A community in constant transition: Propagating a yield of conflict and violence

Malaysian society has undergone sweeping changes in the last two decades. At the same time that it is actively constructing a nation geared towards the new national development strategy Wawasan 2020 ('Vision 2020'), it is negotiating globalisation processes at the most local level of everyday life. The forces propelling development in Malaysia are not just a product of development policies, but also a function of the confluence of historical, social, cultural, economic and political relations. The process through which Malaysia makes this transition - which includes linking the 'everyday-defined' cultural reality and a 'state-defined' notion of national identity - is an important process. This chapter is an attempt to understand aspects of this change through a case study that focuses on a squatter settlement in the epicentre of its capital city, Kuala Lumpur during a period of large-scale urban transformation. Situated at the intersection of what was once the main road linking metropolitan Kuala Lumpur to one of its main ports Klang, this community is currently being relocated into dense, new, low-cost housing flats in the same vicinity. . This study is particularly interested in questions of community and identity and seeks to articulate a deeper analytical understanding of low, intentionally or unintentionally, contexts for community conflict and sometimes violence in contemporary life can be propagated.