Brickfields make-over pitched at Indian voter, new business interests

The Vivekenanda Ashram, constructed in 1904, remains a oasis of calm in bustling Brickfields, but for how long?

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 —While many of Brickfields traders are fuming over the multi-million redevelopment of this Indian enclave, it is intended to have a pleasing political effect on the Tamil voter, hundreds and thousands of whom visit regularly from across the country.

The redevelopment plan aspired to turn the long neglected bustling neighbourhood into a world class tourist outpost complete with ‘Indian’ arches and floral patterned pavements.

It will also be re-named, perhaps mistakenly, “Little India”.

With the majority of Chinese voters implacably set against the Barisan Nasional, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been courting the Indian vote with numerous feel good measures.

Consequently, the transformation of Brickfields has an unmistakable political dimension to it.

If there is any place the Tamil voter can call his own it is in the new Brickfields that is rising at breakneck speed to meet the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who together with Najib, would tour the transformed town and declare it open in late October.

For the alienated Tamil voter the new Brickfields, ironically developed by Yap Kwan Seng, the last Kapitan Cina of Kuala Lumpur as a site for a brick kiln, is a place where he can shop for everything Indian.

“I already feel at home,” said S. Rajansoorian, a bank clerk. “I like the Indian design and motifs and the arches that are all coming up. I think it would be very Indian when completed.”

“You only find such designs in India,” he said. “Even Singapore doesn’t have them.”

Each year Tamils from across the country visit Brickfields not just to shop but also to mark auspicious days like Taipusam and Deepavali.

The next time they visit they will be greeted by a new Brickfields, transformed into a “Indian enclave.”

All the roadside stalls, now temporarily located at a field, would relocate to a food court being built in Brickfields. A multi story car park is also under construction for locals to park, shop and dine.

Tourists arrivals at KLIA an easily connect with the new brickfields through KL Sentral.

To meet the new demand building owners are transforming their properties into budget and medium cost hotels.

But not everyone is happy. Apart from the affected traders, sex workers are also worried as the cost of room rentals has shoot through the roof.

But while the new Brickfields may well sound the death knell of traditional Indian traders in the area, other entrepreneurs are sure to cash in.

According to some traders 70 per cent of one side of the Brickfields is owned by Chinese businessmen while Indians businessmen owned about 70 per cent of the other side of the area.

Both groups are, however, raising rentals to levels that one trader selling clothes said is “astronomical”.

A casual survey by The Malaysian Insider showed rentals have been raised by an average of 30 per cent since City Hall announced early this year that Brickfields would be transformed into “Little India”.

“We were already paying high rentals but after the announcement rentals shot up again,” said Kumar who owns a souvenir shop.

Traders currently pay anything between RM18, 000 to RM30,000 a month and with the increase a few have called it a day and close shop.

The only bank in Brickfields – CIMB – has also moved out after the rental of its space was raised to RM63, 000.

Not only Tamils from across the country but also well-heeled tourists from the sub-continents and Middle Easterners are expected to make a beeline for the new Brickfields, which will resemble Petaling Street but with a Bangsar-like enclave of high end shops, entertainment outlets and restaurants.

As rentals escalate most of the current traders, who have already been hit by an 80 per cent drop in business, are expected to give way to the new businessmen who hope to cash in on the new, well-heeled tourists.

The assumption that there are more millionaires in India than the entire population of Malaysia is what the new Brickfields is all about.

It’s about how to get a slice of that big money coming from India and Middle East.

Brickfields has everything for them – numerous Hindu temples, Indian shops, IT connection, international schools interspersed set in a built environment reminiscent of India.

Yap’s brick making town was transformed into a crowded little Indian town with the arrival of the Malayan railway depot in the 1920s.

With the more recent arrival of KL Sentral, the town evolved again into a transport hub.

Today change is in the offing again; one even Yap might not have dreamed of – Brickfields as tourist haven.