FOR decades now, the "new villages" in this country have existed under a misnomer. Established during the Communist Emergency (1948-1960) as settlements to segregate villagers from communist insurgents, they barely resembled the rural villages from which the original residents had been relocated.
If anything, these were guarded camps in which about 500,000 villagers were resettled, as a counter-insurgency measure to deprive the communists of supply lines and to deny them the chance to influence potentially sympathetic villagers.
Today, the communist threat is nothing more than a distant memory, but more than 450 new villages remain throughout the peninsula, with the Chinese comprising about 82 per cent of the 1.25 million residents.
Even back when they were newly established, the new villages had little "newness" to boast about.
According to Wen Ping Qiang from a March 2011 paper for the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, a typical village was "compact and crowded with supposedly 'temporary' wooden houses laid out in a haphazard manner, enjoyed few amenities, had little land and was supported by a narrow economic base".
In the past 50 to 60 years, infrastructural development has not kept pace with the population growth in these villages, resulting in housing shortages, drastic overcrowding, inadequate roads and poor drainage.
However, we cannot consign new villages to a dying fate, especially when we consider the significant number of the Chinese population living there. Despite the hardships that they have faced, many continue to make the villages their home.
The new villages can, in fact, become the new townships of the future, with a little foresight, imagination and innovation.
There is immense potential to transform these sleepy hamlets into modern and sustainable living areas that can become economically and socially active to support an urban population that continues to push ever outwards.
New villages are strategically located for urban redevelopment as they are situated on the fringes of urban centres, and are neither overdeveloped nor completely lacking in basic infrastructure. Since many cities and towns are mushrooming further away from traditional urban centres, the location of many new villages offers an attractive prospect for development projects.
At the same time, as town planners have realised, we can no longer build wantonly. Sustainable planning -- in the form of green buildings, conservation of natural resources, disaster-risk reduction and urban renewal and redevelopment -- must be applied in the development of all new townships.
Malaysia can learn from China, where more than 130 sustainable communities, called eco cities, will be developed in various municipalities based on ecological principles.
Tianjin Eco-City, targeted for completion in the mid-2020s, is being promoted as their flagship development.
Situated just outside Tianjin, 150km southeast of Beijing, this eco city is designed around a core of conserved and restored wetlands and plans to use green technology like a green light-rail transit system, sun-powered earth- and solar-scape scenery, as well as desalination and recycled water.
Tianjin Eco-City project vice-chairman Lin Xuefeng explained that social harmony was first and foremost a housing issue, and that the project would showcase government efforts aimed at striking a healthy balance between economic growth, urban development and environmental protection.
Our new villages would be a perfect choice to build a model sustainable development such as the ones being planned in China. Our villages already have the advantage of being located in natural surroundings, such as near rivers and secondary forests.
By restoring and conserving these landscapes, we can build economic activities around the environment, such as organic farming, eco tourism or a research centre for local flora and fauna.
These activities create modern employment opportunities, making the villages viable places that attract people to live there, particularly young people who would otherwise move to urban centres for jobs.
By bringing life and livelihoods back to the new villages, we can help the residents rise from their hardscrabble past and create a "new life" free from the communist shadow.
