Dr Denison Jayasooria : YSS Executive Director

In the context of the recently launched National Social Policy, the Ministry for National Unity & Social Development hosted a two-day convention to discuss the implications of the policy including the implementation of it.

Over the two days, 14 papers were presented by academics & social workers both from government and voluntary sectors. I was asked to present YSS programmes at Kg.Medan as a case study of community mobilization among the urban poor. Kg.Medan refers to a geographical location in the district of Petaling where a large section of the people reside in low cost housing and are among the urban poor. It was in this location that racial fighting among the Malays and Indians took place in March 2001.

While the racial clashes were confined to this section of the city, it left 6 people dead and 81 people injured of whom a majority were Indians. The tension arose after some minor arguments over funeral and wedding functions taking place in the local neighborhood.

Many different versions and theories analyzing the causes have been highlighted, however the most dominant dimension is the socio-economic neglect of the urban poor especially those low-income families. Sections of the urban poor feel marginalized from public services. The neighborhoods lack basic facilities and housing. The YSS research also found out that sections of the Malay community could not tolerate the anti-social behavior of Indian youths in the local neighborhood.

The case-study focused on the specific actions undertaken by the government and YSS since the incident. It also highlighted current challenges and recommendations for future. Government acted with immediate Police action, unity programmes to defuse tensions and welfare assistance to victims. A major move by the Minister of Works was to provide some infrastructure assistances to the neighborhoods. On the housing matter the government established a Cabinet level committee on squatters in the Klang valley on the provision of affordable housing and basic amenities.

In a similar way YSS has organized 135 social programmes reaching 12,488 residents of Kg.Medan area, with the aim of building local capacity and social cohesion among the communities. YSS also worked closely with RT in neighborhood based programmes. YSS administered Dato Seri S.Samy Vellu’s initiative of securing housing for the victims through various housing developers. 4 houses were given free while 52 houses were offered to them at RM35,000.

The study further highlighted how volatile race relations can be especially when some of the root issues such as alienation from services, inadequate facilities and difficulties in accessing provisions are not tackled. Very rarely do the poor communities fight among themselves as the poor finds solidarity in their confrontation with the rich, until and unless socio-economic issues are addressed with increased opportunities and access to services, the threat of similar conflicts erupting again looms over as possiblity.

The new government initiative in establishing neighborhood centers and co-coordinating committees at the local level is in the right step towards enabling the grass-roots to have access to information and services. Furthermore these communities will have their view heard through the new structures being created to enable feed back and dialogue with government.

Paper presented by Dr Denison Jayasooria, presented at the 2nd National Social Convention organized by the Ministry for National Unity & Social Development from December 15 to 16, 2003 at the PWTC, Kuala Lumpur

(Submitted on 31st December 2003)