Malaysian urbanization transition: from nascent, pseudo to livable mega - urban region
In the relatively short history of modern Malaysian urbanization experiences, a three phase urbanization transition is proposed, namely the phases of nascent, pseudo and the rise of the mega urban region. It is recognized that modern urban centres in the country were founded by the British admi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Environmental Management Society, Malaysia
2010
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2293/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2293/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2293/1/Article2_Samad.pdf |
| Summary: | In the relatively short history of modern Malaysian
urbanization experiences, a three phase urbanization
transition is proposed, namely the phases of nascent, pseudo
and the rise of the mega urban region. It is recognized that
modern urban centres in the country were founded by the
British administration of the country as from the 18th
century, albeit the existence of the Melaka empire around
the 15th or 13th century. The urban centres founded by the
British were mainly administrative centres to administer
law and order in order to sustain the exploitation of tin and
the vibrancy of commercial rubber production, in addition
to the provision of goods and services. These urban centres
were generally ‘foreign’ to the conception of life of the local
people who participated marginally in the market economy
controlled by British capitals and later Chinese migrants’
capital. The required labour force to run these urban
centres was met mainly by Chinese and Indian migrants
whom the British encouraged to be brought in. Briefly, the
basic characterization of the urbanization process during
the nascent phase is that the process involved cross border
labour flows from South China and India, and the urban
centres were just islands of modernisation seeds in the
relatively rural spatial domain. The challenge of urban
living in the mega urban region centres on sustaining the
quality of urban life, access to better quality jobs, shelters,
education, personal safety, health and infrastructures in a
globalizing world |
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