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By Mihar Dias | Newswav | October 2025
Welcome to Bukit Damansara — where the air is crisp, the roads are leafy, and the egos are as elevated as the land value.
For decades, it’s been Kuala Lumpur’s answer to Beverly Hills (?): where the powerful retreat, the successful retire, and the rest of us drive through slowly just to breathe in the aura of exclusivity.
So imagine the shock when residents — including Khairy Jamaluddin, Tony Fernandes, Nazir Razak, Ambiga Sreenevasan, and even the “Queen of Jazz” Sheila Majid — took to the streets, holding placards and chanting “Say No to Skyscrapers.” The target of their wrath? The redevelopment of the aging Wisma Damansara into two 60-storey towers.
Finally, the elites are protesting! But not over inequality, corruption, or housing evictions — no, they’re fighting the horror of having tall buildings near their manicured lawns.
The irony practically writes itself. For years, they’ve watched Kuala Lumpur’s skyline balloon with high-rises in Cheras, Puchong, and Kepong, where ordinary families are crammed into shoebox flats.
But now that the cranes are inching toward their backyard, suddenly it’s a matter of national importance.
Their main concern, according to Khairy, is “traffic congestion” and preserving Bukit Damansara’s “suburban character.” Translation: “We’re happy with development — as long as it develops somewhere else. ”
I knew Wisma Damansara long before it became a battleground for privilege. Back in 1974, as a junior professor. I walked through its modest doors to meet MIDA officials about student internships.
Later, I met Leo Moggie there when he was a minister. It wasn’t glamorous — the lift jerked, the paint peeled — but it represented opportunity, not entitlement.
Those days are gone. Today, the same plot of land has become a symbol of class anxiety — the fear that the “ordinary” might creep too close.
Once upon a time, Bukit Damansara housed civil servants living in SPPK-built homes, bought at government-subsidised prices. My boss told me, “Your address says something about you,” so I rented one of those homes on Jalan Setiakasih. It wasn’t posh, but it was proud.
Now, those old SPPK houses are being snapped up by tycoons and CEOs — not for nostalgia, but for networking. Even Friday prayers at the Bukit Damansara mosque feel like an audition for influence. The faithful arrive in German cars, park illegally, and pray for continued prosperity.
When news of the protest broke, the backlash online was brutal. One netizen wrote, “Now they know how Cheras feels!” Another quipped, “Their biggest fear isn’t traffic — it’s losing their view of the swimming pool.”
It’s hard to feel sympathy when the privileged suddenly claim victimhood. The residents of Bukit Damansara are not fighting for affordable housing or urban sustainability. They’re fighting for their privacy line.
Sociologist Awang Azman says this episode marks a shift — Malaysians are no longer obsessed with race politics, but with class. And in that new consciousness, Bukit Damansara has become Exhibit A: a place where the wealthy preach balance while practising exclusion.
As Dina Zaman points out, young Malaysians increasingly feel excluded not because of their ethnicity, but because they don’t have “connections.”
They see a system that rewards lineage over labour — and nothing illustrates that better than the sight of elites picketing for peace and quiet.
If this protest were a Netflix show, it’d be called “The Real Housewives of Bukit Damansara: Battle for the View”. Each episode would feature a teary confession about how skyscrapers are ruining their sunsets — and their property values.
But behind the mockery lies a truth: this backlash isn’t just about buildings. It’s about a Malaysia growing impatient with entitlement disguised as civic duty.
So, dear elites of Bukit Damansara — welcome to the world of protest. The only difference is, when others protest, it’s for survival. When you do it, it’s for scenery.
In the end, Bukit Damansara’s protest wasn’t about saving a neighbourhood — it was about saving a lifestyle. And nothing says “Malaysia Boleh” quite like the rich discovering activism… only when the view from their balcony is at stake.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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