Rule by exception : development, displacement and dissent In greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

My thesis looks at the relationship between development, displacement, and dissent in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Barring a brief four year period, independent Malaysia has continuously operated under a near-permanent state of constitutionally imposed emergencies. I look at the operation of one of the emergency regulations, the Essential Clearance of Squatters Regulations (ESCR, promulgated initially in 1969 and used until 2013) for the purposes of displacement and urban planning. Relying on archival research, interviews, and an in-depth case study, I seek to characterize the nature of urban development, particularly the operation of the law, in Kuala Lumpur. I make three broad arguments: 1. The use of squatter regulations for the purposes of urban planning started with the colonial emergency of 1948, when urbanization and development were used as primary elements of a military strategy to combat the Communist emergency. 2. Post-independence, however, the Malaysian state has increasingly used laws meant initially for counter-insurgency operations for the purposes of development. I argue that the urban planning in Kuala Lumpur must be seen as a form of urban law-fare (the use of techniques of war for political or economic ends; Comaroff, 2001) and that the creation of a "state of exception" (Agamben 2005), through the declaration of emergencies, has enabled the use of military ends as a normal technique of government. 3. Lastly, I look at the case of Kampung Berembang, perhaps the only successful case of resistance against the use of ESCR. I argue that the residents' re-positioning of themselves as peneroka bandar or urban pioneers (as opposed to squatters), using claims originating in Malay Customary law, were critical to reclaiming their rights as citizens.