Spatial Inequality and Colonial Palimpsest in Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

This chapter looks at the living conditions of migrants in Kuala Lumpur, noting that the country has performed relatively well in managing the infection rate of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. It focuses on the overcrowded conditions that migrants have to endure, especially if they reside in city centers close to jobs. It also equates contemporary responses to the COVID-19 pandemic among middle-class Malaysians to colonial European attitudes towards indigenous subjects. The chapter talks about the ten-kilometer radius that limited people's movements, which demonstrated the uneven distribution of resources and services. It describes Malaysia's intersection of medical practices and armed forces, marginalized communities and overcrowding, sanitation and the policing of space that are reminiscent of colonial methods of ordering space.