After all, the compact, traditional Malay house was a striking sight despite being dwarfed by the tall buildings flanking it, and the skyscrapers in the vicinity.
Curiously, it was extremely well-preserved.
It caused a trail of questions to form in his mind: who lives there? Was it someone important? And what story did this house at No. 41, Jalan Chow Kit have to tell?
Incidentally, Fatulrahman, then a part-time student at Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (Aswara), was looking for a subject for his documentary. And when he came across the house, he knew that he had found it.
“It was love at first sight for me. It has its own ‘character’ and even though it’s beautiful, you can see its ‘stubbornness’,” the 40-year-old told FMT, referring to the fact that the house appeared to have adamantly survived the test of time.
“The owner must not have cared what anyone else thought,” he added.
Meeting ‘Nenek’ Norma
He would eventually get to know the occupant of the house, an elderly woman named Norma Manjawali. When he told her he wanted to make a documentary about her house, she happily gave her consent.
“When I did my research, I discovered that it was built in 1926. Many things have happened since then, such as the Japanese Occupation and the 1969 riots, but it survived.”
This led him to name the house, “Rumah Degil”, or the Stubborn House.
He also discovered that Norma, whom he affectionately referred to as “nenek” (grandmother), had lived there since her birth in 1932. Although she moved out when she married, she returned after her husband died.
And as he interviewed Norma, he realised that she too, appeared to have a stubborn streak as she refused to sell the property despite being offered a lot of money. “Money was not important to her,” Fatulrahman shared.
In the documentary interview, she spoke in Malay, saying: “As long as I have the money, I will defend this house.”
Fatulrahman also learnt more about its history.
According to him, the house was constructed by one Haji Jaafar Sutan Sinombar, also known as Sutan Mengatas, the nephew of Sutan Puasa – making Norma a direct descendant of the man as well.
And who was Sutan Puasa?
A book titled, “Sutan Puasa: Founder of Kuala Lumpur”, written by Abdur-Razzaq Lubis and published in 2018, describes him as the earlier founder of the capital city.
Saving ‘Rumah Degil’
Fatulrahman completed the documentary in 2007 and was overjoyed when it made it to the finals in the best documentary category of the Malaysia Film Festival that same year.
But years later, a call from one James Chong found him revisiting the subject of ‘Rumah Degil’ all over again.
Chong told him the land where the house stood had been sold. Worse yet, the house was to be demolished.
Refusing to see Rumah Degil disappear into thin air, Fatulrahman agreed to join Chong, his architect cousin Tan Kay Chay, and several others as they embarked on a rescue effort to save the house. This was in 2015.
This first step involved carefully dismantling the house, one wooden board at a time. “The individual parts were tagged and stored in another house,” Fatulrahman shared, adding that the team also looked for a new, suitable location where it could be reconstructed.
The house was acquired by Jabatan Warisan Negara (Department of National Heritage) and subsequently rebuilt on the grounds of the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the process of rebuilding the house came with its share of challenges. “One day, there was a heavy storm in Kuala Lumpur. And, the whole house toppled over because the wind was too strong,” he revealed.
Still, the ‘stubborn streak’ of the house was evident, and it was successfully reconstructed yet again in 2019.
Today, it stands beautiful in its new site – a glorious remnant of the past that has made it into the present.
For ‘nenek’
So, how did Norma, who had moved to Putrajaya in 2009, react to this incredible effort to save her ancestral home?
“After the rebuilding was completed, we dropped by her home and showed her a picture. She was happy and sad at the same time because she wanted to go back to the house. But she was too ill at the time.”
Norma passed away later that year at the age of 87. “But at least she saw the completed house before that. I can see that she missed it a lot. This is for her,” he added.