Government listening to the rakyat

Two recent decisions suggest that the rakyat’s concerns are being taken into consideration

COMMENT

By Saleh Mohammed

It was the 19th of October. The API reading was 164 and yet it felt like a breath of fresh air to me. I am not deranged ─ just reacting to two pieces of news that made me feel as one politician put it “like the Government cares and listens to the rakyat”.

The first piece of news concerned the Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s (MPSJ) decision to hold off on the plot ratio increase (1:4 to 1:8) for transit-oriented development (TOD) until the Kelana Jaya LRT extension project was completed.

Plot ratio decisions cannot be arbitrary. They have to be made on the basis of what the infrastructure in the area can support and this is what the Subang Jaya and Kinrara assemblymen wanted ─ a holistic study to assess the impact of increasing the plot ratio on the environment, well-being of the populace and of course, traffic volume.

This courageous decision by MPSJ earned my admiration because the increase had already been approved by the State Planning Committee (SPC).

In a second decision, after a review of other projects planned for the capital city, the DBKL called off a skyscraper project in favour of more affordable housing for the people. In making this decision, the Government decided that the multi-million ringgit project was not feasible in the current economic climate.

In announcing the decision, the mayor said, “After reviewing everything, the government decided that we should focus on more affordable housing projects”. This is a major and surprising turnaround given that less than two months ago DBKL was adamant in going ahead with the project as it had already been approved by the Government.

Kudos to the committee that reviewed the project and came up with the decision and advised the government in such a short period.

It is hoped that the committee would also review other proposals that are likely to have a big impact on the rakyat. These include development plans at Taman Rimba Kiara and the KLGCC Master Plan which are said to include three blocks of high-rise apartments.

Saleh Mohammed is an FMT reader