With reference to reports on the statement of support by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for the proposal to turn Brickfields into a "Little India, I request the authorities to reassess any such idea.
Suggestions that "Brickfields" be turned into a "Little India" arise out of ignorance of its dimensions and cultural mix. The place is far from being an ethnic Indian colony or ghetto. On the other hand it is true that Brickfields has suffered an identity crisis since the name was taken off its roads, a problem compounded by the carving out of KL Sentral from ex-KTM land.
Brickfields is far bigger than the suggestion for "Little India" asseumes. It stretches from the Klang River on one side to Jalan Bangsar and Jalan Travers on the other, and from beyond the Kuala Lumpur railway station to before MidValley Megamall. Roads that formerly carried "Brickfields" in their names (now replaced with "Tun Sambanthan") are one indicator of these boundaries.
It is true that many ethnic Indians live, work and do business there. So do a good number of ethnic Chinese, Malays and others. In addition to Hindu temples, it has a large Buddhist temple as well as Christian churches, and the Muslims bury their dead there.
Brickfields has a multi-modal transportation hub in the form of KL Sentral, which is in stark contrast to its terribly inadequate roads and bad parking habits. Government efforts should be focused on improving the experience of the hundreds of thousands of pedestrian and vehicular traffic as they pass daily through the congested district.
Brickfields has food stalls and high-rise hotels, government offices and private businesses, broadband and the arts, national and international schools, residents and transients. It is more than a high-density residential and commercial district.
Clearly, its population generates mountains of garbage, as can be witnessed in merely two examples, at the Jalan Tun Sambanthan 2/Jalan Thambi Abdullah 1 junction and along Jalan Ang Seng, which is used daily by tens of thousands of pedestrians heading to and from the Bangsar LRT or MidVally.
Immediate efforts should focus on bringing up to standard the rubbish collection and cleaning of public places. Periodic cleanliness campaigns serve a purpose, but cannot replace ongoing porgrammes. And, is the distribution of garbage bins for public use in this high density district all that difficult or expensive?
While planning initiatives could come from the authorities including City Hall and the Ministry, all stakeholders should be invited to contribute ideas and resources. One of the most important is the business community including MRCB and its partners: look at the big picture, rather than promote "Little India".
Brickfields remains a community after a hundred years, though increasingly a cosmopolitan and international one. To give it a fresh identity, we should draw on the creative ideas of the community and its well-wishers rather than transplant foreign concepts.
Think people, than brick and mortar. A public park would be an excellent idea, for example, since there is sufficient government-owned land for this.
And fine the litter- bugs.
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