Focus Focus: Excitingnya!: Rest & Relaxation in Tumultuous Times

As Malaysians try to recover from the shock of the recent petrol price escalation, the government mouthpieces have acted swiftly – albeit cumbersome still – to dispel further deterioration of sentiments: calls for the public to “change your lifestyle”; remarks from the Ministry of Tourism for more “local tourism” that doesn't require you to travel too far; and further claims by the Badawi administration that there will be no further price hikes until next year.

These pronouncements, as we can see, was not taken by Malaysians sitting down. In response, the public exhorts that high-ranking officials, too, should “change their lifestyle” by going round with a smaller posse; that Malaysians should cynically stay home to promote “really local tourism”; and, well, the administration has made more fantastical claims before (“No, Parliament will not be dissolved tomorrow...”).

Yet if we were to not so much study as just look in a cursory manner the way that the government-of-the-day has responded to the salvos of public distress, so much is revealed about the kind of thinking used to resolve these crises. Actually, how was this whole scenario thought through? Who had the game plans?

I'm only asking because there seemed to have been so much to-ing and fro-ing. First there was the announcement that foreign registered cars would be banned from taking petrol within a 50km radius of the border. Then there was the actual 41% increase in petrol prices, announced days after that, after which the 50km-radius rule was suddenly abandoned.

You gotta ask, apahal ni beb?!

So, the questions: How is Malaysia's future planned out? Are these plans sufficiently robust to anticipate seismic shifts in the spheres of economy, technology, society? Is there enough room to make alterations, changes, expansions, without abandoning what should be a very sound original spirit?

Most importantly, since these plans are constructed by people far away from the hustle and bustle of Pudu and the Pavilion, how can we as ordinary citizens participate in responding to the plans that will ultimately, in the final analysis, affect us and ours?

Prime example: The Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020. They've put up the draft in the main DBKL headquarters. In it are these plans, but how many of us – readers of KLue included – can decipher the language? Apparently Volume III of the document hasn't even been released, so specialists are finding it hard to respond as well.

Another example: Public transport. Mid-June the Ministry of Finance pronounced that the 2009 Budget will focus on bolstering public transportation. There was also the announcement that a number of new LRT lines will be built to serve more than half a million Klang Valley denizens. Catch? It will be ready in four years's time. The main question here is, WHY ONLY NOW? Why wasn't this mooted and approved FOUR YEARS AGO so that it can be ready now?!

Dude! Who's got the steering wheels on this?! We should just get rid of appointed city council officials and go back to elected representatives who will be directly responsible to the people (this system was abandoned in the early ‘70s for reasons that have surely gone out of season). Let's start by getting rid of the Mayor.

Then there are the environmental concerns, and heritage issues (I sure hope that they don't do anything silly with Pudu Jail – who needs another friggin' mall, come on!).

Oh dear, I feel rather wound up now.

(Slow, calm breathing.)

While a lot of these problems cannot be solved immediately, and of course any simplistic solution (including just getting rid of the current Mayor) will only exacerbate the situation and mire us in deeper fecal matter, what I am calling for is more calm, rigorous thinking about how we want to move ahead. How can we tackle skyrocketing fuel and food prices, increase usage of public transportation and at the same time deal with carbon footprint? How will we assess the economic and cultural value of heritage sites while being cognizant of the fact that KL only has so much space?

In other words, nothing can be dealt with in isolation. We need to see the bigger picture.

And now, I head off to do some “local tourism” in my bedroom, just to get some R&R before they announce the next petrol price change (up or down, we'll have to wait and see!).

Text Fahmi Fadzil Photo Myra Mayhuddin