Download February 2006 Issue - Malaysian Institute of Planners

4PLANNING BLOGBLOG PERANCANGAN (PLANNING BLOGS) by ePlannerplanning-blogs-by-the-eplanner12/02/06Maintenance culture - Pusat SainsNegaraTook my daughter to her friend’sbirthday party held at Pusat SainsNegara in Bukit Damansara today. Itook my other two girls around thecentre while waiting for the party tofinished. It is sad to say that theplace has become a victim of theMalaysian malaise - poormaintenance. There were manyinteractive exhibits that were brokenand have not been repaired. Or is it avictim of bureaucracy, instead?Perhaps the centre is still waiting forbudget approval from the Treasury torepair those exhibits? Places likePusat Sains Negara should havesome autonomy in terms expenditurefor maintenance of exhibits. I dreadto think that the place is a victim ofthe worst Malaysian malaise -apathy. This would be unfortunatebecause the centre is indeed a funplace for kids.11/02/06Friends and neighboursAre your neighbours your friends?Do you know their names? Are theyjust someone who happen to livenext door to you? The Chief Editortold me that he had to help hisneighbour restrain their maid whohad a nervous breakdown the othernight. At that time only her teenageson was home and she also have atwo year old toddler to look after.Even when the police came, it tookthree grown men to subdue the littlewoman. It was only when the policesupport team came over with astraight-jacket that the maid could betaken away to the hospital fortreatment. For the two precedinghours, besides the Chief Editor, noother neighbours came over to help.Now the question comes to mind -can you rely on your neighbours in atime of crisis? This is a reality of oururban society now.29/01/06Abbreviations - do we translatethat too?In English, should we write JPBD orTCPD? JKR or PWD? DBKL orCHKL? JPS or DID? How do wewrite the names of Governmentagencies in a report written inEnglish? I believe we should nottranslate the special names intoEnglish when we write reports inerrr... English. Otherwise the ChiefEditor will become Mr Isaac. As arule of thumb, we should use theabbreviations used in the officiallogos of the respective departments.Otherwise it gets awfully confusing.27/01/06Self-centred habits - can planningovercome this by design?Is it possible to counter or overcomethe bad Malaysian habits, such asindiscriminate parking, queuejumping, vandalism and blatantdisregard of traffic regulationsthrough urban design? Educationmay be the best option for the longterm but I believe we can facilitatethe “education process” throughdesign and planning. Please give alot more thoughts to these mattersthe next time you design a sitelayout. Say, the next time you want toprovide a toilet for the disabled, justcheck to see if there is proper accessfor the disabled person to get to thetoilet first.15/01/06When the river is too polluted, justhide it.The local authorities seem to betaking the easy way out these dayswhen it come to restoring andrehabilitating our naturalenvironment. In this country there isno river that flow through a city that isclear and clean. Singapore took tenyears of concerted effort to clean upSingapore River. In this country, wetook less than a year and a fewstrokes of the pen to solve (sic!) theproblem - one authority just cover thestretch of the dirty river that flowthrough the city centre with hardlandscaping, while another authorityjust “privatised” the rivers It is easierthan cleaning it themselves.07/01/06“Saya dulu” culture.This is my pet hate - the Malaysianswith “me first” attitude. It transcendsthe generations and social class. Yousee it among the elderly, the males,the females, the professionals, therich, the poor and even the children.It seems that every Malaysian wantsto be a VIP and to be givenpreferential treatment all the time,especially in by-passing queues,whether in a traffic jam or the localgrocery shop. How do we get rid ofthis attitude? This is an issue whichis so deeply embedded in our cultureand society. It cannot be allowed topersist.05/01/06“Give Way!” Least understoodtraffic regulation?How many times do you see a car ormotorcycle darted out from a sliproad into the main traffic flow withoutregard for the traffic already on themain thoroughfare? How many timesdo see cars coming out of a roadjunction and causing the other carson the main road to brake to avoid acollision? There is a traffic rule called“Give Way”. It is sometimesrepresented by an inverted trianglesymbol painted on the road atjunctions. The “Stop” sign at roadjunctions also mean give way totraffic on the main road. If we make ita point to observe the Give Way ruleat all time, I believe our roads will beso much safer.BERITA PERANCANG