Letter: ‘Bulatan Dato Lau Pak Khuan’ – was the result of a town-hall discussion in 2019
![](https://www.ipohecho.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2380_6ahbz130711.jpg)
![](https://www.ipohecho.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2380_6ahbz130711.jpg)
by James Gough
A new signage was erected in Ipoh Garden in December 2024 on a circus at the intersection of Jalan Canning Estate and Jalan Dato Lau Pak Khuan specifically in front of CIMB Bank.
Ipoh Garden was developed in the late 60’s and the road Dato Lau Pak Khuan has been around since that time. Hence it was surprising that MBI had honoured this revered community leader during the early independence years with a circus 60 years later.
A quick check with MBI’s Project Planning department, Landscape Department and a few more came up blank leaving only the mayor’s office to provide the answer.
According to Mayor Dato Rumaizi Baharin, the decision “to construct the signage ‘Bulatan Dato Lau Pak Khuan’ was the result of a town-hall discussion in 2019.
“It was the participants who attended the town-hall meeting who proposed the signage. The participants decided that the council give appreciation to Dato Lau Pak Khuan and proposed a circus after him. Most of the circuses then were named after Sultans. The majority wanted it and support was unanimous for the motion”.
About Lau Pak Khuan from Wikipedia:: Lau was awarded the title Officer of the Order of the British Empire by King George V for public service. He was awarded the Datuk title in 1963 and Datuk Seri three years later by then Sultan of Perak, Sultan Idris Shah. He was the first Chinese to be conferred the Datuk Seri title. (MBI might want to consider amending the signage again). A street was named after him in Ipoh Garden, Perak. He served as President of Chinese Chamber of Commerce for 33 years, Perak Chinese Assembly Hall for a similar period, Perak Kwantung Association for 30 years and Perak Chinese Mining Association for 25 years. He was president of the associations for so many years as no one wanted to challenge him. They had such faith in him to lead the community. He died in 1971.
The Town Hall Meeting of 2019 : Ipoh the 2nd Poorest City and Upgrading Canning
Mayor Rumaizi who took office in 2020 added that in the 2019 minutes Ipoh was ranked as the 2nd poorest of 17 cities in Malaysia. His 1st priority at the time was how to eradicate poverty in Ipoh specifically ‘urban poverty’. One of the areas was to improve our services in tourism and the subsector within tourism.
A second priority was to develop an expanded Ipoh which, besides just Old Town and New Town was to include Canning, as one area. This would involve the infrastructure at Canning which included improving the street lighting, roads and 5G which is a necessity to make tourism more viable. Currently our ranking has improved, added Rumaizi, and our position lies in the Top 10 of twenty cities of Malaysia. We made the right decision then and it has helped Ipoh.
Syabas Mayor Rumaizi!!