The Price of Progress and Development
By Mariam Mohktar
All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes. ~Winston Churchill
Perak Trade & Technology Centre
At one time, Ipoh imported the most Mercedes Benz cars and French brandy in the whole world. That was during the rubber and tin era. Now we are in the doldrums.
But ask any visitor or tourist what they remember about Ipoh and the three oft-repeated things are its food, the architecture of its old buildings and the hills.
So, has Ipoh been staring at the solution of its malaise all this time?
Foresight and Vision
The limestone hills and the caves in our Kinta Valley are a potential money spinner. The revenue will yield more than from quarrying or any other development.
All it takes is foresight, planning and vision. That is the purpose of education; to replace an empty mind with an open one.
If we involve all Ipohites, then it becomes our collective responsibility. We may need to introduce an activity or project that makes these hills the property of all, and not just for the exclusive use of the rich or the elite.
Quarrying blasts the hills and would be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Moreover, it only benefits the quarry operator.
Ipohites will tell you that they never tire of waking up and seeing the beautiful hills in the skyline, shrouded in mists in the early morning.
Compare the hills with the PTTC (Perak Trade and Technology Centre) building in Jelapang, or the Sungai Pari towers in old town.
Which would we prefer to feast our eyes on? High-rises or hills? Which are eye-sores? Which feature is more aesthetically pleasing and good feng shui?
Progress in any place is not encapsulated in concrete towers or indiscriminate building works. London, Prague and Girona are European cities which are progressive but without high-rises.
Progress will accelerate once there is good local governance, with priorities and investment in the right areas. Progress involves interaction and active dialogue with the public for a healthy exchange of ideas. Progress includes having moral and social responsibilities.
Ipoh’s Priorities
- Good communication links within the city and from the city to elsewhere.
- Good educational facilities and institutions to equip our youth with skills.
- Increased provision of health/medical facilities.
- Good local housing with proper drainage and community facilities.
- A visible police force.
- Green lungs for rest and recreation.
- Maintenance of public facilities and infrastructure.
- Clean river and riverbank.
- Preservation of our cultural heritage – old buildings.
- Incentives for small shops and businesses.
- More local libraries/art exhibition centres.
- More outlets/sporting complexes within a housing area for our youth (even it if a small place for basketball or futsal or remote controlled car races).
- Facilities for enjoyment of the elderly.
- Regular dialogues with councillors and politicians.
- Ipoh can claim to be a developed society when the normal people – hard-working middle and working classes, get to share in the riches created.
- A developed society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy.
Let’s Remember
But just remember the following:
Only when the last tree has been cut down,
Only when the last outcrop has been blasted
Only when the last view of the hill has been obliterated
Only when you live in the shadow of a high-rise and cannot see the sun
Only when the last drop is unfit for drinking
Only when the last fish has been caught,
….Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
Sadly, Malaysians do not passionately believe in preserving all that is good and pure about our environment, including our precious hills.
We realise that only the superior man seeks what is right; the inferior one, what is profitable. But that’s human nature. Nobody does anything until it’s too late.
One day, we might tell our grandchildren, “The good Earth—we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy”.
Category: Headlines, Thinking Aloud
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At some point, you just gotta give up on this town and move on. People come here for different reasons, they do not like to get involved. Those who want to do good for it, have to accept it. It is a sleepy town and has been for a long time, I am convinced enough that it is not going to change in my lifetime.
This cheap and lazy attitude is a shameful fact but very true about our people.
Actually, we’re cheap not because we have no resources, it’s because we don’t believe in what matters. Because we don’t understand why it matters. Or even if we understand, we are ignorant about it because we just want to fit in, to be normal like everyone else. We’re so passive, aren’t we?
We’re lazy not because we’re not hardworking, but because we don’t work on the things that really matters. Why? Because we’re too afraid to learn about the unknown, we are too scared to walk out of our comfort zone, a zone which no longer matters much in today’s World.
However, I have a feeling that my generation is doing something. Hopefully, it’s something very different from KL or Penang. Ipoh has a unique culture, it needs to be defined.
Well written Mariam and it stands true that Ipoh was once a real happening little town, with the good and the bad.
Needless to say all of what you have written about what a living city should aspire is spot on.
Pitiful that there are those who just love concrete and huge pedestrian unfriendly roads. This means progress to them.
So how ? The tide is against nature, as people extend their horizons for profitability.
Can anyone guess what’s going to happen ??????