The Backyard Environmentalists of Petaling Jaya

It’s fantastic how residents associations have stood up in 2008 to make known their grouses, especially about the poor performance of the Klang Valley’s various municipal authorities. Banding together into one of many Joint Action Committees, Petaling Jaya ("PJ") and Kuala Lumpur ("KL") citizens in particular have conducted public demonstrations, filed suits and led the way in exploiting the media and local press to further their causes, ranging from complaints about out of control advertising billboards, poor sanitation and traffic woes to broader issues such as environmental protection. It goes to prove that the best way to get asses off couches is to bring the cause into our backyards.

The ongoing saga of Bukit Gasing in Kuala Lumpur is a classic example of the power of NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) activism. Back in 2006, residents living in the foothills of what used to be colonial rubber estates, got wind that development was being contemplated by owners of undeveloped portions of the area, which these residents have been enjoying as a green backdrop for several years.

For those who aren’t aware of the situation, a group of PJ residents living in the foothills of Gasing Hill conducted an effective campaign in 20006/2007 to mislead members of a very gullible Malaysian press corps into believing that a forest reserve was about to be developed by unscrupulous developers in cahoots with corrupt city officials. By recasting their neighbour as a mysterious agent of politicos bent on the destruction of forests, these residents managed to garner a huge swell of public support, with its calls for demonstrations drawing participants even from other towns.

It subsequently surfaced that the so-called forest reserve was actually overgrown residential lots with corresponding titles dating back to the 1970’s, before anyone came to live in the area. In effect, these residents were trying to deprive their neighbours of their right to build after they the present residents had themselves happily bought homes in the “forest reserve”. It’s a pity that the same amount of energy isn’t being applied to the true destruction of rainforests in rural Peninsular Malaysia: simple math would suggest that saving thousands of acres of virgin jungle will do the world a lot more good than defending 38 acres of a dilapidated rubber estate in the city. But therein lies the rub: those thousands of acres aren’t in the backyards of these activists.