Cabinet's Go Ahead

Rais: Team must submit report by August

PETALING JAYA: An expedition to search for a lost city in Johor has been ordered to be put together immediately by the Cabinet yesterday.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the research and verification expedition for Kota Gelanggi would be headed by the Department of Museums and Antiquities.

“We have asked them to go in immediately. They have to report to us, the latest by August, regarding anything connected to Kota Gelanggi,” he said yesterday.

“Whether they find it or not, they will have to tell us the state of affairs.”

Dr Rais briefed the Cabinet yesterday about the search for the lost city and it accepted his report.

Other members of the expedition would include independent researcher Raimy Che-Ross, ministry officials and experts from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Johor Heritage Foundation, Johor Forestry Department and Malaysia Centre For Remote Sensing (Macres).

Raimy believes he may have located the long-sought city of Kota Gelanggi, also referred to as Klang Kiu, through studying old Malay manuscripts, aerial photographs and a preliminary ground search.

Although certain quarters have expressed scepticism, Dr Rais asked everyone to keep an open mind until the ground expedition came up with their findings.

“They will have to verify the age of the city by possibly carbon-dating the artefacts,” he said.

“In the event that we do not have the necessary expertise, we will involve foreign experts.”

The department’s director-general Datuk Dr Adi Taha said the team hoped to enter the site by mid-March.

All the people involved in the expedition would meet next week, he said.

“We will work with Raimy to get the location and interview the local village heads and other people,” he said, adding that Macres' images would be able to indicate whether there were unusual markings in the forest cover.

The cost for the expedition has yet to be ascertained.