KUALA Lumpur’s oldest private high-rise housing, the Selangor and Malayan Mansions, is in the news for the wrong reasons.

Authorities have sealed off the two 1960s flats in the Masjid India enclave, together with the Menara City One condominium, a five-minute walk away, because of the rising number of Covid-19 cases there.

Menara City One was locked down on April 1 after the Health Ministry detected 17 Covid-19 infections. More than 3,000 residents in the high rise are now under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO) until Monday.

The Selangor and Malayan Mansions, meanwhile, were placed under EMCO on April 7 after 15 cases of Covid-19 were detected, putting 5,000 to 6,000 residents under lockdown.

Most of the residents from the condominium and the Selangor and Malayan Mansions are foreigners, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Overall, the figures of Covid-19 cases as of yesterday were 4,228 infections and 67 deaths.

Local researchers and the older residents in the neighbourhood told The Malaysian Insight the Selangor and Malayan Mansions offer a window into how Kuala Lumpur and its mosaic of cultures evolved.

The eight-storey, 160-unit buildings are among the oldest in the Masjid India enclave that is known for its ties to south India and trade in Malay and Indian festive goods and traditional attire.

On the map, the enclave, named after its Indian Muslim mosque dating back to the 1850s, looks like an upside-down triangle with its top “base” bordering Jalan Dang Wangi in the north.

The other two sides are straddled by Sg Gombak on the west and Sg Klang on the east.

At the bottom tip, which points south to Central Market, is Masjid Jamek.

Cutting through the middle of the triangle is the busy Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, which before Merdeka was called Batu Road because it led to Kg Batu, said Mariana Isa, a historian.

Back in the 1880s, most of Masjid India’s residents lived in wooden homes behind the shops lining Batu Road and along Sg Klang, said Mariana who co-authored Street Names, Towns of Malaya with Maganjeet Kaur.

What are now shopping arcades, such as Semua House and the Haniffa and the Jakel stores in the triangle’s eastern half, were until the 1960s kampung housing that stretched to Sg Klang, she said.

Mariana did the research for KL’s Heritage Trails’ interpretive panels for KL City Hall. Her latest book is a study of ancient ports titled Between the Bay of Bengal and the Java Sea.

The Indian Muslim community comprised mostly migrants from southern Indian states, such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, who congregated there as the areas south of them were dominated by Chinese migrants, said Mariana.

The migrants opened up stores selling textiles, clothing, jewellery and food from India along Batu Road, which after independence was renamed Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

In the middle lower section of the triangle, near the eastern banks of Sg Klang, the community founded Masjid India in the 1850s.

The community wanted to keep the mosque even though the British persuaded them to abandon it and merge it with a new Masjid Jamek being built in the 1900s, said Mariana.

A few firsts

Narayanan Ponnusamy remembers how before the Malayan and Selangor Mansions were built, the village in the area was a notorious red-light district called “belakang mati”.

“The area also had the Odeon, Cathay and Hindustani theatres. Once even (famous striptease artiste) Rose Chan performed in one of these places,” said Narayanan who spent his childhood in Masjid India in the 1950s to the 1970s.

Because of the frequent fires that broke out in the cramped village, the local authority demolished parts of it and moved the residents into public housing schemes, said Mariana.

The first block of flats was named Sulaiman Court, built on where the Sogo shopping complex currently stands.

Then in 1962, came the Selangor and Malayan Mansions, which overlook the Indian mosque which at the time was still built of wood, said Narayanan, who lived with his parents and eight brothers in Sulaiman Court.

Ramesh Kodammal, who also spent his childhood in the Masjid India area, said when it was first built, each four-bedroom unit cost RM6,800.

“Now, a five-storey shop lot in the Masjid India area can cost RM22 million,” said the businessman, who is now co-chair of the Asean-India Business Council.

The area has always been a magnet for foreign traders and migrant labour from the Indian sub-continent and today, it is popular with Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Nepalis.

“Back then, it was the only place in KL where you could find mamak food or Indian vegetarian food,” said Ramesh, who opened his first office in the enclave.

“Merchants from the region came to sell their products on the kaki lima (five-foot path). Restaurants and currency exchanges opened to cater to them. And they would live in the mansions.”

The hive of business gave rise to shops on Jalan TAR, such as the Globe Silk Store and GS Gill, which till today, attract textile shoppers.

“The first Kentucky Fried Chicken and A&W outlets in the country opened in the area,” said Ramesh.

“Once neighbourhoods such as Bangsar were built in the 1980s, the original residents of the mansions moved out and bought these landed properties,” said Ramesh.

“So now, the units are occupied by mostly migrant labourers.” – April 10, 2020.