Allow me to offer two different perspectives to Stephen Ng’s article titled, ‘KL developing into a slum city’.
One different perspective is that Kuala Lumpur is already a slum city. This is the perspective of a Brickfields resident (a real city dweller) who does not own a car and uses public transport. The “Desa” where Mr Ng lives is more like a suburb.
I walk daily past mounds of garbage illegally dumped by the roadside. This is not common litter but, in addition to it, mounds of household waste mostly wrapped in plastic bags. There are signs at the very dump sites warning of heavy fines for garbage dumping.
But by all appearances, the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and the Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-Being Ministry are unable or unwilling to enforce the law, to compound offenders, to educate residents on proper disposal procedures or to persuade monopolist Alam Flora to do its job.
The LRT and Monorail systems operate well. The same cannot be said for the KTM Komuter. Worse still are the buses that are rarely regular and sometimes do not even follow the designated route. I am threatened by speeding vehicles. Pedestrian walkways always make way and break in order for roads to run through. Walkways even turn into street hawker sites.
Dataran Merdeka is officially a waiting area for tour buses, their engines running and spewing exhaust at stupid pedestrians like me who refuse to jump on the bandwagon and into a car. Bus stops are waiting areas also for all kinds of vehicles - including drivers of expensive cars who seemingly cannot afford to pay parking charges at the readily available designated car parks.
When riding in a bus, I see beautifully manicured plants and flowers at highway interchanges, but there are none along where I and many other people walk - only litter and garbage and broken tiles.
Kuala Lumpur and its opinion-makers need to respect people more and cars less. This is clear from the constant harping on potholed roads when the condition of pedestrian walkways in the city is much worse. And cars do not appreciate manicured parks and gardens, people do.
'Make owning cars expensive'
Cars multiply only when they are allowed to. Do not allow - or make it prohibitively expensive - for them to enter the city. Make owning and operating cars expensive. In the meantime, teach drivers to observe the city’s speed limit and other traffic rules.
Public transport is already good in parts. The rest can be improved if there is political and administrative will.
My second different perspective then, is that Kuala Lumpur need not develop into a slum if the development takes into account how people will live in the city, not maximising private profits from buildings and roads.
A fundamental decision that city planners make at an early planning stage, is the relationship between the distribution of buildings and their connectivity.
San Francisco and Singapore are said to be two contrasting examples of the two ways to go in city planning. Motorised vehicles are an integral part of living in San Francisco. They are not in Singapore.
Ng’s prediction that “Once completed, the new condominium will add a few hundred more vehicles on a shared exit with residents of Bandar Sri Damansara,” is probably correct. But it does not have to be so.
High density living - as in flats, for example - has its advantages. It enables better delivery of amenities while also saving land for recreational purposes.
We need to know where we are headed and then work out the best way to get there, literally. But will the authorities listen to the people, or will they be led by the nose by business interests?
