YOURSAY | 'Malaysians cannot afford apathy regarding senseless development.'

COMMENT | Built for slow burn: Kuala Lumpur's unbreakable heat

Koel: In view of the recent climate-induced disasters involving at least two countries, Malaysians cannot afford apathy regarding senseless development happening in all corners of this country.

Much of this development does not serve people or this country. Endless shopping centres that end up as derelict buildings and empty condominiums that nobody can afford to buy are outcomes.

It is not just Kuala Lumpur. Selangor is being ravaged by rampant urbanisation.

In Petaling Jaya, Subang, Subang Jaya, Ara Damansara and Damansara Jaya, we are seeing more of the same mistakes being made, thanks to poor town planning, the shortsightedness of authorities, the greed of developers out for an easy buck and apathetic environmental agencies failing to protect the only defence against climate disasters.

The roads cannot sustain the increase in traffic, the water resources are strained, councils have a poor record of maintenance of landscapes and drains, and complaints of ratepayers are consigned to some online bin that is supposed to be the complaints hotline.

Academia is laughably useless. What is the meaning of world rankings if we fail to see disasters of global magnitude happening right under our noses?

Instead of addressing the weakness and apathy of councils, environmental agencies and dangerous acts that keep vital information from the public, they are busy with safe, state-sanctioned projects to make political tuans (masters) look good.

And meanwhile the average Malaysian blunders on, cosy in his air-conditioned condo in a dizzying skyscraper, blissfully unaware of the next Putra Heights-like inferno waiting to erupt.

As scholars have predicted, our ignorance and apathy will destroy us.

Exile: Chandran Nair’s article demands a response from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh and Kuala Lumpur’s 11 MPs.

Without an elected local government, they carry an especially important democratic responsibility for how our capital is governed. Indeed, five Kuala Lumpur MPs have already been given specific Kuala Lumpur City Hall monitoring responsibilities.

Chandran is not merely complaining about the heat. He is questioning decades of planning, relentless construction and institutional failure.

Yeoh and the five monitoring MPs should respond to this publicly: What is the plan to cool Kuala Lumpur, protect its remaining green spaces and ensure future development does not make the problem worse?

ScarletGopher4958: Excellent piece to take stock of what lies ahead with the imminent monster El Niño and more global warming if we do not improve or change our planning and ways to counter rising temperatures and urban heat effects, not taking into account other environmental impacts associated with poor urban planning.

Unfortunately, Petaling Jaya City Council, with its very ambitious Draft Petaling Jaya Local Plan 2035 (RTPJ 35), appears not to have learnt the painful lessons from Kuala Lumpur.

It's a good time to review the intensive, ambitious urbanisation plans to accommodate another 200,000 to total a million people in the next 10 years and ensure that liveability for its current residents is maintained.

Why crowd so many dense and environmentally hazardous projects into limited available space for people and traffic now and create another difficult-to-resolve urban nightmare? Selangor has other ample places to expand into.

Headhunter: Those involved in urban renewal often seem unaware of how to create a more comfortable and livable environment.

They focus too much on building concrete jungles, prioritising indoor spaces over outdoor ones.

Empty areas should be transformed into green spaces instead of being covered with more concrete.

If outdoor spaces were made more inviting, people would spend more time outside, reducing the need for energy-sapping electrical equipment like air conditioners, fans, and lighting.

As the world heats up and disasters like the recent Nepal glacier break, causing massive floods and destruction, become more common, environmental science will likely grow in importance.

Our Environment Department should take on the task of creating a better living environment for everyone instead of putting all effort on enforcement alone.

MarioT: A good reflective piece. Urbanisation comes with its share of “problems“ in creating concrete jungles with no environmental provisions for greenery.

With such surroundings, we may feel like working and living in a cauldron of fire.

Singapore has set compulsory requirements for buildings to be incorporated with good and healthy natural surroundings.

But here, the emphasis is set on profit with little or no investment in proper green spaces.

Looking at all the apartments and condos around Kuala Lumpur will give a good idea of the lack of integration with green spaces.

Drkam: Malaysia seems to have decided that natural disasters are simply not our speciality - we prefer the man-made variety.

Unfortunately, we’re not exactly a powerhouse in environmental disaster research. But politics? Ah, that’s where we have world-class expertise!

We can spend hours analysing which party combination, coalition or political marriage can win the next election - even when the numbers say they’re not supposed to!

Just ask our political scientists; they probably have more theories about election permutations than our environmental scientists have about floods, landslides and climate disasters.

Which makes me wonder… do our universities actually have enough environmental scientists, or have we accidentally turned every campus into an election-analysis centre?

Wah Gor Your Other PM: Unless we solve the political financing issue, selling land for development will be the default engine for political “revenue” and rent-seeking.

It’s not that the politicians and civil servants don’t understand the issue or the merits of a “botanical city”; it’s that they don’t care.

Unless we all understand this is not a lack of knowledge and intelligence, we keep preaching to no avail. It’s the agency problem.

BlackCougar8703: Excellent article, and a thorough analysis.

I note that during my increasingly infrequent visits to Kuala Lumpur, the city is becoming significantly hotter, and that little attention is paid to the quality of life within the urban core.

I contrast this with Singapore. It shouldn't be this way.

RatioPrima: Excellent analysis of a deteriorating environmental condition in Kuala Lumpur. Will the powers that be wake up from their deep slumber on their comfortable beds?

RR: Kuala Lumpur or Malaysia as a livable green city or nation should not be the concern and responsibility of environmental engineers like Chandran, or the government servants or Yeoh alone, but that of all Malaysians to avoid disasters as thoroughly enumerated by the writer.

Indeed, it should be the pulse of every citizen and resident for the future of our generations to come.

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