PERPUSTAKAAN

NEGARAMALAYSIA

The Federal Capital
PERPUSTAKAAN
GEORGE PEET, who went to Kuala Lumpur more than 30 years ago
NEGARAMALAYSIA
to open the first office of The Straits Times in the Peninsula,
reflects on some remarkable changes that have taken place.
WONDER whether there is any arrival that she had been caught in
I city in the world where 30 years the five o'clock traffic jam in the
have made so much difference as in Batu Road bottleneck.
Kuala Lumpur. I went to the capital I S3 \ in a f1a h how Kuala Lum
of the old Federation in 1929 to pur had grown and changed. In my
open a branch office for The traits day it was a quiet, leisurely, tranquil
Times and lived there for four year, town. Coming from the commercial
the first Singapore journalist to be capital of ingapore, from the bustle
tationed in th e Fcderated 1alay of Raffles Place and the traffic of
States. Collyer Quay, th e air of dignified,
When I revisited the Fedcral Capi- unhurricd c:llm th at layover Kuala
tal of today there wcre natmally Lumpur induced a different mood at
many urprises but the ne that once.
really set me back was to hear my It was the difference between an
hostess say on the evening of my English cathedral city and, say,
I<.P
1'.,. Slxt'/ 95 9. 511(;, 817449 KP
PE. ) I 4 SEP 1995
JB 187 4
I Perpustak.a1l n Negara
-
Busg il10untbatten Road; makes a stran.q e
contrast with quiet Jaoa S treet. as it was
when T he St raits Tim .. opened i ts office tltere.
Liverpool. But the sunny seren ity of
Kuala Lumpur, drowsing in the heat
of tb e Seiangor plain beneath the
mountain wall of the main range,
was that of a Malayan country town
rather tban a city. In official life
this lingers on in the Federation
today in such green backwaters as
the temb u u-covered hill wbere the
Government business of Seremban is
carried on .
For the Chinese community, Kual:l
Lumpur in the days of the F.M.s.
was a busy tr:J.ding centre, serv ing
the planting and mining district3, but
from th e Emopean point of view it
was almost entirely an official capital,
a little Washington or Canberra.

Nearly everybody one met was in
Government serVIce, rigidly graded
socially and otherwi e, the 1alayan
Civil 'ervice having a position and
tatu - quite distinct from that of th e
profe ional and technical depart.
ment and being known a the '
Heaven -born accordingly.
Th e British commercial commu-
nity \ a a very mail one, a few big
agency houses making up mo t of it.
l'aradoxically, the lSritish capitalist
had Ie intluence with the stiff-
PERPUSTAKAAN
. necked Briti h administrators of the
F. 1.S. than he ha with the national-
i t government of today.
The European community of Kuala
Lumpur in those days wa purely a
NEGARAMALAYSIA
ci vilian one. There \ ere no army or
air force establi hments nearer than
Singapore. The only regular troop
in the Federation were the Burma
l{ifles in Taiping. The first company
of the Malay Regiment was about to
be formed at Port Dickson. Apart
from th e F.M.S. Police and their
colourf ul band, the only military
ceremonial that the Federal Capital
ever . aw was provided by the F.M . .
olunteer Regiment, a European
unit an d the Malay olunteer Jn-
Iantry, of ,hich each tate had its
ow n battali on.
Perhap now you see why the five
o'clock jam in the Batu Road bottle-
neck opened my eyes : the volume of
traffic that implied amazed me. I
never had any trouble in parking my
Old Market Square, Kuala Lumpur, toP. as it
was in the late Twenties . This and the Hi,qh
Street-Petaling Street junction. above. had
IlltLe trufflc. It lDas still the day of the slolD
pong-dralDn gharrg and the man-pulled ricksha.
car all day long outside my office in
Java . treet; and it wa the same in
Jalan Raja and Old Market Square.
I remember when the Malay
point man at th e end of the Java
Street bridge first appeared with
white \ ing attached to hi shoulders,
to relieve him from th e fatigue of
hand ignals. As he turned, hi
,vings turne:.l \ ith him . Imagine
trying to control traffic with that
quaint device, standing under a coni-
cal unshade mounted on a movable
wooden pillar, at that vortex of the
Federal Capital toda y.
The lava treet office in which I
toiled ingle-handed for The Straits
Times and The Sunday Times - a
six-day week, right up to the sport-
ing events on the Padang on Satur-
day afternoon - was a dark, tuffy
back room up a steep Ri gh t of stairs.
It looked out at the back on Malay
Street, a colourful lane where open-
air traders of every kind were strung
along th e bank of the muddy Gom-
bak Rive r under a ca nop of old
rain·tre .
\ hy do Malayan towns so li ghtly
change the old name? lava Street
went back to the beginning of Kuala
Lumpur. Likewise Grove Road in
Singapore, which also was robbed of
its old name to honour Lord Mount·
batten, wa a link \\ ich Grove !:state
and the Dunman famil y of earl
days. L ooking out irol1J my l\.uala
Lumpur oliice, I was reminded that
wnac Java treet used to be before
Western commerce arrived, Mala y
Street stili \ as.
My ho tes,;; took me much farther
baCK than my 0\ n lime when he
spOKe 01 .tiatu l{oad. W nen 1 worked
IL1 h.uala LUlllpur 1 knew an old lady
who had Ii veLl there lIlce the heau-
quarters ot British administratioll
were moved hom h.lang to the new
::Jtate capital in 1876. he was Mrs.
I"{ol>son, \ i Ie uf J .H.M. J{ob on, him·
St!it a ::Jelangor oid-tilller, but he was
lIer secund llusbalH1: her hIst held
been Captain Syers, the ltrst upenn-
tendent of p olice in 'elangor. He
\ as a noted oig-gam e hunter and \ as
killed by a eladang.
One evening, talking with her on
the verandah of their vast old house
on the brow of \ eld Hili ( it has
vanished long since, with the vil'gin
jungle behind it) she told mc tnat
when she and . Captain yers fir~t
moved to Kuala Lumpur they lived
in an attap bungaloW, built high
above the ground on post, on 'Ine
tllutl, tile lligh ground above the
Padang' and one night a \ ild ele·
phant came out of the jungle in Batu
l{oad, cro sed tbe Padang, climbed
the slope and ,alked right under-
neath their house.
* * *
FROM that recollection to the five
o'clock traffic jam .. .. the \ hole
span of Kuala Lumpur history is
covered by what I have seen for
my elf and what I heard from th e
old·timers who were till there 30
ears ago.
Among the Malays there were old
men who had been boys when young
Frank Swettenham \ as sent by
Governor ir Andrew Clarke to live
in the stockade at BandaI' Langat in
1874, and who remembered Captain
Bloomfield Douglas, the British Re-
ident who figures in h. Innes'
mov ing record of her lonely Ii fe at
BandaI' Langat as the fir t white
\ oman in elangor, 'The Cher ooese
With the Gilt Off" . ( Captain Bloom-
field Douglas's previou po thad
been a similar one at Dan in - a
link with u tralia which i probably
unknown in Kuala Lumpur today).
1r. Rob on took one back to the
old days too. He had been a di trict
officer in elangor before the tate
joined the fir t Federation in 1896.
He remembered the Briti h coffee
planters from Ce Ion and the first
rubber boom ( , ith it decimation of
Indian labour force by malaria),
and travel by bridle-track and river,
and the first motor car and the
opening of the raih ay from Klang
to Kuala Lumpur.
H e founded the Selangor J oumal
- th e beginning of j oumali m in
Kuala Lumpur - and later The
Malay Mail. He ended hi days in
the 'ime l'{oad internment camp, like
many ano ther old-timer 01 pre-war
Malaya.
The 1alay Mail, s till erving
centI'al Malaya in the trait Times
Group, is J .H.M. Robson s memorial.
Hob on House, extended and moder-
ni ed now accommodate the head-
quarters of the Strait Time Press
tMalaya) Ltd.
\ hat impressed me mo t ,hen I
saw the Kuala Lumpur of today wa
the spread of new suburb, and, of
cour e, the satellite town of Petaling
Jaya. In my day the ne , ly-buiit
Circular Road marked the outer limit
of uburbia. But the difference were
more in atmosphere and outlook than I like to think that that small office tish Re idency, but these were poli-
in area and population, in the intan- which The traits Times then opened tical ymbols as well. The form of
gible things rather than the material in Kuala Lumpur sowed the fir t government was authoritarian Briti h
ones. seeds of the pan-Malayan mind that rule behind a Malay facade - an
is ta ken for granted today, in inga- arrangement, hich \ as not free from
* * * pore as well a in the Federation. h pocri y.
T HE political horizon of Kuala But the news coverage of the smaller The to\ n was administered by a
L u m pur in those days \ as
town and village of th e Peninsula body unpleasantly named the Kuala
bounded by Perak, Selangor, egri
that seem so remarkable to a jour- Lumpur anitary Board. Few people
Sembilan and Pahang (and on that
nali - tic ha been in the present-day took any interest in the anitary
horizon, ere two tate capi tal that
Strait Time lS purely a develop- Board or bad any clear notion of
have ince lost that tatu , Taiping
ment of the ear ince World War , hat it did , in marked contra t \ ith
and Kuala Lipis).
We talked and thought only in
II. the older city of ingapore, \ hich
Tbe pinnacle of the social order had civic pride and a trong and
terms of the F_M. , hal'd though
in Kuala Lumpur in my day were progre ive municipality.
tbi is to believe now, there was no
Carco a, the re idence of the Chief
sense of Malayan unity in Kuala The Strait" Times office of 1929 looked out
Secretal'Y, and below that, the Bri- on blalag ,street, witll s talls under rain trees.
Lumpur then, not even any fore-
warning of what was to come. Sir
Cecil Uementi, as Governor of the
traits Settlements and High Com-
mi ioner for the Malay States, trieu
to open people's eyes to hi own
vision of "a brotherhood of Malay
nations" , but he got no\ here. The
Unfederated Malay States remained

PERPUSTAKAAN
su picious and aloof.
Kedah, with its tight system of
Malay rule and its European plant-
ing community, was a remote little
world of its own. orth-east Malaya

NEGARAMALAYSIA
, a even more remote and less
known, though the East Coa t Rail-
wa ended in 1932 the age-old isola-
ti on of Kelantan and Trengganu dur-
ing the north-east monsoon. J ohore,
politically as , ell a geographically,
wa a long' ay from Kuala Lumpur,
and had every intention of keeping
its distance.
Mo t remarkable of all, in retros-
pect, eem the mutual ignorance and
indifference of the F.M. . and the
trait ettlement. It wa extra-
ordinary how little ingapore and
Kuala Lumpur knew of each other's
affair. The newspaper gave onl
th e cantie t of new from the re pec-
ti e capital. There, a no demand
for uch new , no Mala an outlook
to promote such a demand.

Robson House, left. built by Mr. J . H. M.
Robson, founder of The Malay /Ilail. is nOID
headquarters of The Straits Times Group.
In Kuala Lumpur there wa an
effective public opinion in planting
and mining affairs but not in local
affairs. There could not be, with a
European community mainly com-
posed of Government servants here
today and gone tomorrow (the curse
of British administration in bygone
Malaya) and A ian communities in
which the econd generation of Kuala
Lumpur citizen was still in school.
This !Jroup picture of the Federal Council. taken in 19.14, sholDs the High Commissioner, Sir AndrelD Caldecott, flanked by the Rulers of Negri
Sembi/an, Perak, clangor and Pahang . The British Residents o( these States .tand behind the Rufars . Other Om :ia l members are in lIniform.
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSIA
Kuala Lumpur wa already a town
of 100000 people, but it was 0 new
that it wa only just beginning to
find itself in the civic en e. The
whole place wa run like a Govern-
ment department with the Sanitary
Board kept under close control by
the British Resident.
The B .R., as he was known in the
jargon of the day, was all-powerful
within his own State, except in Malay
affairs. He was a isted by a tate
Council, but the meeting of this
body were not even reported in the
Pre . There was a Mentri Besar,
but he wa in the hadow too.
The Federal Council. the central
legi lature of the F.M.S., met everv
three month in the old Council
Chamber in lalan Raja, sometime at
even lon ger interval, and was con-
trolled by a Government majority
when it did meet. 0 much for
democracy in the old Federation.
One remember 'w ith plea ure, how-
ever, the tiff ru tling ilk and
ancient pomp in lalan Raja when the
four Ruler arrived to attend the
meetings of the Federal Council
(later, only once a year for the prin-
ci 0'1 I essioll)'
Life in Kuala Lumpur in those
days was very pleasant in some
ways, very dull and limited in others.
If one wanted to go out to dinner,
and did not want to eat at the rail-
way tation, the main hotel ,a the
aloomy little Empire Hotel at the
bac'< of the elangor Club.
One could also get a cheap and
excellent meal at the lapane e re tau-
rants in the hophouse of Petaling
treet. On Saturday nights one went
to a small cinema in Brickfields Road
or another one in Batu Road.
Professional concerts and shows
were unknown. It did not pay tour-
ing arti ts to come up from Singa-
pore. Cultural life wa in fact almost
nil. There wa no public library for
the English-educated Asian, although
The modern brick home9 of Kennq Hill. abo"e,
contrast with one of the s mall wooden Govern-
m ent bungalolDs in the Lake Gardens area.
typical of such hOlLsin .q in the pre war F./U .S.

the European community ran its own

book club. The most intere tin<Y
event of the Kuala Lumpur calendar
was the M.A.H.A. Show, which
brought together the products of
the kampongs from all over the
Peninsula.
The Spotted Dog and the Golf
Club were not open to Asians, either
as guests or as members. There was
no international club in Kuala Lum·
pur. The Briti h clubs in in<Yapore
, ere the same, but European ociety
there was, in general, Ie ingrown
than in Kuala Lumpur, thank to the
commercial contact of the Colony.
or the Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur
I cannot spea k, never having ven-
tured , ithin it august portals. re thou e ami halting bungalo, central government and restore tale
spaced at short intervals fo r hor e right in the old Federation perbap
* * * travel survived in the F.M . . until ha it warning for the new one.
S ELAl GOR 111 those days had its
own hill station , Bukit Kutu.
the economy axe fell on th em in the
slump.
Above all, the verbal battles over the
confli cting claims of the 1alays and
where three bungalow were perched Fra er' s Hill had been opened les- the Malayans, a ne, is ue in the
2.000 feet up above a sea of jungle than ten year when I fil'St 'ent to F.M.S. which came to a head during
that' as a game re erve. Thi resort Kuala Lunlpur, and Cameron High- tho e years, may be said to have
wa reached bv a jungle path from cleared the groun:! for the Alliance

PERPUSTAKAAN
the old Kuala Kubu , then in the last
ta!!es of being huried by mining ilt
, hile Kuala Kubu Bahru wa being
built a few miles awav. Bukit Kutu
wa clo ed down dUl:ing the great
land had not even been heard oJ.
Fraser sHill wa intended to be ex-
clu 'ively a European health re ort,
and I r emember being a ked b a
Chine '3 member of the Federal
Council whether I thought he and
Government of today.
Kuala Lumpur grew between the
world wars but remained essentially
the ame up to the Japane e occupa-
tion. It was the centralisation of

NEGARAMALAYSIA
lump of 1931-33, and, 0 far as I
kn ow. its bungalows have been swal-
lowed up by the jungle ever ince.
till to be seen on top of the Tidge
at Klang Gate were the remain of
the Govp.rnment holiday bun~alo, tu
,hich EurolJean used to drive out
from Kuala LumIJur in the earlv
days. Legend had it that this had
heen a favouritp. hi~eout of a enior
Government official and his para-
mour in local society.
The cool height of Ginting im-
pa h one of elangor' two passes
over the main range, were another
haunt of ours and ~the little wooden
re thou ~ wa till upkept
altJlOugh no longer needed in thp.
motor age. number of the old
another leading Asian re ident of
Kuala Lumpur would be unwelcome
if they wp.nt to the Government rest-
hou e at Fraser's Hill for a weekend.
it turned out, the were not re-
buffed, but th e un certainty in their
mind was el oquent of the privileged
statu of the ,hite communitv in
colonial times, though , in the ialay
protectorates, European attitude
were always more considerate and
sem;itive than in the trait3 ettle-
ments.
It wa a troubled and controver ial
time that r lived thr ough in Kuala
Lumpur. The ureat slum p w s . ome-
ther, thing that \ e hope wilt never hit the
.:&a'orld again . Th e politic~l .strife 0 ~r
effort to 100 en the gn p of th e
Malayan administration by the Bri-
ti h regime after the war that made
the ba ic change in Kuala Lumpur.
and ilie transfer of Malaya Command
from ingapore chan<Yed the charac-
ter of the place too.
In the eaTly car after Lhe war
one was aware of a new surg-ing
growth, a quickened temoo of life,
and horizons extending to the Siame e
border and the trait of J ohore.
ow that Kuala Lumpur i the
capital of a dem ocratic national gov-
ernmen t, i shddin<Y its traditional
dependence upon Singapore in com-
merce and finance, and is developin~
a rich and varied cultural life, , ith
it own univer it . the metamorpho i
of the old Fdera1 Capit::ll is complete.
 PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSIA
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PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSIA