The day a hill ate a city — The Highland Towers Collapse

The Highland Towers disaster in 1993 exposed the dangers of unchecked development and negligence. Engineers later confirmed it could have been prevented if only the hill’s drainage had been properly maintained. 

Yet, the tragedy didn’t end with the collapse. In the aftermath, survivors took legal action against developers, the local council, and AmFinance (now AmBank), the bank that funded the project. Years later, AmFinance quietly settled for RM52 million on one cruel condition: residents had to surrender ownership of their homes. They lost everything twice, first their families, then their property.

Today, the remains of Highland Towers still stand, swallowed by forest and silence, a ghostly reminder of a city that built too fast and learned too little. Thirty years later, Malaysia still faces the same pattern, rain, landslides, and forgotten warnings. The land remembers, even if we don’t.