Being Frank: Brickfields in shambles
Frankie D'Cruz
Monday, February 28th, 2011 10:10:00


CHAOTIC: The traffic jams in Brickfields are driving traders and motorists to the point of exasperation

WHAT are we to make of Brickfields?

We could put the redevelopment of one of Kuala Lumpur’s pioneer settlements down to simple ineffectiveness, but I fear that would be a bit too charitable.

It isn’t just the preponderance of traffic chaos, the infuriating lack of communication between the authorities and the people or sheer public apathy.

The makeover of broad-based Brickfields into Little India has also become a financial nightmare to the business community and a bane to the man-on-the-street.

Brickfields is in disarray. It’s probably the worst place to go now.

Divine intervention, it appears, is needed to bring sanity to this area, also tagged as a “Divine Location” in view of the many places of worship there.

My latest visit to Brickfields last Friday afternoon threw up a waning lifestyle of residents and traders who littered indiscriminately and motorists who blatantly disregarded children and the blind waiting to cross the extremely busy roads.

It’s as if they aren’t proud of Brickfields, their home, anymore.

It’s as if their anger is getting the better of them.

While I have a major problem with their attitude, I can, in a way, understand that their anger stems from a host of issues, primarily the worsening traffic situation that has badly affected sales and increased rentals.

Traffic mayhem has ripped apart businesses that have had to pay increased rentals up by a staggering 40 per cent since the Little India project was launched in October.

Diabolical landlords, including expatriates, have profited immensely by collecting RM20,000 for some shoplots while we end up paying more to eat there. But who really goes there for banana leaf spreads these days anyway?

The defiant indifference of planners who stumbled and got lost in efforts to re-image Brickfields contributed to the failure in addressing traffic congestion and a severe lack of parking space.

The promised clampdown on illegal parking by Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin following complaints by traders and shoppers never took place.

The police and City Hall traffic wardens regularly issue summonses for illegal parking. Yet, clearly, the only way to intimidate motorists is to have a sustained crackdown — but not before living up to the local authority’s pledge to allocate temporary parking spaces.

Community leaders tell me the crime rate has shot up after the Brickfields police station was moved to Seri Petaling.

The police say it is under control but as Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing deputy minister Datuk M. Saravanan and Mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Ismail stumbled upon a vice den along Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad during a recent walkabout, brothels remain a mainstay here.

There’s just not trouble on the ground. There appears to be some disagreement between City Hall, Telekom Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional Berhad that has caused delay to the completion of the RM10 million traffic dispersal project for Brickfields and Bangsar.

Both companies had failed to complete their part of the project in the given time and the Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Ministry has asked Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) to carry on with their work instead of waiting for both Telekom and Tenaga Nasional.

The mess created by the Little India project is crystal clear and is an unfortunate experience that the planners failed to anticipate or sieve.

Now, the planners have begun undoing shortfalls. Last week, saw a re-think on the severely criticised one-way road system.

City Hall announced Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad would revert to a twoway street by the end of March, following
requests from the public and businessmen in Brickfields.

It had initially failed to take the people’s views and took the advice of experts to make it temporarily one-way to facilitate work on the RM110 million Package 3 of the traffic upgrading system for Brickfields, Bangsar and Kuala Lumpur.

The decision to go back to a two-way street was to cater to the needs of residents, several civic centres, places of worship and at least six schools which had originally opposed the conversion of the road to a one-way street because lives were at risk.

As part of the area’s renewal, Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4, Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad and parts of Jalan Tun Sambanthan as well as Jalan Thambipillay were converted into one-way streets.

Jalan Rozario had its road direction reversed but retains two-way flow.

There was a groundswell of anger then and many traders had warned the ruling coalition of voter backlash due to a decline in sales of up to 80 per cent caused by the new one-way traffic system.

Clearly, there is a lack of communication between the government and community. For one, it is hard for anybody to gain access to decisions and amendments made to the blueprint.

The RM35 million Little India project was to have been a boon for Brickfields residents and serve as an economic driver for areas in the vicinity like Lembah Pantai, Seputeh and Bangsar.

However, it now raises questions whether a comprehensive socioeconomic study actually went into this 1Malaysia project designed to win over the Indians.

Truth be said, the endeavour is now increasingly looking harmful to the government’s popularity. mmail.