Preface
To me, Kampong Baharu has been ahidden treasure till 2004, when I first
visited the place to enjoy delicious food,especially grilled fish (ikan bakar in Malaya).
The charming atmosphere with traditionalbuildings, twin tower on the backdrop, lotsof greens with fruit trees, small alleys weresome of the first impressions about thearea. This prompted me to think of theoriginal nature of this small neighborhoodin the heart of the city of Kuala Lumpur.
Being an urban village, the neighborhood
has been able to keep its distinctive feature,through an unforeseen balance of humanactivities, social ties and nature. The originof the Kuala Lumpur, as the place is known,
provides ample research opportunities tovast professionals, and can be considered avery good field campus of environment anddisaster management education and research.
Our work in Kampong Baharu has been
supported by several people throughcollective and cooperative initiatives. To
start with, myself, and my team are extremely
thankful to Professor Saburo Matsui, thethen leader of Group 1 of JSPS VCC Core
Program, who invited to join the JSPS VCC
team.
I am also thankful to MalaysianCounterpart Professor Azizan of Universityof Malaya for her support in the initial partof the work. We are also thankful to UITM
(University Technology Mara: Dr. Siti Omarand Ms. Noriati Mat Som) for their supportand inspiration in the initial part of theresearch. Thanks also go to Dr. Jemilah
Mahmood, Azam and team in MERCY Malaysia
with whom we did the first town watching in
Kampong Baharu. We need to acknowledge
the support and involvement of Dr. Miki

Yoshizumi in the initial part of the research,and Professor Shimizu for his support andinspiration. This publication is made possible
with the financial help of GCOE (Global
Center of Excellency) Program “Human
Security Engineering in Asian Megacities”.
The work presented here is primarily the
product of the survey conducted between
May to September 2008 by the Kyoto
University team. The work would not been
completed without the support of M.A.S(Malaya Agricultural Society), and the leadersof the Kampong Baharu. Especial thanks
go to Mr. Shamsuri bin Suradi of M.A.S
for providing all the support for the fieldresearch and questionnaire survey.
We
also acknowledge the cooperation of otherleaders like Mr. Zakaria and Mr. Mashuti of
M.A.S Last, but not the least, people, school
teachers, students of Kampong Baharu has
cooperated with us in different phases of thisresearch. We are deeply indebted to them.
The policy note is not a stagnant
document. It needs revision, updating andnew evolution. This document is one of thefirst steps to understand and analyze theproblems in Kampong Baharu, and a small
attempt to suggest collective actions toenhance the eco-development in the area.
We will be very happy if some of thesesuggestions and analysis are considered
useful to the people of the region, and canbe turned into action.

Rajib Shaw
Kyoto University
March 2009

Executive Summary

Kampong Baharu located in the central part of Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, literally meaning “New Village” came into
existence in 1899. An area originally of about 223 acres
between the Klang River and Batu Road was reserved
as the Malay Agricultural Settlement (M.A.S). There wereoriginally nine communities, then reduced to seven undera special autonomy of M.A.S. Total population of thearea is around 45,000 with certain variation every year.
Today, Kampong Baharu remains a unique enclave of still
generally low rise structures with a strong Malay flavor ofinteresting yet relaxed life. Much discussion continues on
its future, with those arguing for and trying to profit fromhuge redevelopment.
A draft of Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 was unveiled by
the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) on May 2008. The draft
was prepared under the provision of Section 13 of Federal
Territory (Planning) Act 1982, ensuring that the planningfor Kuala Lumpur will strike a balance between physical,
economic, social and environmental development (Kuala
Lumpur City Hall 2008). The draft local plan is expected toaffect not only Kuala Lumpur but also Kampong Baharu.
As the draft acknowledges, there is crucial significancein meeting needs of the people that is vital for thedevelopment of Kuala Lumpur. This is because it reflects
upon a strong social foundation that creates an inclusive
society for the Kuala Lumpur city. Therefore, understanding
the environmental, economic and social aspects of
Kampong Baharu is considered an effective perspective tobuild collaborative partnership among the stakeholders.
There are some environmental issues in Kampong
Baharu. It can be divided into actual facts and potential
perception issue. In the factual issues, garbage is oneof the key problems of the area, followed by landscape.
High walls and concrete road have distanced the rivers
from the people.
Greenery is another issue, in terms ofnumbers and types. In case of perception on
environmental issues, people have different
thinking on the problem. Also, most of theresidents depend on the government to solve
their problems.
In case of economic issues, there isa large gap between the individual andcommercial businesses. Although there has
been tremendous progress on economic front
in the surrounding areas, especially after theKL twin tower was constructed, most partsof the neighborhood remained isolated fromthis development. There has been a lack ofdemand or market creating for the business,and economic infrastructures were lacking
in the community. Since Kampong Baharu
was designated as the residential area, there
have been several problems on the land usechange, especially related to the commercial
areas.
There are three major social issues
in Kampong Baharu: (1) conflict between
immigrants and local Malaysians, (2)people’s interest in own community, (3)and appropriate leadership in community.
There have been immigrants from different
countries, and this place has been a stopover point of many immigrants, before theyfind appropriate jobs in the city. This issue
has often de-touched them from the local
communities. People are gradually loosinginterest in their own community, and lacks
strong leadership in the community.
On the basis of the above discussions,this section explores policy tools forsustainable eco-development of Kampong
Baharu. The policy tools can be divided into
two components: community-based ecodevelopment and strengthening the capacity
for institutional development. Community
based eco-development incorporates
promotion of tourism, environmental
conservation, and strengthening the senseof unity among the residents.
On theother hand, strengthening the capacity
for institutional development incorporates
strengthening the capacity of M.A.S, enhancing
collaboration between M.A.S and the KL city
government.
There need to be a road map ofsustainable eco-development in Kampong
Baharu. To develop the road map, seriesof discussion and consultation was held at
different levels. The road map presented
here is the collective product of thisprocess. The actions are divided into three
aspects: individual, collective (community)
and institutions, and are categorized into
environment, economic and social aspects.
Green campaign is considered as thestarting point of the individual shorn term
activity. This would be one of the awarenessraising campaign for the local people andcommunity.
Neighborhood watching cancontinue on regular basis, and can beconsidered as the collective action to short
to medium term. To institutionalize these
activities, M.A.S and the local school needs
to conduct long term initiatives throughschool education program and 3R (Reduce,

Reuse and Recycle) initiatives.
On theeconomic front, the activities should startfrom revitalization of economic aspects ofindividual, which is considered as the shortterm initiative, and can be strengthen withthe community based economic activities
through short to medium term efforts.
Longer term Public Relation (PR) activities
should be considered by M.A.S to help
the economic initiatives of individual andcommunities, and can be strengthened forimage up of the locality. To restart andrejuvenate social activities, traditional games,
tourism, herb garden and craft can be goodentry points at personal level, which can bestarted in short term basis. This needs tobe strengthened with appropriate information
sharing mechanism in short to medium term,
and needs long term institutional outreachthrough providing public facilities from the
M.A.S and other related organizations.

Table of Contents

1. Preamble: Sustainable Eco-Development

1

2. Background
2.1 History of Kampong Baharu
2.2 Development of Kampong Baharu
2.3 Location and characteristic Features

3
3
4
5

3. Crucial Issues in Kampong Baharu
3.1 Environmental Issues
3.2 Economic Issues
3.3 Social Issues

7
7
9
10

4. Possible Entry Points
4.1 Environmental Entry Points
4.2 Economic Entry Points
4.3 Social Entry Points

12
12
14
16

5. Policy Tools
5.1 Community-Based Eco-Development
5.2 Strengthening the Capacity for Institutional Development

18
18
20

6. Action Agenda

22

7. References25

Preamble:
Sustainable
Eco-Development
Concerns over the balance between people’s livelihoods
and the environment have been highlighted especiallysince the World War II. Devastating destruction of theenvironment in the name of industrialization and poverty
elimination continued unabated. The impacts along with
globalization are expanding faster and being visible fromlocal, national and global level. These kinds of phenomena
seen in a diverse and broad way have been serious
effects on human security across generations and time
(Ogata and Sen, 2003). For instance, water scarcity may
not cause war, but still engender insecurity by contributing
to dehydration-related death, reducing food production
and undermining livelihood opportunities (Khagram et al.,2003). Many parts of the world have been facing with avariety type of environmental crises, which may directly or
indirectly affect lives, property and livelihoods. Particularly,
the places which achieve rapid economic growth such as“mega-city” are often in the most exposed to issues ofenvironmental deterioration and related natural disasters.
In response to a series of environmental crises in
the world, the concept of sustainable development firstemerged in the 1980s with the well-known publication
Our Common Future by the World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED). It definedsustainable development as the “development that meetsthe needs of the present without compromising the abilityof future generations to meet their own needs”, making
it part of the environment lexicon (WCED 1987). Since
then, sustainable development was widely discussed atvarious conferences and symposia including such major
events as the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro andthe 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg. Although the concept is often criticized for
its ambiguity and incoherence, it enables to reflect thepast profound remorse: there have been growing needs
to balance economic and environmental progress withconcern for ensuring environmental conservation and wise1

use of natural resources.
Related to the linkages between human life
and the environment, it is worth noting that
we have a very limited understanding of exact
fact related to the response of complicatedecosystem. Most ecosystems are composedof thousands of structural elements,
exhibiting varying degrees of complexity. The
elements act together to create a whole thatis greater than the sum of the parts (Dalyand Farley, 2004). Even if scientists haveunderstood the individual parts, the complex
system linking each part make us hard to
predict the phenomenon. The complex and
uncertain ecosystems tend to create serious
environmental situations to make a livingin case the environment becomes fragile.
Therefore, it is important to promote anadaptive capacity to adjust ecological-socialeconomic system in response to actual or
expected environmental crises. The adaptation
to environmental problems requires therecognition of multiple stimuli including
political, cultural, economic, institutional
and technological forces. Integrating these
multifaceted aspects is a significant key toachieve sustainable development in harmony
with ecological functions (hereinafter called“sustainable eco-development”).
Likewise, a perspective of stakeholder
relationship is also vital to build the adaptive
capacity towards sustainable eco-development.
Development conceptions are various andcontroversial among stakeholders because of
the multiple uses and values within certain
arenas or spaces. A good example of thisis the case of mega-cities where there exista wide variety type of those who havevariable perceptions and objectives. Withinsuch arena or space, different development
visions offset each other and act as abarrier against sustainable eco-development.
Therefore, it is important to address the levelof understanding of each stakeholder on how
they perceive and take actions in a certain
society.
However, not enough attention
has been given to focus on the needs at
community level, but more on top-down
decisions and regulations. Thus, the neglected
perspective often tends to cause disputes
and conflicts through formation of anti-groups
which plagues human lives, properties andlivelihood. On this account, understanding
the development needs or visions for eachstakeholder (especially at community level)
is a must to assess the current development
situation and would require integration intoa policy perspective with due consideration
to environmental sustainability to enable apathway towards a win-win situation. These
considerations will provide a good guideline
for policy makers and resource actors tofocus on the need to put into practiceenvironmental management and makecollaborations with other stakeholders toachieve sustainable development.
Given the said considerations, thispaper would look into the various facetsof sustainable eco-development in a local
community called Kampong Baharu in
Malaysia would attempt to come up with apolicy recommendations that could serve
as guide to decision makers and urban
managers in sustainable eco-development.
2

Background

2.1 History of Kampong Baharu

Figure 1:
KL City and Kampong Baharu(by Shamsuri bin Suradi)3

Literally meant as New Village, Kampong Baharu
came into existence in 1899 with an area originally of
about 223 acres located between the Klang River andBatu Road. It was reserved as the Malay Agricultural
Settlement (M.A.S), composed of nine communities, thenreduced to seven under a special autonomy of M.A.S
Total population of the area is around 45,000 withcertain variation every year. In order to carry out theabove intentions, allotments of land were approved to
Malay people with certain conditions such as developmentof land through crop planting. Also, schools were built
and amenities including roads and even irrigation water
wheels were provided. M.A.S was mandated to manage
people’s lives and activities and negotiate with people andgovernment when conflict arise.
By and large, the settlement served its agricultural
purpose for some time although paddy planting in itself
proved to be unsuccessful in the longer term, as thearea was highly prone to flooding. This was when it wasarchitecturally proven that the Malay tradition of building
houses on stilts was a simple yet ingenious solution that
kept the residents minimally affected no matter how the
nearby river behaved.
Over time, however, population growth andtransportation improvements started resulted in thesettlement losing its agricultural value since agriculture
was no longer needed to be practiced in the city.
Today, Kampong Baharu remains a unique enclaveof still generally low rise structures with a strong Malay
flavor of interesting yet relaxed life. Much discussion
continues on its future, with those arguing for andtrying to profit from huge redevelopment. Figure 1 shows
Kampong Baharu and the city centre of Kuala Lumpur(KL). Located opposite to the city side, Kampong Baharu
has many green areas and residences.

Before 1960
1960’s1970
1971
1980’s1990’s
1991
2008

People could swim and fishing in the Klang River (KR)Maintenance and reconstruct of KR, and built many factories at upper stream
Finished maintenance and construction of KR
Heavy flood attacked to Kampong Baharu
Increasing immigrants from Indonesia
Population was changed by immigrants from 30,000 to 45,000
Built high wall along the river side, and constructed high way
Published of KL City Plan 2020
Table 1: Hearing data of main event in Kampong Baharu

2.2 Development of Kampong Baharu
In 1960s, there were eight communities in
Kampong Baharu. However, Kuala Lumpur city
government decided to buy the area Chandana(name of trees) from residents in order toconstruct high-rise buildings. Because Malaysia
national government has initiated city
development especially in and around Kuala
Lumpur where is located next to Kampong
Baharu. In particular, the Klang River whichruns beside Kampong Baharu was subject
to the development by the city government.
The river was meandering and caused
frequent flooding in the area so that the city
government started the construction
work to make it straight in 1960. Then,high wall was built along the river in1970s (Figure 2). After the construction,
floods were decreased but not totally
stopped. Table 1 shows the historicalevents in Kampong Baharu (Imura 2008).
Recently, a draft of Kuala Lumpur
City Plan 2020 was unveiled by the Kuala
Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) on May 2008. The
draft was prepared under the provision ofSection 13 of Federal Territory (Planning)
Act 1982, ensuring that the planning for
Kuala Lumpur will strike a balance between
physical, economic, social and environmental
development (Kuala Lumpur City Hall 2008).
The draft local plan is expected to affect not
only Kuala Lumpur but also Kampong Baharu.
It is probably that Kampong Baharu’s centuryold image which has remained a traditionaland cultural heritage will be transformed
into modernized land use such as residential
areas, commercial areas, service apartments,
hotels, shopping complex and higher learning
institutions. This means that the area of

Kampong Baharu (151.57ha in total) will
be largely converted from the traditional
communities to the various combinationof residential, mixed use residential, mixed
use commercial and city centre commercial
area at the top-down approach. As the draft
acknowledges, however, there is of crucial
significance in meeting needs of the people
that is vital for the development of Kuala
Lumpur. This is because it reflects upon astrong social foundation that creates an
inclusive society for the Kuala Lumpur city.
Therefore, understanding the environmental,
economic and social aspects of Kampong
Baharu is considered an effective perspective
to build collaborative partnership among thestakeholders.

abFigure 2: 1960’s Klong River(a) and 2008 Klong River(b)(Source: Shamsuri bin Suradi)4Name of Area

Atas A
Atas B
M.A.SJIDPAYAPINDAH (before HANYUT)HUJUNG PASIRPERIOK

Meaning

Above A
Above B
MosqueMarshMove, moving (before: shift)
The end of sand
Pot

Characteristics

Shops (car, motor bike etc), Residents
Residents
Residents, Mosque
Restaurants
Residents
Restaurants
Shops (market)

Table 2: Each area’s name and meaning in Kampong Baharu

2.3 Location and Characteristic Features
Kampong means “village” in Malaysian
Language. There are seven communities now,and each community has a name (Table 2
and Figure 3).
The overall in-charge of the area in M.A.S,
which is a community organization or avillage council with elected community leader.
M.A.S has a special autonomy status in thelocal government.
M.A.S organizes community activities,
management, negotiate with government andso on. The purpose of M.A.S is as follows:
The settlement came into being in 1899
as a result of the expressed desire of the
Resident General and the British Resident of
Selangor “to educate the children of Malays(1) to take a part in the administration and(2) to enable them to reap some of theadvantages of the present prosperity”. In
order to carry out those intentions it wasa5

decided (a) to give them a Malay-English
Education, and (b) to teach them a trade”.
(JOHN HANDS, M.C.H., 1941)
This area and the community have a long
history and many traditional houses remain
until today. Figure 3 shows the locationof each community and its characteristics
features. The area is classified into three
categories such as resident, shopping andrestaurant areas. Klang River divides thecentral area and Kampong Baharu. Before
the development of KLCC (KL City Centre),
there was a bridge that connected the PAYA
area and the cemetery (Figure 3b). People
used it and visited the cemetery every Friday.
However, the bridge was destroyed by urban
development and access has changed since.
The people’s life style also changed
significantly. Now in Kampong Baharu, people
cannot easily buy land. If one wants to ownbFigure 3: Location & characteristic of each community

a)Traditional house(Malay style)land there, one is required to be a Malaysiannational. There is a drive to preserve
Malaysian life and culture. Some people soldtheir land and receded from their traditional
lives or culture but on the other hand, somepeople try to keep community relationships
and their culture (Figure 4).
Now the community people face someenvironment, economic and social problem.
A few years ago, the population was 30,000
but recently immigrants from Indonesia
kept increasing. They visit the area forjobs and remain there because Kampong
Baharu is near the city area but rent ischeaper compared to other central location.
Immigrants, in particular, came from Javaand Sumatra in Indonesia. After the Indian
Ocean Tsunami in 2004, some victims also
immigrated to Kampong Baharu.

b) Traditional house(British style)c) Wedding incommunity

Figure4:
Traditional life stylein Kampong Baharu
6Crucial Issues
in Kampong
BaharuFigure 5:
Garbage in
Kampong Baharua) Atas “A”b) Masjidc) Klang River
Figure 6:
Landscape issuea) High wall andKlang River7b) River coveredby concrete

3.1 Environmental Issues
There are some environmental issues in Kampong
Baharu. It can be divided into actual facts andpotential perception issue.
Fact Issue: Garbage
Figure 5 shows the community’s garbage problems.
In Kampong Baharu, people throw their garbage
every day. However, there are no rules regarding
its management especially on recycling. Cats, dogs
and chickens rummage through the garbage. In the
Klang River, one can find much plastic garbage but
this area is surrounded by a high wall and people
have no way of cleaning approaching to area.
Actual Issue: Landscape
Along the urban development in Kuala Lumpur,
the Klang River is surrounded by a high concrete
wall (Figure 6a). In Kampong Baharu, a small river
running from Atas “A” to Atas “B” is covered by
concrete and has turned into a road (Figure 6b).
The communities usually do not look after the river
so there was no direct connection between people
and river.
Actual Issue: Garden and Tree
Regarding the greenery of the area, there are twomain issues in the community. One is the numberof gardens. Before, the area was agricultural land
and that is why people established the M.A.S.
People had their own garden but now there aremany residences, shops and restaurants in Kampong
Baharu. The number of garden decreased gradually
year after year. Another problem is the changing

a) Cutting treeb) Concrete garden

Figure 7:
Cutting trees and concrete garden

garden style. Recently, urban development
and modernization changed the life style ofthe community. People prefer modern houseand have cars. People covered their garden
with concrete as parking space. Now people
do not enjoy many green areas and theclosest element to a garden are plants inpots (Figure 7a, 7b).
Perception Issue: Recognition of “eco”
A perception study in year 2008 revealed
interesting result on “eco-community”
In earlier days, people used to mean,“Ecological”, “friendly to nature”, “keepthe nature” as “eco-community”. However,the local people took these words to mean“clean”. Their notion of eco-community is not“beautiful community” but “clean community”.
If this knowledge gap is not understood, theFigure 8:
The gaps of the meaning “eco“

eco-community concept will not gain common
ground between the community and facilitator(Figure 8).
Perception Issue: Dependency on government
People’s perception on responsibility
has changed significantly. People choose
to wait for the government’s action. They
understand the community’s environmental
problem. However, they think that it is up to
the government to start some environmental
activity or for the government to solvethese issues. More than 50% of the peopleanswered that the best environmental
manager of the community is “National
Government” and “City Government”. It
exceeded answers to “All villagers” (Figure 9)"Who is the best environmental manager in your community?" (n=384)

Figure 9: The best environmental manager of community8Figure 10:
Gaps of economic level

3.2 Economic Issues
Gap Between Individual andCommercial Business
Kampong Baharu is enclosed by Gold
triangle, which is the Kuala Lumpur’scommercial, shopping and entertainment hub.
It is also one of the most valuable tracts ofland in the capital. Many tourists come to KLcity and visit various place, but it is rare forthem to visit Kampong Baharu. According tourban growth style, Kuala Lumpur city waschanged to a big commercial area, however,Kampong Baharu remained isolated from thisdevelopment and the area kept Malay life
style and culture.
Therefore, people who work at individual
business in Kampong Baharu have felt theeconomy gaps with the central city. On theother hand, 60% of the respondent preferindividually business. They prefer working withsmall number of people. There are internaland external gaps between community andpeople (Figure 10).
Lack of Appropriate Demand: Businessand Market Creation
Kampong Baharu is a good location
for business and many people camefrom outside communities. However, thesebusiness opportunities have not provided
opportunities to the community, except issmall scale business as individual shop or
restaurant. This area’s main business is food.
People recognized about their economical
characteristics of community, but it is notcommunity based.

9

Economic Infrastructure
There are two economic issues in
the community. One is the lack of vital
foundation to make basic facilities liketoilets, information center and so on. Basic
infrastructure for tourist and customer isrequired, which is not enough in Kampong
Baharu.
Infrastructure and facilities enhancement,
not only the convenience goes up, butthere is exchange of information, person
and commodities. As a result, it is linked tothe activation of the community. The otherproblem is low maintenance of economical
facilities as drainage, parking and road. In
the community, Kampong Baharu has thesefacilities, but it is not appropriate for visitors.
Land Use Change
Kampong Baharu was residential area with
agricultural land. However, there was gradualdevelopment by urbanization. Therefore, theirindustry was changed from agriculture tocommercial. Community people and M.A.S
have kept their land and culture for longtime with conservation of original Malay
tradition. In recent years, Malaysian people
who are landowner are changing theirconcern about the land. Some Malaysian landowner built new building for other Malaysianor immigrants who want to start new job asrestaurant or small shops, and owner has
started living in outside of Kampong Baharu.
This structures of residents between local
people and other people cause individuallybusiness that dotting and small scalebusiness in the community (Figure 11).

a) Residence for immigrantsb) Home gardenc) Pot garden
Figure 11: Land use and green

3.3 Social Issues
There are three major social issues
in Kampong Baharu: (1) conflict between
immigrants and local Malaysians, (2)people’s interest in own community, (3) andappropriate leadership in community. Eachissue is discussed below:
Immigrants and Local People
The number of immigrants and migrant
workers started to increase in the 1980’s.
At first, only people from Indonesia came.
However, it is not only Indonesians, butalso other nationalities that are increasing
today. The main counties are Indonesia,
Thailand, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Whenthey come to Malaysia, people depend on
family or friends and get information aboutjob, house, etc. They stayed in Kampong
Baharu because house rent was cheaper
than in other areas in Kuala Lumpur.
Kampong Baharu is located very near to thecity, therefore, access is good and salaryis not low. However, new issues came out
in the community because of the increaseof immigrants. In the interview survey, it
is revealed that there is a perception that
immigrant brought difficult culture, habits andtradition into Kampong Baharu. Moreover,environmental problems such as garbage
worsen due to increase of immigrants.
Figure 12 shows participation level incommunity activities. More than 60% of thepeople join in community events. On theother hand, 96% of Indonesians do notparticipate in their activities. One of thereasons is that Indonesians do not receive
any information on events. Another issue isthat there exists a conflict between the twonationalities, which is also partially reflected
in Figure 12 in terms among of good
relationship community members.

Figure 12: Participation level in community activities

10Figure 13: Necessity items for future of Kampong Baharu

Absence of Good Community Leader
Figure 13 shows the answer to thequestion “What is the most important thingfor your community’s future?” 20% of thepeople answered “Good leadership”. A similarcase was mentioned in environmental issues
and it pointed out that the community
tended to depend on the government for
management. They have community leadersand community organizations such as M.A.S
but still it needs a strong leadership in thecommunity.

11

Potential Issue: Wish for New Life
44% of the people hope that they canmove to another place for a new life if
given the chances (Figure 14). This means
the community is at risk of people leaving
Kampong Baharu. The factors that will makethem move out are not only disaster orhuman relationships, but also for better
economic opportunities and social status.
Especially, the older generation answered thatthey want to keep their history and culture,but on the other hand, the young people andmale members wish better urbanization andgood income. Some people think there may
be better business opportunities, an exciting
life or more enjoyable things out of Kampong
Baharu.

Figure 14: Possibility of relocation

Possible
Entry Points
4.1 Environmental Entry Points
Environment can be divided into natural environment andhuman/social environment. Both environments have close
relationships. Sometime, change in environment considered
as development, however, sometime it is consideredvulnerable. Therefore, people need to learn living place’s
information. And they need to pay attention to the living
environment.
Green Campaign
As mentioned in earlier section, this area had lots ofgreen with fruits trees planted in the home garden, which
is decreased now-a-days. One of the entry points is Green
Campaign. Through this campaign, the residents plant
some tree or keep green pot on house side and garden.
If each resident joins this campaign, this area can have
many green. There needs to be continuous monitoring of
the process.
3R Campaign
3R is the environmental campaign of three R of Recycle,
Re-use and Reduce. 3R is the most important word
for keeping sustainable environment especially garbage
management. And recycled materials of 3R can bechanged to resources. Through the campaign, people candistinguish between resource (3R) and garbage, as theresult, this area will reduce the volume of garbage.
Neighborhood Watching
Kampong Baharu is located in plain area close toriver. In old days, it was on agriculture area, with no wallalong the river. People can have easy approach to riverand get fish from river. Kampong Baharu have a foodculture of fish. One of the reasons about this culture isthat it is located near the river. Recently, Kuala Lumpur isdeveloping at high speed.
12Figure 15-a:

Figure 15-b:

River environment change

Difﬁculty in observation of(N. Tanaka, 2008)

river condition

Therefore this area was changed toresidential area from agriculture area.
However, since the area is located in plain,
floods happen from the river. When it wasa farmland, this area was able to withstandthe flood. However, now people needs to beprotected from flood. As the result, people
got to keep safety about flood. Now, river
was separated by high wall. For that, People
have difficulty to access the river and ofthen forget presence of the river (Figure 15a). However, river did not disappear. Rather, it
is hard to notice the change because people
do not see it (Figure 15-b). Therefore, people
can not get direct information from river. It
is difficult to understand river environment atchange and emergency situation.
It is necessary for people to always acquire
environmental information of their living place.
Neighborhood watching is an easy and simple
tool for understanding living environment.
Figure 16 is flow of neighborhood watching.
Through the process, people re-find some
information regarding natural and human/

Observation→

Make Mapsocial environment in living area. “Re-find” isimportant point for keep the environment.
School Education
Figure 17 is the situation of neighborhood
watching in Kampong Baharu with elementary
school. The theme of neighborhood watching
was garbage issues in Kampong Baharu.
School teacher and student observed garbage
condition in the neighborhood.
School student’s observation point wasdifferent from teacher and other adultperson. They are the next generations in thisarea. To maintain environment, education isconsidered as an important pillar. Therefore,neighborhood watching with school can beconsidered as an important entry point tokeep better environment.

→

Discussion →Presentation
Figure 16: Flow of neighborhood watching

13

Figure 17: Situation of neighborhood watching in Kampong Baharu with elementary school

4.2 Economic Entry Points
Community Based Economic Activities
There are different entry points ofcommunity based economic activities:
Tourism
Kampong Baharu has many businesschance of tourism. Visitor can easily visit tothis area from central city. Community people
cannot approach to tourism by individual.
There needs to have cooperation with eachother and a collective support from thesociety.
There is need such as activities thatmaking map, establish public facilities
and team work of community people forcommunity based economical activities. This
community approach is not only to enjoy in
KL central, but also to attracted the visitors
to Kampong Baharu.
Medical Herb, Garden
In Kampong Baharu, there is a custom of
valuing garden and foundation where green
can be increased. Green is raised by thea) Garden in community

person who doesn’t have the garden even if
there is only a small area if potted is usedwell (Figure 18a). If the plants grown by pots
have secondary effect, for example, some are
edible, some have health impacts and beauty
effects. There issues can be connected topeople’s wish to raise motivation.
For instance, the medical herbs have risenin Kampong Baharu for a long time (Figure18b). It leads to the succession of theherb if it can be raised by pots. Also, it iseffective to make the streets clean throughmaintenance of the flower and green.
Food
Many people come to the restaurants
in Kampong Baharu. It will be necessary
to improve the hygiene and cleanliness ofthese restaurants. It needs positive actions,for examples setting standards in the town
to keep a clean, and give incentives to theshops which able to clear standard. Morepeople come there and increase numberof outside customer if the hygiene side isb) Medical herb in community

Figure 18:
Garden and medical herb in community

14

"Which choice do you concern with traditional crafts?"

Figure 19: Traditional food and restaurant in Kampong Baharu

improved. The restaurants need the device ofthe development of the dishes and menus tosuit the need of the customers. More garbage
will increase when the number of customers
increases. It is necessary that residents andrestaurant owners become proactive to solve
the garbage in cooperation with each otherin the community (Figure 19).
Figure 20 shows that many respondents areinterested in how to make traditional crafts.
First of all, it is important that traditional
techniques needs to be handed down tocommunity. It could be argued about making
the place where residents can have training
on traditional techniques, for example, open
the culture school, and hold the event etc.

15

Figure 20: People’s concern about craft

P/R Activity of Kampong Baharu
In Kampong Baharu, there is a story
lack of PR (Public Relation) system aboutcommunity highlighting such as restaurant,
public facilities or sightseeing spot. Thereneeds to have information board, community
maps, poster and so on. It is not only incommunity, but also outside of community
such as KLCC or each station (Figure 21).
Usually, tourist collects information about
city, sightseeing spot and events from guidebooks or web site. People can have easy
access to information about Kuala Lumpur,
but not on Kampong Baharu. The approachof PR needs facilities for travel, hotel, andhome stay inside community.
The PR policy should also have internal
components, to increase people’s awareness,to increase confidence and interest in thecommunity etc.

Figure 21: PR activity of Kampong Baharu

Figure 22:
Re-vitalization community

4.3 Social Entry Points
Re-vitalization of Tradition / Culture
Kampong Baharu is near the center ofthe city, therefore people feel comfortableliving in the community. However, 44% of
the people wait for a chance to relocate
for a new life. Many people pointed out thenecessity of improving community activities.
The people’s lives have been changed year
after year because of modernization so their
enthusiasm for history, culture or pride isslowly ebbing away.
This area has a long history of Malay
culture but the younger generation faces the
problem of how to inherit history and culture
from the community and older people andhow to take it over to next generation. The
young generation needs to be guided by
the older generation in terms of approaches

toward activities such as community
ceremony, games and Sunday Market. In
addition, this community has many traditional
houses. To understand housing history andcooperating to keep their traditional housing
will give them an opportunity to evaluate
their own community. These activities will beable to provide information and educational
opportunities to the people. Figure 22
shows the conjectured design to re-vitalize
community with its tradition/culture.
Community Information Sharing andDissemination System
In Kampong Baharu, M.A.S plays animportant role in information disseminationin the community. When activities or events
are organized, M.A.S informs the community

Figure 23:
Flow of the information in Kampong Baharu

16Figure 24: Application of public facilities

leaders, and then these are communicated tothe people (Figure 23).
However, this system needs improvements.
For there to be an information network in thecommunity, tools such as information board,
information centre, information staff, etc. are
required. Moreover, information is not only
one way- from leader to community people.
An information network needs to collectcommunity information also from local people
and share this information. These activities
will contribute to establishing leadership in
the community.
Outreach Through Public Facilities
Nowadays, people get information andhave communication with other people inmosque, schools and village hall such as the
M.A.S office. The mosque, school and village
hall are important places for gathering local
people (Figure 24). These public facilities
provide good opportunities for communicationand strengthening the community’s communal
spirit. Community activities, program orinformation sharing and exchange will be best
held in these facilities.
However, these facilities are used by a limited
number of people. For example, children andtheir parents are familiar with school, butother age groups do not use this facility. The
village hall needs to be improved its role in17

the community activities.
Kampong Baharu face multifaceted issues
for their livelihoods, in terms of environmental,
economic and social perspectives. Involvementof community people is of crucial significancein overcoming these constraints and thenachieving sustainable eco-development. The
following sections draw key policy factors
for community-based eco-development in
Kampong Baharu.

Policy Tools

On the basis of the previous discussions,this section explores policy tools forsustainable eco-development of Kampong
Baharu. The policy tools can be divided into
two components: community-based ecodevelopment and strengthening the capacity
for institutional development.

5.1 Community-Based
Eco-Development
Promotion of Tourism
In the sustainability debates, economic
perspective serves as perquisite for success in ecodevelopmental management. As a matter of fact,
the highest prioritized need among the residents
was identified as economic revitalization. Economy
in Kampong Baharu is largely dependent tooutside places. Their activities are rather smallscale or individual business, compared with Kuala
Lumpur central city. There is a tendency that many
residents prefer to engage in food service industry,following by tourism, crafts, medical herb, etc.
Therefore, promotion of tourism is required toboost the small-scale economy in Kampong Baharu.
‘Advocacy on public relation campaigns for Kampong
Baharu’ is strongly recommended to promote thearea to be attracted for tourists. In this policy
document, various cultural and environmental
values on Kampong Baharu have been clarified(see Section 2 to 4). There is a high possibility
that these values enable tourists to attract a lot of18

sightseeing places within the area. However,it also needs to mention that past experience
has illustrated to some extent lossesof cultural housings and indigenous
knowledge like medical herbs, environmental
pollution and landscape destruction. These
considerations are required to play animportant role on activating the regional
economy. Sustaining small-scale business islargely tied to ‘cultural and environmental
restoration in Kampong Baharu’ that affects
positive impacts on the tourism industry
combined with public relation activities.

19

Environmental Conservation
Problem of waste disposal is a major
negative aspect toward sustainable ecodevelopment in Kampong Baharu. Many
residents tend to entrust waste management
to the city government. Their passive attitudes
consequently caused unsanitary condition andpotential uncomfortable impressions of the
tourism industry. On account of this, ‘active
community participation of environmental
activities’ as well as ‘building appropriate
waste management system by the initiativesof public sector’ are required to improve theunsanitary environment in Kampong Baharu.
The community-based approach requires‘information sharing system’ that enables all
residents, irrespective of traditional residents
or immigrants, to know environmental
activities and enhance more initiatives forconservation activities. Elaboration should
be made on restructuring the information
dissemination system from M.A.S andcommunity leaders to the residents. In
this regard, establishment of community
information center is considered effective forsharing the information.
Strengthening the Sense of Unity Among theResidents
Although negative perception of immigrants
has been prevailed among the local
Malaysian, building a collaborative relationshipbetween the two groups is a must to achievesustainable eco-development in Kampong
Baharu. The lack of social cohesions not only
constitutes a barrier of community-driven
development but also weakens adaptive
capacity to disaster resilience when a highly
concentrated rainfall provokes flooding of theKlang River. In order to cultivate mutual trustand jointly respond to environmental anddisastrous hazards, outreach through public
facilities (mosque/school/village hall) can be
an entry point in a practical way.
However, arena of the exchange between
the two groups is likely to be limited withreclusive tendency. Thus, ‘promotion ofenvironmental events’ as well as traditional
ceremonies is strongly recommended tostrengthen a good relationship, enabling tocreation of the new arena as the exchange
programmes. Consequently, the consideration
will lead to easy communication of ecodevelopment and maintenance of clean
environment in Kampong Baharu.
Institutional perspective is vital to take into
account ‘sustainability’ and ‘eco-development’.

5.2 Strengthening the
Capacity for
Institutional Development
Strengthening the Capacity for M.A.S
The presence of M.A.S and community
leaders that govern community developmentin Kampong Baharu is of great importance inmanaging sustainable eco-development in thearea. The Malay Agricultural Settlement Rules
have served as strict development planningaccording to the board of M.A.S. It led toprotection of traditional Malay society fromlarge-scale development by outsiders. The
decisions on the development planning by
the board of M.A.S impose on all residents
who shall subject to the rules. The board
takes a lead in sustaining cultural diversity
and environmental management. However,
M.A.S has faced with difficulties in managing
population growth especially by immigrantsthat is related to land use change, waste
management and social disputes between
local Malaysian and immigrants. Appropriate
decision-makings by the board of M.A.S are
required to control the land use and promote
environmental conservation activities at thecommunity level on the basis of elaborate
surveys and open discussions on town
development planning with the residents.
In addition to the institutional framework
by law, each representative of M.A.S can havea great influence on mobilizing the residents
to put into practice community-based
activities such as environmental conservationand cultural revitalization. There is a need ofstrong leadership to put a large number ofresidents together toward sustainable ecodevelopment.

Collaborative Partnership of M.A.S and KL City
Government
Management perspective of community
development shall take into consideration
presence of external stakeholders in thebase of Kampong Baharu. In particular,
Kuala Lumpur city government, which has
jurisdiction over the city management anddevelopment, has directly or indirectly
affected the management in Kampong Baharu.
There is a growing demand of ‘mega-city
development’ in Kuala Lumpur including thearea of Kampong Baharu according to thedraft of Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020. The
draft is expected to affect to a great extent
cultural diversity and environmental conditionin Kampong Baharu through the plan of land
use change. On the other hands, in essence,the draft commits to create a liveable andattractive environment for residents as well as
businesses and visitors without compromising
the local environment and its ecology(Kuala Lumpur City Hall 2008). Therefore,building a collaborative partnership between
the stakeholders is of crucial significancein meeting needs of the local people andsustaining eco-development in both areas.
Different attractiveness of Kampomg Baharu
can be potentially integrated into a packageof tourism in Kuala Lumpur city. Advocacy
on tourism promotion that link Kuala Lumpur
city to Kampong Baharu with respective
distinct characters is considered an effective
tool for eco-development while efforts arealso required to improve or maintain clean
environment in Kampong Baharu in an
appropriate manner.

20

Action Agenda

There needs to be a road map of sustainable ecodevelopment in Kampong Baharu. To develop the road map,
series of discussion and consultation was held at different levels.
The road map presented here is the collective product of thisprocess.
For the action agenda of Kampong Baharu, a few
characteristic features include:

Balanced Contents:
The action agenda should have a good balance between
environment, economic and social issues and entry points.

Local Customization:
The agenda should be very much customized to the local
context and culture, and therefore can have its implementation
potential.

Ownership:
The action agenda is only possible to implement when it has avery strong local ownership and leadership.

Flexibility:
The agenda should be flexible in nature, and should have scopeof further development based on the changing nature of thesituation.

Prioritization:
There are several activities needed to be taken in the area,
which needs to be prioritized based on available resources.
21

Figure 25. Major issues and entry points of action agenda

In the environmental thematic area (Figure25), two parts are identified, one basedon factual evidence, and the other withperception. The factual evidence should
include garbage, landscape and garden
and trees (including both domestic andpublic trees). The perception issue should
include people’s idea and recognitionof “eco” concept, and their role ofdifferent stakeholders, including that of
the governments.
In case of economic
issues, the difference between the individualand commercial businesses should be
distinguished. Lack of proper demand or
market creation should be taken into account.
Basic economic infrastructures should
be considered for appropriate economic

revitalization of the area, and proper land
use change needs to be undertaken. The
social issues include migrated people, andits interaction with the local communities,
absence of strong local community leaders,and specific community perception and wish
for the new life.
Based on this above context, specificentry points are suggested as the action
agenda, which is shown in Figure 25. Table
3 shows the action agenda on short (1year), medium (3-5 years) and long-term(more than 5 years) perspective. The actions
are divided into three aspects: individual,
collective (community) and institutions, andare categorized into environment, economic
and social aspects.
Green campaign is22

Table 3 Kampong Baharu sustainable eco-development action agenda

considered as the starting point of theindividual shorn term activity. This would
be one of the awareness raising campaign
for the local people and community.
Neighborhood watching can continue on
regular basis, and can be considered as thecollective action to short to medium term.
To institutionalize these activities, M.A.S andthe local school needs to conduct longterm initiatives through school education
program and 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)
initiatives.
On the economic front, theactivities should start from revitalization of
economic aspects of individual, which isconsidered as the short-term initiative, andcan be strengthen with the community based
economic activities through short to medium
23

term efforts. Longer term public Relation(PR) activities should be considered by M.A.S
to help the economic initiatives of individualand communities, and can be strengthened
for image up of the locality. To restart andrejuvenate social activities, traditional games,
tourism, herb garden and craft can be goodentry points at personal level, which can bestarted in short term basis. This needs tobe strengthened with appropriate information
sharing mechanism in short to medium term,
and needs long term institutional outreachthrough providing public facilities from the
M.A.S and other related organizations.

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