Rule by Exception: Development, Displacement and Dissent In Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia By Vishnu Prasad Integrated Masters in Economics Indian Institute of Technology- Madras Chennai, India (2012) Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2017 C 2017 Vishnu Prasad. All Rights Reserved The author hereby grants to MIT the permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of the thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Author Signature redacted Departnwnt!2Urban Studies and Planning 23 May 2017 Certified by Signature redacted Profe sJr IEoakshnan Rajagopal Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor Accepted by_ Signature redacted ciate Professor P. Christopher Zegras Chair, MCP Committee MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE Department of Urban Studies and Planning OF TECHNOLOGY JUN 14 20171 LIBRARIES ARCHIVES Rule by Exception: Development, Displacement and Dissent In Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia By Vishnu Prasad Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 2 3rd, 2017 in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning Abstract: My thesis looks at the relationship between development, displacement, and dissent in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Barring a brief four year period, independent Malaysia has continuously operated under a near-permanent state of constitutionally imposed emergencies. I look at the operation of one of the emergency regulations, the Essential Clearance of Squatters Regulations (ESCR, promulgated initially in 1969 and used until 2013) for the purposes of displacement and urban planning. Relying on archival research, interviews, and an in-depth case study, I seek to characterize the nature of urban development, particularly the operation of the law, in Kuala Lumpur. I make three broad arguments: 1. The use of squatter regulations for the purposes of urban planning started with the colonial emergency of 1948, when urbanization and development were used as primary elements of a military strategy to combat the Communist emergency. 2. Post-independence, however, the Malaysian state has increasingly used laws meant initially for counter-insurgency operations for the purposes of development. I argue that the urban planning in Kuala Lumpur must be seen as a form of urban law-fare (the use of techniques of war for political or economic ends; Comaroff, 2001) and that the creation of a "state of exception" (Agamben 2005), through the declaration of emergencies, has enabled the use of military ends as a normal technique of government. 3. Lastly, I look at the case of Kampung Berembang, perhaps the only successful case of resistance against the use of ESCR. I argue that the residents' re-positioning of themselves as peneroka bandaror urban pioneers (as opposed to squatters), using claims originating in Malay Customary law, were critical to reclaiming their rights as citizens. Thesis Advisor: Balakrishnan Rajagopal Title: Associate Professor of Law and Development 2 Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis advisor Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal for his support and guidance on the thesis. Raj, with whom I worked as Research Assistant for two years, constantly pushed me to think critically about the projects I was engaged in and encouraged me to produce work that was not just academically rigorous but politically important as well. I would like to thank Prof. Sunil Amrith for serving as my thesis reader and providing insightful comments and sharing his enthusiasm for my work on Malaysia. I have been part of two practicum visits of Malaysia, first as a student and then, as a Teaching Assistant, led by Prof. Larry Susskind, who has continued to be a source of encouragement and support for my work in Malaysia. Prof. Jason Jackson, with whom I took a course on thesis preparation, was a crucial resource in the initial formulation of the project. Prof Jinhua Zhao, with whom I worked as Research Assistant, was a constant source of motivation and guidance. This thesis started from a research project on mapping historical displacement in Greater Kuala Lumpur. Both projects have been generously funded by the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Centre, the Malaysia Sustainable Cities Program, Displacement Research and Action Network, the Lloyd and Nadine Rodwin International Travel Fellowship, and the Harold Horowitz Award. I thank all of them for their support. This thesis would not have been possible without the generosity of my informants- I would like to thank all of them without disclosing their identities. They welcomed me into their kampungs and homes and shared their stories of resistance, struggle and incredible courage. I hope my thesis makes a small contribution towards their ongoing struggle for justice. My work in Kuala Lumpur would not have been possible without the support of S Arulchelvan, Dr. Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, Dr. Ainul Jaria, Dr. Norsidah Ujang, Anil Netto, Nik Mastura Diyana, Justin Cheah, A Sivarajan, Mohammad Nasir Hashim, and Noorali Izan. Azheam Mikhael, Ngan Wei Pin, Raja Yasmin Nadirah, Muhamad Nur Hamdi, and Faiz Nur Ihsan worked as research collaborators and translators on the project- I thank all of them for supporting me with their enthusiasm and serving as my windows into Malaysia. I am deeply indebted to my parents, Mala and K Prasad, my brother, Vivek Prasad, and my aunt Rekha Utham for all their love, support and faith in my ability. I would like to thank my friends in India- Nithin Satheesh, Irene Baby, Kavitha Narayanan, Uttara Narayan, Rituraj Brahma, Vishnu Sharma, Anand Raj, Alka Narayan, Amy Mowl, S Shivakumar, Alka Vijayan, and Lakshmy Suresh- without whose love this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Mathangi Sreenivasan for her constant support and faith. I have had the great fortune of making some great friends during my time at MIT- during my two years here, I learned so much from each of them and will graduate with the knowledge that they continue to change the world for the better in their corner of the globe. I would like to thank- Priya Johnson and Anand Jahi who have been constant sources of affection, care, and love; Ayesha Shahid, for her love and affection, constructive feedback, and late-night chai sessions; Prassanna Raman, for her careful comments on my thesis and help with defence preparation, Nick Allen and Maya Abood for being companions in the study of Malaysia and the shared pursuit of a graduate student union; and Devaditya Mukherjee for all the fun and music we shared. In addition to my friends, I would like to thank Ellen Rushman, Sandra Wellford, Patricia Foley, Janine Marchese, Phil Sunde and Sandra Elliot for their support. 3 Table of Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgm ents ................................................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures........................................................................................................................................5 Chapter I: Introduction: The Fog of Planning.............................................................................. 6 1. Setting the Context and Research Questions ........................................................................... 6 2. Research M ethods.......................................................................................................................9 3. Thesis........................................................................................................................................10 4. Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................................... 11 5. Scope and Lim itation ................................................................................................................ 13 Chapter II: Development as a Military Doctrine: the History of the "Squatter Problem" in M alaysia...............................................................................................................................................15 1. The M alayan Emergency of 1948......................................................................................... 16 2. The Origins of the "Squatter Problem " in M alaya................................................................ 17 3. Who is a squatter? : The Creation of a Social and Administrative Category ........................ 24 4. The Squatter Solution as a M ilitary Doctrine ...................................................................... 28 Chapter III: Urban Planning under a State of Exception............................................................38 1. M alaysia: A Near Permanent State of Emergency ................................................................ 40 2. M ilitary Strategy as Development ........................................................................................ 44 3. Urban Planning as Lawfare: The Violence of the Law in KL .............................................. 53 4. Ruling Under a State of Exception ...................................................................................... 58 Chapter IV: Peneroka