All new buildings in Kangar will be painted pink, and all existing buildings in that town are urged to follow suit. This may sound like something from a comic-absurdist novel, but I assure you that Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and company have nothing to do with it. This is the real world, and we're in the thick of it.

An AFP report on March 9 quoted the town council chief Baharudin Ahmad as saying that the colour scheme was needed to give the Perlis capital a new identity alongside its existing one. And how many people know what Kangar's existing tag is? Well, pat yourself on the back if you answered "Bonsai Town," a reference to the dwarfed plants that line the streets.

I blush to say that my wanderlust has never included Perlis in its Things To Do list. But although I am as fond of pink as the next Jayne Mansfield fan, I am not sure if the prospect of seeing a bunch of blushing buildings will entice me to get on that midnight train to Kangar.

Why is this policy being enforced? Just for the sake of a place in the Malaysia Book of Records and a mention in one of those "Just fancy that!" filler columns so beloved of international newspapers? We can ask, but the lack of transparency around these parts will make it difficult for us to truly know.

Reactions on the Internet have been wide and varied. A cynic called for a Royal Commission to find out exactly which politician owns shares in the pink-paint factory. An alarmist pointed out that pink is used for the padded walls of sanitariums to calm patients down, and that the choice ominously points to the government's desire to sedate its citizens, starting from the north down.

And an aesthete said that after the high point of the KL Central Market re-launch, pink walls are becoming passe, pallid and puke-making.

The government of Perlis obviously wants more tourists. We don't blame it. Among all Malaysian states, Perlis is definitely lowest on the list when it comes to perceived excitement value.

Perlis is not a state that inspires you to write songs or even haiku s in homage to it. No one ever withdrew all their savings for a wild, crazy, once-in-a-lifetime trip to Perlis. No one ever lay in their deathbed and sobbed: "My life would have been perfect, if only I had a chance to see Perlis." Matters of geographical scale aside, Perlis is like the Canada of Southeast Asia: you know it's somewhere there, but you're not sure why.

Having a boring image is not necessarily a bad thing. Some places, like some people, prefer to keep a low profile; it suits them. But it's going to be difficult to keep quiet when you have such a loud colour all around you. Were the people of Kangar consulted about this? Or will they just wake up one morning and see red at the sudden change?

It's a crazy idea, but who's to say it won't work? A lot of urban designs were unveiled to rumblings and protest but later became literally just part of the landscape. I imagine the Kangar of the future, a haven of pink, maybe a refuge for all those discarded mini-buses which will make a pilgrimage there to rest, and the image is oddly cheerful.

The same news report says that Kangar also wants to be known as the "Town for Healthy Living." I am not sure if painting walls pink ("In the pink", geddit?) is part of the plan or something entirely separate. If Kangar wants its citizens to be healthy, it needs to do something more than implement a few cosmetic changes.

Then again, this propensity for artificial changes isn't confined merely to the government. The PAS strongman Harun Din, in a pre-election interview with Detik , said that if he came to power in Perlis, the most immediate item on the agenda would be to change the name of the state from "Indra Kayangan" to something less redolent of pagan imagery. (Kayangan is a mythical above-the-clouds haven).

Harun Din never got around to standing for any by-elections, so "Indra Kayangan" stays. And along with it, a whole bunch of pink buildings will come tumbling in. There's probably a message imbedded in here somewhere, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. Thinking pink has made me a little dizzy; I will now lie down and dream of Dumbo.