Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has said he was “just throwing the idea” around when he suggested a ban on car parking spaces in Kuala Lumpur buildings.

“I have not spoken to my officers (in the federal territory governments) yet about the car park idea," said Tengku Adnan.

He was responding to a report by theSun that Tengku Adnan had suggested Kuala Lumpur should emulate developed cities which are doing away with parking bays in buildings, to reduce traffic and encourage public transport use.

“Some people said I was crazy, but I was just throwing (the idea around) to get feedback, that is my way of doing things for Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan,” he said during a Tranformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) dialogue in Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur last night.

Tengku Adnan brought up a similar instance in January when he put forward an idea to ban “kap chais” (motorcycles) from entering the Kuala Lumpur city centre.

“Basically all these snatch thieves use motorcycles,” he explained the rationale behind his suggestion.

Like his suggestion to ban city car parking, he said he had simply brought the idea up as a hypothetical.

“I do not even want to implement it, I would not do it because these (motorcycles) are the chief mode of transport for the younger generation,” he said.

Tengku Adnan added that he brought up these thought exercises so that Kuala Lumpur citizens, whom he called his “children”, could open up their minds to new ideas.

Urban homelessness “caused by foreign NGOs”

During the dialogue, participants were encouraged to raise their hands and voice their aspirations for Malaysia in 2050.

Many reacted to a comment Tengku Adnan had made in his speech about how some of the urban homeless were lazy and were “too pampered” by the government.

Social activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi was the first to speak, saying he would like a clear standard operating procedure with regards to how homelessness would be handled by Tengku Adnan’s administration.

A young man from Setiawangsa added that urban homelessness was caused by the high rate of youth unemployment in the city, which was in turn caused by the high level of competition for jobs in the capital as compared to other parts of the nation.

Another youth said that the cause of homelessness was foreign workers who were filling up jobs.

Many were sympathetic towards the plight of the urban homeless, saying they were not lazy or pampered but rather lacked the necessary skills to find a job.

In reply to the participants’ questions and comments, Tengku Adnan argued that foreign NGOs were the root cause of homelessness in Kuala Lumpur.

“These foreign NGOs give them (the homeless) food, and these foreign NGOs like to see Kuala Lumpur look dirty.

“They are the ones responsible, overseas people are the ones responsible,” he said.

A lot was already being done by his administration to solve urban poverty, Tengku Adnan said, including providing affordable council homes, transit homes, free school buses, and rent-to-own schemes.

“There are a lot of things we provide you with, we are already doing lots,” he said.

More than 850 people attended the session, with the theme, ‘Federal Territories - The Future of My Country’. A majority of the attendees were university students and youths living and studying in the capital city.

The government has been holding TN50 town hall sessions across the country since January to record the aspirations citizens have for Malaysia leading up to 2050.