clock Tower and continue to MARVEL at how such a simple structure could stay intact after hundreds of years.
Instead of seeing a mall, which in 50 years time would probably be rundown and abandoned.
