Concrete Jungle Crushes Hari Raya Aidilfitri Memory | FEATURE

Aidilfitri is the most anticipated time of the year when we look forward to reuniting with family from near and far to celebrate Eid with our loved one.
It brings back a lot of childhood memories; the ‘Takbir Raya’, purchasing coordinated clothing for the entire family, lightening of kerosene lamps and the fragrant smells of mouth-watering dishes being cooked up wafting from the kitchen in the wee hours in the morning.
However, for Farah Fahmy, who has lived abroad for the past 25 years, laments the disappearance of the familiar.
Farah, who now resides in England, shares her reflections of Kampung Baru with The Vibes Culture and Lifestyle.
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From the looks of it, it seems like the local and other authorities and property developers would like all these traditional, historical, community, architectural and other aspects of Kg. Bharu to fade away naturally and leave the way open for rampant development of the whole area into a concrete jungle, much like what has happened on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Pahang, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (formerly Jalan Ipoh), the Chow Kit area,
I worked for Reduffusion at No 17 Jalan Pahang for most of the 1980s, which was across Jalan Pahang from the Hospital Kuala Lumpur and beside the Malayan Medical Association building, so this was my stomping ground. Well, today, the Rediffusion building is gone ad replaced by a high-rise building.
The overall area is a commercial area but compared to today, I feel that the with the lower density of development back then, there was a much more vibrant life amongst the street vendors of food, drinks and of items than I have seen today.
We now have a government which is supposedly more people-friendly and I would expect that it would adopt more people-friendly development policies which do not just prioritise physical brick and mortar development but which also includes the comfort, leisure, recreation, peace of mind, interests and opinions of local residents and local communities, not only in Kg. Bharu, the Chow Kit, Jalan TAR, Jalan Pahang, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sentul area and so forth but also in the various areas and neighbourhoods across Malaysia.
After all, despite the strong historical, cultural, sentiments, memories, which residents of Kg. Bharu strongly feel for their long-established neighbourhood, with inward migration into Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley from across Malaysia in search of work and business opportunities, the concerns and interests of the vast majority of Klang Valley residents today will be focused upon those areas where they live and work and the community or communities within which they interact.
Therefore, more holistic development policy and strategies would greatly help to greatly improve the quality of life for all Malaysians.