Town Planning And You

Imagine this, one fine morning, a teacher ask the pupils about their ambitions. I am pretty sure the answer won't differ much from 30 years ago. Most pupils would say they wanna a doctor, a pilot, an architect and an engineer. A town planner? Nay, you should go buy 4D if you come across a town planner as the answer. However, who get to decide where road gonna lead to? Who get to decide the location of the schools, community halls and sewerage treatment plant? Why the completion of Damansara - Puchong Expressway bring about so much development? Who got the insight to foresee things 5, 10, 20 years down the road?

Damansara - Puchong Highway, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia (Image Source)

Town planning is an ancient art of arranging different usage and function of a city. When I told some of my friends about what I do, first thing that they ask me was, "Ehh, how come KL's planning very bad one...?" I could only smiled back at them and blame it on the British! We shall talk about KL some other time.

The heart of Kuala Lumpur, Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) (Image Source)

What I want to emphasis here is the intimacy, in which urban and regional planning govern our lives. It is important for us to understand the implication of urban planning to our socioeconomic development and well-being.

In Malaysia, the practice of urban and regional planning is regulated through the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172). A town planner is a professional who is governed by the provisions under the Town Planners Act 1995 (Act 538). One huge draw back for this profession is that we have no professional title, unlike engineers (Ir.), land and quantity surveyor (Sr.) and architects (Ar.). I envision town planners to adopt Pl. or Pr. but in a particular Chinese dialect (can't remember which one) Pl. would bring an obscene connotation while Pr. doesn't sound unique at all. Well, I guess town planners won't have any honorific title for a while.

I shall parted ways with the links to the two Acts aforementioned for your guide and reference.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172) English | Bahasa Malaysia
• Town Planners Act 1995 (Act 538) English | Bahasa Malaysia