Let me get straight to the point: overdevelopment is slowly killing our once delightful neighbourhoods. Of course, the city and its suburbs need to grow to accommodate a growing population but the wilful destruction of our neighbourhoods for profit is something else. 

In Bangsar, for example, huge construction projects that will very likely triple the population of the area within the next few years are underway. Little or no thought is being given to whether the area can even support such massive development or the adverse impact it will have on residents. It’s happening all over the country as well.

It staggers the mind that any local authority would even consider let alone approve some of these massive projects. The officials who approve such projects have to be either corrupt, indifferent or incompetent; there’s just no other explanation for what’s going on. 

Fed up with the lack of transparency and tired of all the excuses and excesses, angry citizens are having to fight their unelected local councils in order to protect their neighbourhoods, green spaces and peace of mind. TTDI residents, for example, fought a seven-year long battle against DBKL – which used taxpayers’ money to fight taxpayers – from developing Taman Rimba Kiara, a much-loved park.

In a landmark ruling on the Taman Rimba Kiara case, the court said that “the mayor owes a duty under the common law to notify and hear objections by residents on any proposed development under his jurisdiction. There can only be proper effective town planning if residents are consulted and heard before a decision on the proposed development is made….” Simple but immensely profound given the rape of our neighbourhoods.

But it does not seem to have stopped the developers because neither our politicians nor our public servants really give a damn about the people they claim to serve. 

Unless this iniquitous system is changed more green spaces will be handed over to developers; more condos and office towers will be squeezed into the tiniest of spaces; overcrowding will grow and life will get much harder for all.

What is needed, of course, is greater accountability through local council elections; the mayor must be accountable to residents, must know that if he doesn’t serve his constituents, he’ll be booted out. Local councils have a direct bearing on the lives and well-being of citizens; to deny local council elections is to deny citizens their most basic rights.

That is why Local Government Development Minister Nga Khor Ming’s statement (in February this year) that local council elections are not a priority for the unity government is especially disgraceful and disappointing. It may not be a priority for high-flying ministers like Nga but it matters to ordinary citizens – just ask the numerous citizen groups fighting to save their neighbours from rapacious developers. 

But Nga’s backtracking on local council elections shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the duplicitous behaviour of the DAP and PKR.  After the 2018 elections, both DAP and PKR MPs vowed to revive local council elections; Lim Lip Eng even promised to come up with a legal framework and mechanism for it. 

But it was all talk, empty posturing. They were not committed to it then, they are not committed to it now. Indeed, the very idea of returning power to the people via local council elections is apparently too much for these MPs who claim to be champions of democratic reform.

This is one of the real tragedies of Malaysia. The people keep voting for change and they keep getting governments that refuse to change, governments that are more devoted to their cronies and big businesses than to the people who elect them.

They frighten us with stories about the green wave or try to impress us with all their big economic plans, but at the end of the day what does it all matter if we end up living in overcrowded, polluted and noisy neighbourhoods full of high-end condos which only foreigners can afford to buy.

Honestly, I think that the unity government is increasingly out of touch with reality. They give great speeches about an Asian renaissance, boast that we are on track to become a high-income country by 2028 or coo about their conversation with Elon Musk but what does it all mean if basic food items like eggs and rice are unavailable or unaffordable to ordinary citizens or if our neighbourhoods are destroyed? 

Sooner or later, Malaysians are going to ask themselves how much more are they expected to endure and sacrifice just to keep the green wave at bay? 

[Dennis Ignatius | Kuala Lumpur | 1^st October 2023]