Noor Rosly Hanif

Guarding the Neighbourhood: The New Landscape of Control in Malaysia

While securitised enclaves have become a global phenomenon, case studies of particular nations reveal the unique interplay between local conditions and international influences. This article presents the first major empirical study of gated developments in Malaysia. We found two types of enclosures being produced in urban Malaysia. Market-produced gated communities, attracting affluent households to live within elegant walls, dominate new growth areas in major cities. Guarded neighbourhoods are a post-market product: that is they result from resident-initiated actions to impose makeshift boundaries and controls in older neighbourhoods. Although concerns about safety and security permeate the national discourse around gates and guards, new structures of enclosure reinforce and reproduce shifting structures of inequality, class and ethnicity in urban Malaysia.

Towards a housing policy in Malaysia

In numerous statements, successive governments of Malaysia have recognized housing as both a basic human need and an important component of the country’s economy. Underlying this, the primary, formal objective of Malaysia’s housing policy has been to ensure that all citizens, particularly low-income groups, have access to adequate and decent shelter (Wan et al., 2011). In addition to ensuring an adequate supply of housing, another ostensible objective has been to promote a safe, healthy, convenient and beautiful living environment. Essentially, housing has been perceived as a vehicle for achieving human settlements that not only meet the physical need for shelter but also the particular national need for social, cultural and ethnic integration.