I am Malaysian, so what makes me Malaysian?
A lot of my peers, a lot of people my age, a lot of people that I know, I grew up with.
They have left Malaysia for good, and that's pretty sad.
It's just about a sense of belonging.
You feel like you do not belong here anymore.
I think that's one of the current issues.
I think when I left the country, I was very bitter.
I was very broken, because even my own family could not understand what I was going through.
But I reached a certain realization that if everybody left, nothing is going to improve.
That's the reason why I came back.
I had to find why, where am I going to go?
I knew I didn't belong in Singapore, and I knew that I would belong here.
But I had to find out the reason why.
I had to do something with my life.
I had to do something in my city, in Kuala Lumpur.
I thought it was just about the right time for me to return to KL,
and do something that was beneficial to humanity, beneficial to our city.
I started a lot of social art projects just looking for things that could help humanity.
And a bicycle map project is just one of them.
Above all, mobility is important, and access to mobility is important.
That's why I came up with a map that could show the local knowledge of how to get around the shortcuts,
without using the main routes.
So the city is open up to anyone.
This was at a time where no one sort of even considered bicycling to be a viable transport option in a city like KL.
We started speaking to Jeffrey quite early on.
We were always interested in mobility as well.
That's one of the areas we focus on traffic congestion. Mobility is not just a question of inconvenience,
it's actually a national issue.
It seemed like it was a great solution to any city.
In the beginning, I thought maybe me and a few guys or a few people could just do the entire map.
But I knew I had to involve the public, I had to involve people who were around here.
We opened up the project to volunteers or anyone who wanted to participate.
And we started collecting data about shortcuts, about where they cycle.
I thought this project is really interesting in a way because it was initiated by an individual
who is passionate about Kuala Lumpur and the city itself, like with Jeff.
He will bring us to hidden places in KL which you will never have thought of.
I've been staying in KL for almost my entire life and I've never known that there are places like that exist.
Because when you cycle and the way Jeff actually surveyed the city,
he was actually going through the nooks and crannies of the city.
Places that even from me, I wouldn't have gone to.
But cycling gets you closer to all these nooks and crannies, all these places.
It makes it more personal.
The function of the map was to make it a well-connected city by cycling.
And we found that all these villages, they found their own way to get around.
Made their own shortcuts, made their own bridges.
And the map was just a replication of that.
Local knowledge.
I think there were points in the map where I felt like, wow, it's quite overwhelming.
I sort of put my life on hold for two years just doing this project.
I had to be positive about it all the time.
So no matter how much negativity I got, or criticism I got,
I just had to finish it.
I printed about 175 maps.
And yeah, we had the first colour proof of the map.
That was, I think, quite a monumental stage of the project.
Two years, one and a half years of work.
Just on a piece of paper.
And that was quite a wonderful feeling to see.
Towards the end of the project, there was a lot of work to be done.
Towards the end of the project, the city Urban Transportation Department approached us.
So we provided them a simplified map showing six key entry points in the city.
So they built that and opened that in April this year.
So that's one of the first cycling infrastructure we have in the city.
The DBKL, which is the mayor's office, has also started this car free Sundays.
And it's amazing because you see families go out into the streets where usually on workdays,
just packed with cars, you know, and it's just jammed, right?
And suddenly the streets are empty and people can't go out
and really reclaim public places again.
I think the map opened up a big role for a lot of other people.
I think it represented a lot of other things than just being a physical man.
I actually was cycling down that riverbank and saw those homeless people and the homeless children as well.
That was when it kind of like affected me so much because, like I said, I was born and bred KL.
But until then, I didn't think, I felt like I didn't know KL as well as I do now.
The whole mapping project actually changed how I looked at KL before and after.
I learned to appreciate more about our architectures, our surroundings and what's going on with the society.
I think it's just changed the idea that there are still little secrets and gems in the city that nobody's ever seen, nobody knows about.
And that is a secret to the city or that's a secret to the city.
That's what makes the city so unique.
That they still can exist, these little pockets.
And they're so precious because in a way they are our identity.
They're probably inkling to our past.
So that's what I discovered through the map. I think that was the most precious thing I found.
I think it comes from the sense that you want to belong to something and you want to find a purpose within your community.
And I think every city has a soul and you need to try and capture that soul.
And the only way to do it is through people just contributing to the city.
We are interdependent. We cannot live on our own. We can't live behind high walls.
We have to live with our neighbours. We have to live with everyone in the city.
So in order to make it a better place, we've got to start learning how to live together.
There's a word for it here. Call it Kotong Royong.
You don't have to belong to a certain country.
But I think to being here in Malaysia, being in this culture, I relate that very well.
And I feel at home. So that's I think most of all the most important thing to feel at home and to discover your own.
Thank you.
