The Sun Finally Sets On the Pekeliling Flats
Today Property Malaysia takes a break from reviewing new homes and talking about the market or industry news (due to some temporal loss of morale). Today we pay homage to one of the earliest large scale public housing projects in Kuala Lumpur, the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats, or better known as the Pekeliling Flats.
Pekeliling flats in the last few decades, had become an ageing relic of a bygone era, an established landmark to the millions of people that pass by on the ERL and Jalan Tun Razak everyday. Thousands of families – Malays, Chinese, Indians and others – live in the small units, in the heart of the old city, sandwiched between Kg. Baru, Sentul and gleaming freeways.
Residents have become immune to the inherent problems and complaints – rotting garbage everywhere, dangerous dark corridors, parking congestion, traffic noise, access problems, unsightly balconies, clogged pipes, the list goes longer and longer as the years go by. But the residents, by and large have had no other choice but to stay put in the apartments they moved in since the 60’s. Why? Some of my colleagues who stay there can’t afford more expensive housing anywhere else, some depend on the good transport system the area provides to earn their living, most of them are generations born there with nowhere to go.
How did the Pekeliling Flats come about? Perhaps most senior citizens from the city can give a better account of its genesis, but in the late sixties, there a huge demand for cheap housing in the young city to cope with the sudden influx of emigrants from all over the country. Kg. Baru was already established, so mass low cost flats with small units seems like the natural solution. Pekeliling was chosen for obvious reasons: close proximity to Kg. Baru and the government offices, good road and public transport system, plus it was at that time almost of at the edge of the city centre (of course at that time KL was not a city yet).
As the years went by, the nation and city grew bigger and more affluent, somehow the Pekeliling flats filled up to its brim and started to show its age.
I have passed by the place a million times, but the most memorable visit was my last one. It was for my good friend Dave’s wedding dinner. The wedding was held at the Tamil Methodist Church in nearby Sentul, and the dinner was at the multi-purpose hall in Pekeliling.
After years of deliberation and public forums, the government has finally decided to relocate the dwellers to the new flats in Sri Rampai (awarded to Kejuruteraan Bintai Kindenko Sdn Bhd) and the exodus has currently begun (see the Star Metro dated August 19, 2005). While I was at my previous firm many years ago, the complany was partially involved in of the many proposals to redevelop the place.
And what of the precious where the flats are located? The site will be rebuilt as a mixed development project (awarded to Asie Sdn. Bhd. for RM2bil) which will commence in mid-2006.
And so finally the sun has set on one of the earliest public housing projects in our country. Many of the dwellers are sad to leave the place, it had become one of the true melting pots of racial harmony and a snapshot of a country’s journey from the independence years to a developed nation. Others still, are only too happy to bid adieu to the flats. But however you see it, along with it goes a piece of our nation’s history, and a million memories of the humble Malaysian.
