KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has been ordered to focus on preserving green space, particularly adopting this as part of future housing projects in the city, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today.
He said from now on the new format should emphasise the comfort of living, green areas, sports facilities and stalls for the people.
“As I emphasised [earlier], I want the City Council to make that in any type of housing, the new format emphasises everything, namely the comfort living, green areas, sports facilities, housing for the people, as well as warung and stalls for the ordinary people.
“That's why the proposal to move the Kuala Lumpur football field has been cancelled,” Anwar told reporters when met at the Residensi Wilayah housing project groundbreaking ceremony here
Earlier in his address at the ground breaking ceremony, Anwar said that plans to move the Kuala Lumpur football field and stadium out of the city centre has been cancelled.
He said if the football field was removed that would mean less green space is available in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre.
“Why move it out of Kuala Lumpur? So I said fix it and leave it where it is so that both the football association and the public can make use of the football field,” he said.
He added that proposals for housing in Kuala Lumpur must also be done realistically, whereby a target is set a followed-thru.
“That’s why I told the City Council that I want to know how many this month, how many next year as it is better for us to make an approval based on that estimate.
“For me it’s realistic, because of our promises... previously it was promised but never fully implemented,” he said.
In addition, Anwar said the ways of the past is so deeply ingrained in the housing industry that when he met with developers he was accused of acting unfairly.
“If there is no clear determination to clean this up, our county will be ruined and I understand that it takes times to understand.
“It may not be visible for the people, but this talking about cleaning-up.
“Why can’t it be done in the past? Because profit were transferred to ‘certain’ people,” he said.
