KL's Changing Skyline
At the southern end of Chinatown, the old Merdeka Park has been cleared and construction is under way on the controversial Merdeka PNB118 tower, which will rise up next to Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara by 2019 – at 682m, it will be Malaysia's tallest building. The estimated cost of the tower, slated to be the new headquarters of PNB (Malaysia’s largest fund-management company and a key instrument in the government’s pro-Malay affirmative-action policies), is RM5 billion, prompting accusations that the money would have been better spent on healthcare or education.
Meanwhile, the site of the former Pudu Prison is being redeveloped into the Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) complex. The first phase, set to be complete by 2020, will include a mall (as if KL were short of them!) with a rooftop public park and concert hall, while plans to further develop the site involve the construction of an 80-storey signature tower by 2025.
Improving Public Transport
If one thing unites all KLites, it’s their frustration with public transport. To address the problem the government is upgrading and integrating the mass rapid transit (MRT) system with the addition of three new lines, including a circular one that will span the KL–Klang Valley conurbation. The first new line – a link between Sungai Buloh and Kajang, 9.5km of which will be underground – will serve 400,000 passengers daily from early 2017.
River of Life
The MRT project is part of the government's expensive Economic Transformation Programme to make Malaysia a high-income nation by 2020. Another is the River of Life project, which involves transforming the Klang River from a polluted sinkhole into a clean and liveable waterfront, with parks and other beautification efforts.
The first phase of the project has centred on improvements in Chinatown, by widening pavements, brightening the streets with statues by local artists and improved signage, and pedestrianising Medan Pasar. The original steps down to the river behind Masjid Jamek have been uncovered and the area around the mosque and along the riverbank has been regenerated, with new pedestrian walkways, plazas and a bridge linking up to Merdeka Sq. Next up is the redevelopment of the riverbank south of Chinatown to Mid Valley, with pocket parks planned in the Brickfields area as well as cycle paths and bicycle-rental stations along the way.
History
By the end of the 19th century, in less than 50 years Kuala Lumpur had grown from a jungle-bound mining settlement into the grand colonial capital of the Malay peninsula. It was here that British rule on the peninsula ended in 1957 and that the modern nation, Malaysia, was born in 1963. Though many government departments moved to Putrajaya in the 1990s, KL continues to function as the heart of Malaysia's economic, political and social life.
The Melaka Empire
To understand how Kuala Lumpur came to be founded, it's important to go back four and a half centuries to when the seat of Malay power was Melaka. Legend has it that this great trading port was founded by Parameswara, a renegade Hindu prince-pirate from a little kingdom in southern Sumatra, who washed up around 1401 on the Malay coast. As a seafarer, Parameswara recognised a good port when he saw one and immediately lobbied the Ming emperor of China for protection from the Thais in exchange for generous trade deals. Thus the Chinese came to Malaysia.
Equidistant between India and China, Melaka became a major stop for freighters from India loaded with pepper and cloth, and junks from China loaded with porcelain and silks, which were traded for local metal and spices. Business boomed as regional ships and perahu (Malay-style sampans) arrived to take advantage of trading opportunities. The Melaka sultans soon ruled over the greatest empire in Malaysia’s history, their territory including what is today Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding state of Selangor.
Compared with Indian Muslim traders, the Portuguese contributed little to Malay culture; attempts to introduce Christianity and the Portuguese language were never a big success, though a dialect of Portuguese, Kristang, is still spoken in Melaka and this is also where you'll find Malaysia's oldest functioning church.
The Portuguese & Dutch Eras
In 1509, the death knell of the Melaka Sultanate was sounded by the arrival of the Portuguese. They laid siege to Melaka in 1511, capturing the city and driving the sultan and his forces back to Johor. Portuguese domination lasted 130 years, though the entire period was marked by skirmishes with local sultans.
Vying with the Portuguese for control of the spice trade, the Dutch formed an alliance with the sultans of Johor. A joint force of Dutch and Johor soldiers and sailors besieged Melaka in 1641 and wrested the city from the Portuguese.
Despite maintaining control of Melaka for about 150 years, the Dutch never fully realised the potential of the city. High taxes forced merchants to seek out other ports and the Dutch focused their main attention on Batavia (now Jakarta) as their regional headquarters.
It was the Dutch who brought in Muslim Bugis mercenaries from Sulawesi to establish the present hereditary sultanate in Selangor in 1740.
It’s thought that the word Malay (or Melayu) is based on the ancient Tamil word malia, meaning hill. Other Malay words like bahasa (language), raja (ruler) and jaya (success) are Sanskrit terms imported to the area by Indian visitors as early as the 2nd century AD.
East India Company
British interest in the region began with the need for a halfway base for East India Company (EIC) ships plying the India–China maritime route. The first base was established on the island of Penang in 1786.
Meanwhile, events in Europe were conspiring to consolidate British interests on the Malay peninsula. When Napoleon overran the Netherlands in 1795, the British, fearing French influence in the region, took over Dutch Java and Melaka. When Napoleon was defeated in 1818, the British handed the Dutch colonies back.
The British lieutenant governor of Java, Stamford Raffles – yes, that Stamford Raffles – soon persuaded the EIC that a settlement south of the Malay peninsula was crucial to the India–China maritime route. In 1819 he landed in Singapore and negotiated a trade deal that saw the island ceded to Britain in perpetuity, in exchange for a significant cash tribute. In 1824, Britain and the Netherlands signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty dividing the region into two distinct spheres of influence. The Dutch controlled what is now Indonesia, and the British controlled Penang, Melaka, Dinding and Singapore, which were soon combined to create the ‘Straits Settlements’.
The Lure of Tin
Tin ore deposits had been mined in the interior of Selangor, certainly for decades and possibly for more than a century, before two nephews of the sultan of Selangor sponsored an expedition of 87 Chinese miners up the Klang river in 1857. Within a month all but 18 of the group were dead from malaria. However, sufficient tin was found around Ampang to encourage further parties of miners to follow. The jungle trading post where these prospectors alighted, at the meeting point of the Klang and Gombak rivers, was named Kuala Lumpur, meaning 'muddy confluence'.
In 1858, traders Hiu Siew and Ah Sze set up shop in KL close to where the Central Market stands today. As more prospectors came to seek their fortunes, the backwater settlement quickly became a brawling, noisy, violent boom town, ruled by so-called 'secret societies', Chinese criminal gangs, and later kongsi (clan associations). In 1859, Hiu Siew, having proven himself adept in this fast-evolving world, was appointed by Raja Abdullah as the first Kapitan Cina (head of the Chinese community). Despite this precedent, it is Yap Ah Loy, the third of KL's six Kapitan Cinas, who is generally credited as the city's founder.
Yap Ah Loy
He was only 17 when he left his village in southern China in search of work in Malaya. Fifteen years later, in 1868, Yap Ah Loy had shown sufficient political nous, organisational ability and street smarts to secure the role of KL's third Kapitan Cina. He took on the task with such ruthless relish that he's now credited as the founder of KL.
Yap's big break was being the friend of KL's second Kapitan Cina, Liu Ngim Kong. When Liu died in 1869, Yap took over and managed with
in a few years to gather enough power and respect to be considered the leader of the city's previously fractured Chinese community. According to legend, Yap was able to keep the peace with just six policemen, such was the respect for his authority.
Yap amassed great wealth through his control of the tin trade as well as more nefarious activities, such as opium trading and prostitution, which thrived in the mining boom town. He founded the city's first school in 1884 and, by the time he died a year later, was the richest man in KL. A short street in Chinatown is named after him and he is worshipped as a saint at the Sze Ya Temple, which he founded.
British Malaya
In Peninsular Malaya, Britain’s policy of ‘trade, not territory’ was challenged when trade was disrupted by civil wars within the Malay sultanates of Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Pahang and Perak. These wars were partly fought over the rights to collect export duties on the tin at Klang. In 1874 the British started to take political control by appointing British Residents in Perak and Selangor. The following year the same political expediency occurred in Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.
The civil wars laid waste to Kuala Lumpur, but thanks to Yap Ah Loy it soon bounced back: he reopened the shutdown tin mines and recruited thousands of miners to work them. By the end of the 1870s KL was back in business and booming to such an extent that the British were no longer content to leave its administration to the Kapitan Cina. In 1880, British Resident Bloomfield Douglas moved the state capital from Klang to Kuala Lumpur and took up residence on the Bluff, the high ground west of the Klang river that flanked what was then a vegetable garden for the Chinese and which would later become the Padang, a sports field for the British.
A History of Malaysia by Barbara and Leonard Andaya brilliantly explores the evolution of ‘Malayness’ in Malaysia’s history and the challenges of building a multiracial, post-independence nation.
Colonial KL
When Frank Swettenham, the third British Resident of Selangor, arrived to take up his post in 1882, KL was yet again in ruins following a major fire and a flood the previous year. He ruled that KL be rebuilt in brick, thus creating the Brickfields area, where the building blocks of the reborn colonial city were crafted. Swettenham also commissioned the country's first railway, linking the tin mines of KL with the port at Klang, later renamed Port Swettenham in his honour.
By 1886, scrappy, disease-ridden KL had morphed into one of the 'neatest and prettiest Chinese and Malay towns in the Colony or the States', according to Sir Frederick Weld, governor of the Straits Settlements. The city's most prestigious building – the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, housing the government offices – was completed in 1897, a year after KL had become the capital of the newly formed Federated Malay States of Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and Selangor.
The early 20th century saw the dawn of the age of the motorcar, and the subsequent global demand for rubber for tyres further improved KL's fortunes. Rubber plantations spread around the city and across the peninsula. City life improved, with amenities such as piped water and electricity coming online. Local Chinese millionaires such as Chua Cheng Bok and Loke Yew built grand mansions; the biggest would eventually become the old Istana Negara (National Palace) after WWII.
F Spencer Chapman’s memoir The Jungle Is Neutral relates the author’s experience with a British guerrilla force based in the Malaysian jungles during the Japanese occupation of Malaya and Singapore.
WWII
A few hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japanese forces landed on the northeastern coast of Malaya. Within a few months they had taken over the entire peninsula and Singapore.
Although Britain quickly ceded Malaya and Singapore, this was more through poor strategy than through neglect. Many British soldiers were captured or killed and others stayed on and fought with the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) in a jungle-based guerrilla war maintained throughout the occupation.
The Japanese achieved very little in Malaya. The British had destroyed most of the tin-mining equipment before their retreat, and the rubber plantations were neglected. However, Chinese Malaysians faced brutal persecution – the atrocities of the occupation were horrific even by the standards of WWII.
The Japanese surrendered to the British in Singapore in 1945. Despite the eventual Allied victory, Britain had been humiliated by the easy loss of Malaya and Singapore to the Japanese, and it was clear that its days of controlling the region were numbered.
Creating a Multicultural Nation
British rule radically altered the ethnic composition of Malaya. Chinese and Indian immigrant workers were brought into the country as they shared a similar economic agenda and had fewer nationalist grievances against the colonial administration than the native Malays, who were pushed from the cities to the countryside. The Chinese were encouraged to work the mines, the Tamil Indians to tap the rubber trees and build the railways, the Ceylonese to be clerks in the civil service, and the Sikhs to man the police force.
Even though ‘better-bred’ Malays were encouraged to join a separate arm of the civil service, there was growing resentment among the vast majority of Malays, who felt they were being marginalised in their own country. A 1931 census revealed that the Chinese numbered 1.7 million and the Malays 1.6 million. Malaya’s economy was revolutionised, but the impact of this liberal immigration policy continues to reverberate today.
Federation of Malaya
In 1946 the British persuaded the sultans to agree to the Malayan Union, which amalgamated all the Malay peninsula states into a central authority and came with the offer of citizenship for all residents regardless of race. In the process the sultans were reduced to the level of paid advisers, the system of special privileges for Malays was abandoned, and ultimate sovereignty passed to the king of England.
The normally acquiescent Malay population was less enthusiastic about the venture than the sultans. Rowdy protest meetings were held throughout the country, and the first Malay political party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was formed. This led to the dissolution of the Malayan Union and the creation of the Federation of Malaya in 1948, which reinstated the sovereignty of the sultans and the special privileges of the Malays.
Noel Barber’s War of the Running Dogs is a classic account of the 12-year Malayan Emergency. The title refers to what the communist fighters called the opposition who were loyal to the British.
The Emergency
While the creation of the Federation of Malaya appeased Malays, the Chinese felt betrayed, particularly after their massive contribution to the war effort. Many joined the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), which promised an equitable and just society. In 1948 the MCP took to the jungles and embarked on a 12-year guerrilla war against the British. Even though the insurrection was on par with the Malay civil wars of the 19th century, it was classified as an ‘emergency’ for insurance purposes.
The effects of the Emergency were felt most strongly in the countryside, where villages and plantation owners were repeatedly targeted by rebels. In 1951 the British high commissioner was assassinated on the road to Fraser’s Hill. His successor, General Sir Gerald Templer, set out to win the hearts and minds of the people. Almost 500,000 rural Chinese were resettled into protected ‘new villages’, restrictions were lifted on guerrilla-free areas and the jungle-dwelling Orang Asli were brought into the fight to help the police track down the insurgents.
In 1960 the Emergency was declared over, although sporadic fighting continued and the formal surrender was signed only in 1989.
1957–2007 Chronicle of Malaysia, edited by Philip Mathews, is a beautifully designed book showcasing 50 years of the country’s history in news stories and pictures.
Merdeka & Malaysia
Malaysia’s march to independence from British rule was led by UMNO, which formed a strategic alliance with the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC). The new Alliance Party, led by Tunku Abdul Rahman, won a landslide victory in
the 1955 election. At midnight on 31 August 1957 merdeka (independence) was declared in a highly symbolic ceremony held at the Padang in KL; the Union flag was lowered and the Malayan flag hoisted.
In 1961 Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed a merger of Singapore, Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak. But when modern Malaysia was born in July 1963 it immediately faced a diplomatic crisis. The Philippines broke off relations, claiming that Sabah was part of its territory (a claim upheld to this day), while Indonesia laid claim to the whole of Borneo, invading parts of Sabah and Sarawak before finally giving up its claim in 1966.
The marriage between Singapore and Malaya was also doomed from the start. Ethnic Chinese outnumbered Malays in both Malaysia and Singapore and the new ruler of the island state, Lee Kuan Yew, refused to extend constitutional privileges to the Malays in Singapore. Riots broke out in Singapore in 1964 and in August 1965 Tunku Abdul Rahman was forced to boot Singapore out of the federation.
Revolusi '48 (http://revolusi48.blogspot.com, in Bahasa Malaysia), the sequel to Fahmi Reza’s documentary 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka (10 Years Before Merdeka), chronicles the largely forgotten armed revolution for national liberation launched against British colonial rule in Malaya in 1948.
Lonely Planet Kuala Lumpur, Melaka & Penang Page 33