Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Cyberjaya

Richard Baxstrom. Houses in Motion: the Experience of Place and the Problem of Belief in Urban Malaysia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. ix + 283 pp. $55.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8047-5891-8. Ross King. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya: Negotiating Urban Space in Malaysia. Honolulu: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with University of Hawaii Press, 2008. xxviii + 321 pp. $29.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-3318-3. Reviewed by Frank Chua Published on H-Urban (May, 2011) Commissioned by Alexander Vari (Marywood University) The urban arena of Kuala Lumpur, like many sions may not be adequate or congruent with oth‐ contemporary Asian urban spaces, is a mixture of er simultaneous conceptual directions and fur‐ new clean lines of skyscraper modernity with its ther developments typically followed; in another highly ordered spaces and the haphazard chaotic particular instance, Cyberjaya, which is the physi‐ sprawl of less developed and older communal sec‐ cal manifestation of Malaysia’s conceptualized tions. The latter are continuously being redevel‐ frame of techno-media imagined space, the Multi‐ oped to renegotiate them into the larger vision media Super Corridor. and trajectory of city planners. The political and Typical of newly industrialized economies, religious ethos of the country may sometimes test the pace of such urban renewal and development the geographical and cultural limits of the historic often exceeds the capacities of local communities city, and a resulting development would be the to accommodate such rapid changes within their creation of another completely new urban space; cultural memory, and sweeping physical and ma‐ in this context, Putrajaya, which is an indigenous terial changes of the landscape are often more jar‐ and Islamic urban identity. Even so, such expan‐ ring and dislocating rather than being simply in‐ H-Net Reviews convenient. The Indian neighborhood of Kuala half of chapter 1, “The Founding of Brickfields,” Lumpur’s suburban Brickfields is a prime exam‐ and chapter 2, “The Malayan Emergency,” explain ple, as residents responded in a variety of ways to the historical context and the origins of Brick‐ accept, accommodate, negotiate, reform, or even fields. In the second half of chapter 3, “Law, Jus‐ reject outright the morphological changes and tice, Disappearance,” chapter 4, “Strangers, Coun‐ physical disruption to their everyday experiences. terfeiters, and Gangsters,” and chapter 5, “Am‐ These intrusions were often viewed as an assault bivalent Encounters in the City,” the focus is on on their past collective memories of their concep‐ the legal process, concepts of justice, and every‐ tual identities of home and place. Houses in Mo‐ day experiences in Brickfields between 2000-02. tion records these challenges and the humanistic As the author notes, the purpose of the book is to responses to such encroachments within the his‐ study how the residents engaged and defined torical and multicultural interstices of Brick‐ themselves even though many were excluded fields’s populace. Likewise, Kuala Lumpur and Pu‐ from the processes of the policies that governed trajaya, albeit through an architectural and ur‐ their neighborhood. ban studies perspective, sieves the dynamics of King’s Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya also in‐ history, politics, race, and religion in the growth volves groundwork which literally led him to the and design of Malaysia’s most vibrant urban cen‐ streets but this is a smaller contribution to his ters. Both works establish the connection between study. Having access to interviews with city plan‐ societies and their places of work, home, and ev‐ ners, academics, architects (the author’s profes‐ eryday living, and provide the reader with a bet‐ sion), and corporate executives contributed to a ter understanding of the residents’ adaptation to more sweeping vista of the changing and transito‐ their changing domains as well as a conceptual ry nature of urban landscapes. The author’s anal‐ framework of spatial and architectural evolution ysis and interpretation of historical forces as well of Malaysia’s urban landscapes. as more recent political and religious/ethnic de‐ In Houses in Motion, the bulk and core of velopment amongst the bumiputras (sons of the Baxstrom’s study focuses on the ethnographic soil) or indigenous Malays, provides an awareness fieldwork among Brickfield’s residents over a of the tensions and angst that still pervade the spread of fourteen months which was done over cities’ atmospheres today, especially on issues of two periods of residencies. His fndings were not race. These together with his trained observations only culled from ninety ethnographic interviews of the designs and architecture of the grandiose with ffty-three people ranging from one to nine public monuments plus the spatial layout of the hours, but also from less formal participation in land and cityscapes, tease multiple themes and public activities and frequent casual conversa‐ symbolisms of various cultural forces that have tions. These nonetheless provided localized access shaped the evolution of these two cities. to often sensitive but yet open discussions that The book is divided into fve parts: chapter 1, gave a more intimate connection to his subjects. “The Phenomenal City,” reflects on the diversity Despite the general view that Brickfields is an In‐ and fuidity of Kuala Lumpur where multiple dian enclave, the population pool is less homoge‐ meanings and tensions could be read in its archi‐ neous and more diverse, and the author’s inter‐ tecture and urban spaces; chapter 2, “The Contest‐ viewees included Chinese, Malays, and even Pak‐ ed City,” discusses in greater detail the politics of istanis from wide-ranging socioeconomic back‐ race relations in the social production of urban grounds. The book itself is divided into two broad space where the hegemony of Chinese capitalism areas covering the history of Brickfields and the in Kuala Lumpur is a constant concern to the in‐ daily living experiences of its residents. The frst 2 H-Net Reviews digenous but less urbanized Malays; chapter 3, on what is seen as the invasive threat of the Chi‐ “The Imagined City,” sees the creation of a unique nese immigrants and their economic domination. Malay urban sphere, Putrajaya, and the participa‐ Also citing heavily from Mahathir’s The Malay tion of Malaysia in techno-media industries in the Dilemma, and the implications of a racially divid‐ development of Cyberjaya and the Multimedia Su‐ ed society, King observes that the economic clout per Corridor; chapter 4, “The Forgotten City,” de‐ of the Chinese and their historical and current do‐ bates the preference toward a Middle East orien‐ minion over Kuala Lumpur are challenged and tation in Putrajaya’s creation at the expense of countered in the spatial development of the new earlier and more localized Malay culture; and urbanscapes. The Chinese capital accumulation chapter 5, “The Metamorphic City,” witnesses the and entrenched positions as captains of industry ongoing evolution of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya have fnancially enabled them to claim Kuala and the different forces that are still contesting Lumpur, the capital city, as a predominantly Chi‐ for influence and space. As the author notes, their nese hold. This spatial control prompted the final products are incomplete and it remains to be Malays to assert themselves as a unifying bangsa seen whether pluralistic Kuala Lumpur or Malay- Melayu (Malay race) that is synonymous with the Islamic Putrajaya will represent the future of negara (nation). Malaysia. A point worth noting is that this assertion of A common theme in both works is the pivotal Malay identity and race is fundamentally fawed. role of Islam in shaping the identity of the emerg‐ As argued in Benedict Anderson’s and Edward ing modern Malay state. Noting of its urban ori‐ Said’s works, “imagined communities” of nations gins, Baxstrom refers to the dakwah movement as and races are constructions of European cultural “an assemblage of ideas, trends, activities, and or‐ imaginations in the nineteenth century.[1] Histori‐ ganization that seek to promote Islam” (p. 73). cal sources point otherwise that the Malay Penin‐ Heralding a return to the golden age of Islam, this sula people are actually made up of Minangk‐ renaissance movement adhered to the Arab mod‐ abaus, Bugis, Achehnese, Banjarese, and others. In el of Islam over local religious institutions and the aftermath of the 1969 racial riots, public mon‐ adat (customs). However, then Prime Minister uments symbolizing Malay nationalism became Mohammad Mahathir also played an increasingly urgent and, inspired by the earlier Muzium Ne‐ active role in Malay-Muslim identity by announc‐ gara (National Museum), more modernist but ing the historical legacy of Islam in Malaysia and Malay-influenced architecture took root; the its relevancy to not just matters of faith, but also Dayabumi Complex and Menara Maybank were in areas of science, economy, and technology. Cit‐ exemplary. This Malayanization of public monu‐ ing his 1986 discourse on Islam, The Challenge ments was further expanded to sprawling Shah and the earlier 1970 The Malay Dilemma, Ma‐ Alam which was seen as an idyllic escape from hathir asserted that true Islamic observances the more congested Chinese-dominated Kuala should preside over indigenous adat of polytheis‐ Lumpur. There, the ornamental lake and the Sul‐ tic origins. The government’s active debate and fo‐ tan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque would cus on Islam’s role in Malaysian society nonethe‐ demonstrate how not just public monuments but less made non-Muslim and non-Malay communi‐ urban space themselves could be claimed by the ties like Brickfields more wary of articulating a Malay Muslims. substantial stake in local governance. However as the author notes, Kuala Lumpur King’s interpretation of the role of Islam cen‐ itself is not strictly Chinese as contrasted with Pu‐ ters more on historical forces of race, particularly trajaya which has defined itself as Malay-Islamic.

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