Is my community one of the
most kesian of communities in this country?
Is that the reason why the
phrase “improving the lot of the Malays” keep cropping up every now and then;
the latest being the UDA – Penang State Government – Kampung Tanjung Tokong, urm,
initiative?
Read: “It would entail
relocating about 1,200 families from their village houses into flats built in
high-rises as compensation. UDA hailed the initiative as improving the lot of the Malays so that they are not left behind.”
(My emphasis)
My briefest of stay in
Penang with my uncle did not allow me much of exploring the of the island state;
Kampung Tanjung Tokong included.
It is said to be an
original Malay fishing settlement all those years ago pre
Francis Lights’ taking over of Penang from Kedah and turning it into a thriving
port.
And because of that, the
powers that be decided for Kampung Tanjung Tokong to be accorded the status
“heritage”.
Umm, for 250 years of
being what? Excuse me for being blur on the history of Kampung Tanjung Tokong,
which I promise to look up if I am so keen and have the time to indulge in
something which I have little interest in.
Anyway, I am digressing
here and back we are to the “improving the lot of Malays” bit.
Supposedly one way of
doing so is by cramming families into flats of between 800 to 850 square feet from
wherever it is that they were staying in previously.
…
Really crude
generalization at work here.
There’s no doubt that most
of us would have had the, urmm, luxury of staying at these modern - housing development
players driven - interpretation of the human habitat.
Mine was the Teratai Mewah
(ahem) Apartments in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur.
Nasty, nasty traffic,
crappy lifts, express out-the-window garbage deliveries, scant consolation of a
shared playground, longhouse styled layout, birds’ eye view of your neighbour’s
flat, deplorable maintenance… Quite the place we had.
Sure there are plus
points; …… a roof on my head (nope sorry, that’s my upper neighbor’s floor
actually), close knit community (if we had enough time to knit about, that
is), security (yeah, right).
(But flats are sure heaven sent for the starting-out-in-life singles.
Affordable entry point, often easy access to public transit points, plenty of
makan places, solace of being stranger amongst strangers…)
Improving of one’s lot in
life, eh?
Perhaps the newer flats
are super spanky: after all, it really has been quite a while since I’ve been
in one after I left Teratai Mewah and Kuala Lumpur for Ipoh and a landed
property (initially rented then bought) in one of its suburbs.
Finally, my family
had its own breathing space and what an improvement it was.
Often the excuse is that
land is scarce and hence you have to build upwards to be able to accommodate
the burgeoning population as cities, towns and suburban areas expand through
the years.
Maybe so, but couldn’t we
have planned our development better? After all, the country is only 54 years
old and we could have well learnt from the experience of others which had
threaded the same path before.
Authorities often would
decry the supposed unreasonable demands from those involved in similar, urm,
relocation exercise.
It is but only natural to want to be
able to stay close to the land, feet on the ground as you stand outside your
home – no matter how humble an abode - to watch
the time pass by and to not feel trapped in a concrete enclosure with a
single exit.
The writer of the above
mentioned article asked: “Is not decimating such a physical legacy in the form
of the village, which inherently contains old Malay values – cultural,
architectural, communal – an antithesis to improving the lot of the Malays?”
A perfectly valid point.
In fact, we can travel
down south to another heritage-status filled state in Malacca to see some of
these ideals in action.
Of course, these are views
of the romantics and the idealists; not the realists who understand that the
new value in life is in denominations of Ringgits and Sens.
Especially in the Pearl of
the Orient where a 850 sq feet flat can cost a whopping RM300,000 per unit. How
much is that in monthly installment, I wonder? Perhaps this is the improvement
in lot spoken of.
A plot of land can house a
single family. Or it can accommodate a whole lot more with some economical
equations thrown in.
Pardon the fully intended
use of words.
