Uphill battles ahead

Unfortunately it often takes tragedy to galvanise action, and in the wake of the terrible landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa last week the urgency of re-examining our lackadaisical attitude to the environment and the content and enforcement of building regulations cannot be overstated. Sadly a political blame fest began almost immediately; a repellent display insulting residents who lost their loved ones, homes and livelihoods. Yet there were also accounts of heroism, like my friend’s neighbour who, rather than instantly fleeing the scene, banged on neighbours’ doors to alert them of the impending disaster. If not for him, many more might have perished. As the victims pick up the pieces let us hope that the politicians work with the engineers, geologists, meteorologists, architects and other experts to formulate guidelines and regulations for developers and buyers alike; and set clear areas of responsibility between federal, state and local bodies and incentivise them appropriately.

Signs of environmental degradation are clear to anyone who grew up in KL: the roads (which choke up when there is even a slight drizzle) are less resistant to precipitation than before, a skyline filtered through carbon derivatives is no longer a talking point and one can barely see a star in the night sky anymore, decreasing the chance that young KL kids might be inspired to study astronomy (as I was). The nearest recycling centre to my home is a two kilometre drive away – as much as I’d like to swipe my Touch ’n Go like I do my Oyster card in London, the nearest LRT station is three kilometres away and the nearest bus stop perennially resembles a sardine tin. There is of course a balance to be made between urban sprawl and high density zones, but we lack the transport infrastructure for either.

To be generous, we aren’t alone in deprioritising the environment: it is a relatively new area of public policy even in established democracies, so as we move to balance our democratic deficit it will gain prominence alongside traditional issues, like education. Last week saw uproar over Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir’s comments on vernacular schools, but since this is only a fortnightly column all I will say here is that if schools had more autonomy, they could decide what sort of education they wanted to provide without interference from politicians. The demands of students and parents would directly determine the success of failure of a school, and other schools would be free to try and cater to these demands as well. Competition, it’s called.

While reform of the education system is a gargantuan task fraught with political difficulty, this week the Prime Minister tabled the Bills on the Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption and Judicial Appointments Commission. Not only that, they are due to be rushed through in this session of parliament which ends next week, which is an indication of how urgent these issues are and a recognition that time is running out. The risk in rushing legislation is that quality can suffer, and perhaps the Dewan Negara can come into its own and improve upon what the Dewan Rakyat sends it before Royal Assent. In my stint interning for a member of the House of Lords I was amazed to learn that the second chamber on average passes two thousand amendments to bills the House of Commons sends it every year. Indeed, an unelected chamber has the advantage of not needing to score political points as visibly as the elected one and can thus focus on the nitty-gritty.

But quite rightly, a by-election to the lower house has the politicos transfixed. The Battle of Kuala Terengganu, due to take place on 17 January 2009, will be epic. The impact of the result on the leaderships of the parties and alliances concerned will resonate long after the 80,000 voters of Kuala Terengganu cast their ballots. “Trengganu [sic] was fortunate to be seen as too inaccessible and too economically insignificant to be worth bothering about by the two intervening powers”, wrote Awang Goneng in one of last year’s finest books, Growing Up in Trengganu. How times abide. But interestingly, one of the big debates among the PAS ranks is how advantageous it would be to field a local candidate as opposed to an outsider: the origin of one’s prospective MP still does (and ought to) matter. Romantic Trengganu has always been resistant to outside political pressure; when Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin resisted Putrajaya earlier this year, anak Trengganu would have recalled Sultan Zainal Abidin III’s heroic resistance of the British a hundred years earlier. Regardless of whether a tsunami will crash against Bukit Puteri next month, the words of Malaysian Mandopop singer Ah Niu in his song for the city will surely hold water: “Beribu-ribu tahun angin monsun menjunjung pantaimu / Biarlah ombak melanda semakin suci wajahmu”.

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‘Abidin Muhriz is Director of the Malaysia Think Tank (www.waubebas.org)

An edited version of this article was published in theSun, 12 December 2008