I work, play, eat, live in the Klang Valley. This is my home. So when City Hall stated they would strive to make it better by introducing the KL municipal plan 2020, I had such high hopes. I really should have known better; the Federal Government, the Mayor, Malaysians in general, have since caused my hopes to be dashed, bleeding and broken.
I'm wondering as to whether the city planners have even been to other places, seen other systems in action? Singapore, London, Tokyo, New York; these cities offer so much in terms of housing development, zone planning, public transportation, the basic qualities of life that is supposed to be the right of every citizen in a modernized city. Unalienable rights like green lungs, safe modes of transport, space.
The new Draft City Plan lacks human scale, the lynchpin of every modern city. 1.09 hectares for every 90 people sounds insane, because it is. It is unrealistic and outmoded; a system for a bygone era, a third world era. Where people's expectations were lower, income was smaller. Where everything needs to be packed into a small space merely to centralize workforce and work space.
But now, and in the future, decentralization is the new watchword. The internet has created a new office structure, one where distance does not matter. The draft plan does not reflect this, emphasizing the need for centralization even more by adding to the amount of people per hectare.
Where are the schools, the public parks and walking paths, the places of worship for our non-muslim brothers and sisters? I get that we're supposedly a muslim country, but to leave them out totally? They're citizens too, with rights as unassailable as our own.
The zoning requirements were uninspired, and public transport issues were not properly addressed. No mention of bus lanes, taxi stands. Yeah, more new LRT stations. Woohoo. Now how the hell am I supposed to get there from where I am?
We are planning to be a First World country by 2020, but it feels like we are moving backwards. We need to move away from the trappings of the 20th century, to change the whole 'jaguh kampung' mindset.
Plus, this is Kl we're talking about, the jewel in Malaysia's crown. Kl is supposed to be the hub of our culture, our most visible facet. It's peers should be Qatar and Singapore, Beijing and Amsterdam and Tokyo and Frankfurt and Melbourne. I do not want to live, bring up a family, work, play, in a city that cannot sustain itself. A city of squalor and low living conditions. I deserve better than that, and so does every KL'ite.
Speak out, this issue affects all of us.
23/06/2008
14/06/2008
My muses are unkind
Sorta shit-swamped work-wise. But in-between work and play, sketched out a rough draft of something interesting :
3rd Mechanised Infantry battalion, 4th Platoon of the Malaysian Army, RMAF.
2209pm 17th Feb 2048
Border patrol sucks. You sit in the jungle, guarding some patch of nowhere with no name except a GPS point, waiting for some smuggler just stupid enough to stumble into your piquets. Or some Thai separatist para-military gun runner. In which case you hope they start shooting, if only to relieve the sheer bone-crushing boredom.
There's noone else around for at least 10 km. Well, noone else apart from your squadmates, but they're a bunch of <expletive>.
Flies, leeches, mosquitoes, other assorted invertabrates, an antsy sergeant just waiting to crawl up your ass at the slightest provocation. And has anyone mentioned the rain? Its the height of the monsoon season. Sure, teflon-kevlar web-vests and full body suits reduce bullet penetration, but it gets hot and itchy and damp in <12 cubic centimetres> of effing rain!
Its not helping that the ethernet 'ceiver is down, and the squad mech-head is 'still' fiddling with the MBP.
Join the Army, they said. See the world, pick up some skills, get some creds.
Sigh. A kingdom for a working 'Net 'ceiver. The jungle was 'really' spooky.
The small clearing they've appropiated as Home Base was silent, save for the hiss-crackle of static from the vidscreen and the near-inaudible cursing of Corporal Chen, seated by it.
Across the clearing, Sergeant Azman, face lit by the harsh actinic glow of the LLED clipboard display in his large hands, sat conversing with Pvt Raf, the squad's mech-junkie, in tones too low to carry. Her hands, what he could see of them in the twilight gloom, were elbow-deep in the rear nerve bundles of the MBP.
Soft snapping sounds signalled the return of Private's Jason and Ariff from piquet duty, the former's dusky skin tone making him near invisible in the low light. Hands moving animatedly, talking shit like usual.
Tending the fire, silent commentary done, Private First Class Keong.
Finally, taking up the whole north corner of the clearing, the dappled green bulk of MBP 43-117, twin NN engines idling gently, shifting weight slightly from foot to foot to maintain zero equilibrium.
Welcome to the 4th. And all of the enlisted here were no older than 21.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. . .The food and fuel crisis of the early years of the century changed the world. Yes, it checked the rampant usage of fossil fuels and caused an influx of capital into agriculture. On a global level, humanity was learning to be a sustainable species.
But on a more human level, the destabilisation of the global economy left millions hungry. And the high price of oil excarbated the situation; thousands of companies either consolidated, liquidated, or merely disappeared. The world unemployment rate was at a never-before seen high.
Every major city in the world was rocked with riots; Bangladesh, Jakarta, New York. And Kuala Lumpur was no exception. So severe were the riots that the Malaysian Territorial Army had to be moved in and a state of martial law was imposed, the first time since the Communist Emergency. . .
-excerpt from Tun Daim Zainuddin's opening speech ,University Malaya, 12th June 2010-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Mechanised Infantry battalion, 4th Platoon of the Malaysian Army, RMAF.
2209pm 17th Feb 2048
Border patrol sucks. You sit in the jungle, guarding some patch of nowhere with no name except a GPS point, waiting for some smuggler just stupid enough to stumble into your piquets. Or some Thai separatist para-military gun runner. In which case you hope they start shooting, if only to relieve the sheer bone-crushing boredom.
There's noone else around for at least 10 km. Well, noone else apart from your squadmates, but they're a bunch of <expletive>.
Flies, leeches, mosquitoes, other assorted invertabrates, an antsy sergeant just waiting to crawl up your ass at the slightest provocation. And has anyone mentioned the rain? Its the height of the monsoon season. Sure, teflon-kevlar web-vests and full body suits reduce bullet penetration, but it gets hot and itchy and damp in <12 cubic centimetres> of effing rain!
Its not helping that the ethernet 'ceiver is down, and the squad mech-head is 'still' fiddling with the MBP.
Join the Army, they said. See the world, pick up some skills, get some creds.
Sigh. A kingdom for a working 'Net 'ceiver. The jungle was 'really' spooky.
The small clearing they've appropiated as Home Base was silent, save for the hiss-crackle of static from the vidscreen and the near-inaudible cursing of Corporal Chen, seated by it.
Across the clearing, Sergeant Azman, face lit by the harsh actinic glow of the LLED clipboard display in his large hands, sat conversing with Pvt Raf, the squad's mech-junkie, in tones too low to carry. Her hands, what he could see of them in the twilight gloom, were elbow-deep in the rear nerve bundles of the MBP.
Soft snapping sounds signalled the return of Private's Jason and Ariff from piquet duty, the former's dusky skin tone making him near invisible in the low light. Hands moving animatedly, talking shit like usual.
Tending the fire, silent commentary done, Private First Class Keong.
Finally, taking up the whole north corner of the clearing, the dappled green bulk of MBP 43-117, twin NN engines idling gently, shifting weight slightly from foot to foot to maintain zero equilibrium.
Welcome to the 4th. And all of the enlisted here were no older than 21.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. . .The food and fuel crisis of the early years of the century changed the world. Yes, it checked the rampant usage of fossil fuels and caused an influx of capital into agriculture. On a global level, humanity was learning to be a sustainable species.
But on a more human level, the destabilisation of the global economy left millions hungry. And the high price of oil excarbated the situation; thousands of companies either consolidated, liquidated, or merely disappeared. The world unemployment rate was at a never-before seen high.
Every major city in the world was rocked with riots; Bangladesh, Jakarta, New York. And Kuala Lumpur was no exception. So severe were the riots that the Malaysian Territorial Army had to be moved in and a state of martial law was imposed, the first time since the Communist Emergency. . .
-excerpt from Tun Daim Zainuddin's opening speech ,University Malaya, 12th June 2010-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16/03/2008
A week is a long time in politics
Read the papers lately? The news I've been reading reaffirms the fact that watching Malaysian politics in action is much like having ring-side seats to a circus.
The one with the really ugly clowns.
In the midst of the political back-stabbing, random policy changes and wrangling over Menteri Besar posts, one article caught my eye; apparently the highest echelons of PAS leadership is "confident that it can soon set up an Islamic Federal Government".
Huh.
Their win in Selangor emboldened their leadership to create comparisons between Selangor and Kelantan, which sounds distinctly dangerous to me. Have you been to Kelantan? Damansara is not Tumpat, nor is Kota Bharu anything like Petaling Jaya. Don't get me wrong, my mother is Kelantanese, which makes me nominally Kelate, and as much as I love that state, I don't think I can survive there for very long.
It's just too . . . different. Too, well, green, if you know what I'm saying.
People who know me well know that I have never believed in religion in politics. God is not welcome in Parliament, because the concerns of the afterlife do not mesh with Parliamentary debate on budgetary issues, or matters of foreign policy. Do not take this to mean that I do not believe in religion; I do, but I believe it to be a private matter between a man and his God (or Gods, or benevelont ancestor deity).
Politicizing religion always turns out for the worst; religion in a place of power breeds extremism, which breeds intolerance. And I don't think I want that for my kids (when I get around to having some).
Yes, I want a change in the political landscape. But no, I do not want to live in the 1960's (or the 11th century) thank you very much. Which could happen when a religion runs a country.
So, yeah. We've exercised our democratic right to usher in new faces for the Government. But have we, in the process, created a monster we can't control?
The one with the really ugly clowns.
In the midst of the political back-stabbing, random policy changes and wrangling over Menteri Besar posts, one article caught my eye; apparently the highest echelons of PAS leadership is "confident that it can soon set up an Islamic Federal Government".
Huh.
Their win in Selangor emboldened their leadership to create comparisons between Selangor and Kelantan, which sounds distinctly dangerous to me. Have you been to Kelantan? Damansara is not Tumpat, nor is Kota Bharu anything like Petaling Jaya. Don't get me wrong, my mother is Kelantanese, which makes me nominally Kelate, and as much as I love that state, I don't think I can survive there for very long.
It's just too . . . different. Too, well, green, if you know what I'm saying.
People who know me well know that I have never believed in religion in politics. God is not welcome in Parliament, because the concerns of the afterlife do not mesh with Parliamentary debate on budgetary issues, or matters of foreign policy. Do not take this to mean that I do not believe in religion; I do, but I believe it to be a private matter between a man and his God (or Gods, or benevelont ancestor deity).
Politicizing religion always turns out for the worst; religion in a place of power breeds extremism, which breeds intolerance. And I don't think I want that for my kids (when I get around to having some).
Yes, I want a change in the political landscape. But no, I do not want to live in the 1960's (or the 11th century) thank you very much. Which could happen when a religion runs a country.
So, yeah. We've exercised our democratic right to usher in new faces for the Government. But have we, in the process, created a monster we can't control?
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