Becoming an urban society

Heritage conundrum: A traditional Malay house in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Whenever we do embrace the city, we tend to focus too much on history and nostalgia, says the writer. ­— IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star

ABOUT a year ago, in conjunction with Malaysia Day, I wrote a piece about how the Malaysian future is “urban” (Sunday Star, Sept 19, 2021; online at bit.ly/thestar_urban). Behind this claim is the fact that this country has become very much urbanised, which comes with it all the complexities of such a society, which in turn requires complex and inventive ways of governing.

But as much as we are urbanised, can we yet call ourselves an urban society? Unfortunately, we have yet to embrace this idea, we still have an anti-urban worldview.