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feature What is it about Bali that tends to make people equate it to quality and class in the property market in this country It is just a big hype, a ploy of the sales people to give an illusion of grandeur and exclusivity. It is also a skewed perception of contemporary consumers and hopeless romantics who believe that tag line. The sad part is that 'Bali' has become a brand which many adopted just in form and not in function, outside its native island anyway. However there is more to Bali than just Balinese garden, Balinese architecture or Balinese art. What has been missing from the adopted pseudo-Balinese form being copied here is the Balinese culture and way of life. What we failed to capture is the Balinese essence, the soul of Bali. No doubt Bali is a very pleasant place to visit. Intriguing, actually, it is. I believe it is an equally nice place to live in. Balinese are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Humility is a trait that most of them share. Determination is another. Add to that resilience. See how they quickly picked up the pieces and continue with their lives after the tragic bombing in Kuta a few years back. These are characteristics, besides the art, tradition, architecture, rustic villages, terraced rice fields, miles of sandy beaches, elaborate ceremonies and a host of other things that attract the millions of visitors to the island every year, that form the essence of Bali. This has inspired a lot of people to attempt to recreate their Bali experience elsewhere. Everyone that I know who has experienced Bali wishes to prolong it. Some go to the extreme and permanently relocated themselves there. That is perhaps the most sensible thing to do. We try to imitate what we thought is Bali back home. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery. Alas, imitation will always be what it is - an imitation. A long way from Bali Ishak Ariffin The main street through a small town - Tampaksiring The true Bali cannot be replicated because the essence of Bali lies within its people. Let's forget about imitating Bali elsewhere. But what we can do as town planners is to imitate some of the positive features that can make our physical environment a better place. Juru Parkir in Denpasar So we want to model our island resorts or the new residential project on the Bali theme Before we do that let's ponder on a few things. Let's ponder why there are no road humps to be found anywhere in towns or villages in Bali. Ask ourselves why there are hardly any motorcycles parked on the sidewalks and corridors, or cars illegally parked along roads in built up areas. Motorcycles, there are lots of them, are parked in their allocated parking lots. There is no “jaga kereta” either. Parking fees are paid to Juru Parkir, uniformed parking attendants found at every corner. These uniformed personnel also assist drivers in parking their cars. Everyone pays immediately as soon as they step off their vehicles. Isn't it amazing that no one honk aggressively when the traffic is obstructed by slow moving vehicles Equally amazing is that everyone wait patiently in the queue. Most of all, despite the three million population, most of them living in the regions around Denpasar, there is only one expressway - the Ngurah Rai Bypass - linking Denpasar, the airport and Nusa Dua. All other roads are mostly single carriageways. You’d also be hard pressed to find anyone begging along the shop corridors. No parking for cars but motorcycles are parked on one side of the road only & not on the sidewalk Imitating form without understanding the functions can be a dangerous thing. Like the boy racer wannabe who put huge rear spoilers, oversized tyres and lowered suspensions on their Protons. They shod it with a set of R-rated tyres but then tried to hit 180kph on the expressway. Or those idiots dressed in green bomber jackets, straight-leg jeans and Dr Marten’s boots, calling themselves “skinheads” and hanging out in Bukit Bintang. Don’t they know that the original skinheads went around bashing in the faces of people with coloured skin as their real purpose in life Another thing that the Balinese did was to make a law that no buildings shall be higher than the tallest trees and stuck to it, although that was after they made the mistake of letting some hotels in Sanur go beyond 5-storeys. The difference is that they stuck to the new ruling and not change it there and back every couple of years, or months, as we do over here. Another ingenious thing they did is to sell residential lots of 10m by 10m in size and let the owners build right up to the side boundaries, or at least on one side. They only painted the front and back of the house and the side walls that do not form the lot boundary. When every one on the street has erected their houses, voila! You get a row of terraced houses! They have applied the same formula in commercial areas in Denpasar too. Although they say there is a law requiring some set back, but no one pays attention to it probably. Perhaps this is what we should try here - B.Y.O. houses, Build-Your-Own, instead of the Build-then-Sell, linked houses. I would advice the designers, developers, architects and planners who want to sell their “Gated Bali Enclave” or whatever schemes, go to Bali first, not just read the catalogues or the Bali design books that abounds in local bookstores. But if you are going to Bali for ideas, go walk about, drive around and pay more attention to the surroundings. Don’t just spend half your days exploring the various services in the Spa. Having the Bali garden, Bali fountain, Bali bathroom, Bali gate, Bali teak doors, Bali spa and Bali doormat does not make your premises Bali. You are still a long way from Bali. You should at least have a Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut manning your reception, for a start. 12 NEWSLETTER OF THE MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNERS
10 April 2006 : The Swiss cities of Geneva and Zurich offer the best quality of life according to research published by Mercer Consulting in April 2006. Vancouver (Canada) is placed third, followed by Vienna (Austria), Auckland (New Zealand) and Düsseldorf (Germany). Baghdad, not surprisingly, is the lowest ranking city in the survey. EIU names Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna as 'best' cities in the world The analysis is part of Mercer Consulting's annual 'World-wide Quality of Living Survey', covering more than 350 cities. Each city is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria, including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100. Europe & Middle East Zurich again named best city in the world to live in A report by Mercer Consulting Extracted from: http://www.citymayors.com/features/quality_survey.html Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position with a score of 107.5. Other highly-rated cities include Düsseldorf (107.2), Frankfurt (107.0) and Munich (106.8) in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, scoring 86.8 at position 79. London is the UK’s highest ranking city and is stable at position 39 (score 101.2). The two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow, which both score 98.3 and climb one place to joint 55th position. Dublin has dropped two places to 24th position, scoring 103.8, mainly due to increased traffic congestion. As predicted, cities in Eastern Europe such as Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Vilnius, Tallinn and Warsaw continue to benefit from incremental score increases and are gradually climbing the rankings. “The standard of living in many Eastern European cities is gradually improving, as the countries that most recently joined the EU attract greater investment,” commented Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. “Yet cities such as Dubai may still offer a wider variety of facilities demanded by expatriates - for example, well-connected international airports and better opportunities for recreation and leisure activities - compared to many Eastern European cities.” Positions for most cities in Europe and the Middle East are generally unchanged, with the exception of Cairo which has tumbled nine places to position 131 and scores 71.2 due to the political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area. Baghdad ranks as the least attractive city for a third consecutive year, with a score of 14.5. The Americas Honolulu, the highest ranking city in the U.S., drops two positions to 27th with a score of 103.3. San Francisco remains at 28th position and scores 103.2. Boston, Washington, Chicago and Portland follow in positions 36, 41, 41 and 43 respectively (scores 101.9, 100.4, 100.4 and 100.3) while Houston remains the lowest ranking city in the U.S. at position 68 (score 95.4). Overall, U.S. cities continue to slip slightly or remain stable in the rankings, except Chicago which has moved up 11 places due to decreased crime rates. “Economies in the developed world tend to be relatively stable overall. Fluctuations in the quality of living in these regions are usually driven by factors such as increased air pollution, crime rates and traffic congestion, or external events like terrorism, disease outbreaks or natural disasters,” said Mr. Parakatil. In South America, scores vary considerably due to differences in economic and political stability. “Argentina’s steady economic recovery is likely to push its cities up in the rankings in the next few years,” commented Mr. Parakatil. Asia-Pacific & Africa Auckland and Wellington have both moved up the rankings from 8th to 5th and 14th to 12th places respectively, mainly due to strong internal stability relative to other cities, while Sydney remains at position 9 with a score of 106.5. In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th (score 102.5) followed by Tokyo, Japan’s highest scoring city, at position 35 (score 102.3). Hong Kong’s modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport (which is considered one of best in the world), has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position with a score of 95.4. The top-ranking city in China is Shanghai in 103rd place (score 80.1). “Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labour and manufacturing expertise,” explained Mr. Parakatil. Though cities in India generally rank lower than their Chinese counterparts, they are also showing signs of development in the region. “The quality of living in Indian cites such as Mumbai and Bangalore is increasing slowly but steadily, primarily due to India’s improved political relationships with other countries,” said Mr. Parakatil. “Investment from multinationals setting up operations in India may prompt further improvements, boost economic growth and contribute to economic stability. In turn, this will encourage the local authorities to focus on improving quality of living standards.” Other low-ranking cities for overall quality of living include Congo in Brazzaville (score 30.3) and Bangui in the Central African Republic and Khartoum in Sudan (30.6 and 31.7). The world's top cities offering the best quality of life (New York is the base city with a score of 100 points) 2006 2005 City Country Points Rank Rank 1 1 Zurich Switzerland 108.2 2 2 Geneva Switzerland 108.1 3 3 Vancouver Canada 107.7 4 3 Vienna Austria 107.5 5 8 Auckland New Zealand 107.3 6 5 Düsseldorf Germany 107.2 7 6 Frankfurt Germany 107.0 8 7 Munich Germany 106.8 9 9 Bern Switzerland 106.5 9 9 Sydney Australia 106.5 11 11 Copenhagen Denmark 106.2 12 14 Wellington New Zealand 105.8 13 12 Amsterdam Netherlands 105.7 14 13 Brussels Belgium 105.6 15 16 Toronto Canada 105.4 16 16 Berlin Germany 105.1 17 14 Melbourne Australia 105.0 18 18 Luxembourg Luxembourg 104.8 18 21 Ottawa Canada 104.8 20 19 Stockholm Sweden 104.7 21 20 Perth Australia 104.5 22 22 Montreal Canada 104.3 23 22 Nürnberg Germany 104.1 24 22 Dublin Ireland 103.8 25 25 Calgary Canada 103.6 26 25 Hamburg Germany 103.4 27 25 Honolulu USA 103.3 28 28 San Francisco USA 103.2 29 29 Adelaide Australia 103.1 29 29 Helsinki Finland 103.1 31 31 Brisbane Australia 102.8 31 32 Oslo Norway 102.8 33 33 Paris France 102.7 34 35 Singapore Singapore 102.5 35 34 Tokyo Japan 102.3 36 36 Boston USA 101.9 37 37 Lyon France 101.6 37 37 Yokohama Japan 101.6 39 39 London UK 101.2 40 40 Kobe Japan 101.0 41 41 Washington USA 100.4 41 52 Chicago USA 100.4 43 42 Portland USA 100.3 44 43 Barcelona Spain 100.2 45 44 Madrid Spain 100.1 46 46 New York City USA 100.0 47 46 Seattle USA 99.9 48 47 Lexington USA 99.8 49 48 Winston Salem USA 99.7 51 50 Osaka Japan 99.6 51 51 Milan Italy 99.6 51 50 Milan Italy 98 53 52 Lisbon Portugal 97.5 53 52 Tsukuba Japan 97.5 Survey methodology Data was collected largely between September and November 2005 and was updated regularly to take account of changing circumstances. In particular, the assessments will be revised in the case of any new developments. Only 215 cities have been considered in the Quality of Living 2006 rankings. The overall quality of living ranking is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria. New York has been used as the base score for quality of living, which has a total index equal to 100. Mercer’s study is based on detailed assessments and evaluations of 39 key quality of living determinants, grouped in the following categories: • Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement, etc.) • Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services, etc.) • Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc.) • Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc.) • Schools and education (standard and availability of schools, etc.) • Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion, etc.) • Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure, etc.) • Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc.) • Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services, etc.) • Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters) NEWSLETTER OF THE MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNERS 13
Page 1 and 2: Berita Symposium On Knowledge Citie
Page 3 and 4: President’s Message President Nor
Page 5 and 6: Seminar on Gated Communities Report
Page 7 and 8: MIP Welcomes New Members Graduate M
Page 9 and 10: INTRODUCTION The goal of spatial pl
Page 11: St. Peter’s Church, Malacca promi
Page 15 and 16: 26-28 CIDB : Jemputan Menghadiri Wo
Page 17 and 18: PREDICTABILITY IN PLANNING : A WORT
Page 19 and 20: MIP Northern Branch AGM, Annual Din

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