Johor Excels In National Landscape Competition

Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting calls upon Malaysians to play a positive role to make Malaysia a clean, beautiful and progressive Garden Nation by 2005. Kuala Lumpur played host to the seventh National Landscape Day celebration on 3 March 2004. The theme for this year's celebration was "Negara Indah Rakyat Sejahtera" ("Beautiful Nation, Peaceful Citizens"), reflecting the Malaysian government's objective to inculcate the love for landscape and quality environment as a way of life. Organised by the National Landscape Department of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the National Landscape Day idea was born on 3 March 1997 when the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad launched the nationwide tree-planting programme in Selangor under the national 'Green the Nation' campaign. The campaign aimed to plant 6.5 million trees by 2005 and 20 million trees by 2020.

MTBE Malaysia Sdn Bhd is the winner of the Factory category. In conjunction with the celebration, winners of the National Landscape Competition 2003 were announced. Minister of Housing and Local Government, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, who officiated the celebration, congratulated the 2003 winners and hoped that such efforts will be sustained. "With commitment and creativity, each one of us can play a positive role in creating a quality living environment towards realising our vision to make Malaysia a clean, beautiful and progressive Garden Nation by 2005," he said. The Minister later presented prizes to the winners.

The competition has been held annually since 1993.The main objective of the competition is to perpetuate interest and awareness in the art of landscaping as well as to stimulate development of quality landscape towards realising the Government's vision to transform Malaysia into a Garden Nation.

The competition consisted of 15 categories namely:-

Traditional/Kampung House (situated in an urban or rural area with traditional architecture design and built with at least 70% wood).
Bungalow, Semi-Detached and Corner House.
Terrace House (intermediate lot).
Government Office (open space/compound of Government administrative offices such as local authorities and statutory bodies).
Private Building (open space/compound of shopping complexes, banks, corporate offices).
Hotel/Resort/Tourist Complex/Condominium.
Primary School.
Secondary School.
College/Education Institute/Training Centre.
Mosque.
Non-Muslim Worship Centre.
Factory.
Town/Public Park (the park should be at least five km away from the town centre; at least 10-20 acres in size).
Neighbourhood Park (the park consists of limited facilities and located in housing estates/residential areas; at least 3-10 acres in size).
Agricultural Park/Recreational Forest (includes parks developed for recreational and research and development purposes).

The winner of the Worship Centre category in Johor. For 2003, a total of 164 winners from the state level landscape competitions were automatically selected to represent their states at the national level. The panel of judges comprised professionals from the National Landscape Department, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia and the Malaysian Landscape Industry Association. The winning entries were evaluated based on three basic elements such as 'Soft Landscape' (types of plants and its maintenance), 'Hard Landscape' (use of local materials for structure) and 'Landscape Furniture'. Other evaluation criteria include the efforts to preserve the environment, planning and design, maintenance and upkeeping as well as the overall cleanliness inside and outside premises.

The competition for 2003 saw Johor repeating its glory for the fourth consecutive time. This southern-most state in Peninsular Malaysia was once again the overall champion of the competition, bagging seven awards in seven categories namely the 'Traditional/Kampung House', 'Bungalow, Semi-Detached and Corner House', 'Terrace House (intermediate lot)', 'Primary School', 'College/Education Institute/Training Centre', 'Non-Muslim Worship Centre' and the 'Government Office' category. Selangor state won in five of the 15 categories.

Second runner-up of the Town/Public Park category. According to the Head of the Panel of Judges, Dato' Ismail Ngah, who is also Director-General of the National Landscape Department, most participants exhibited very high quality landscapes, reflecting excellent standards of innovation and creativity. "However, there is still room for improvement especially in areas relating to understanding the functions of landscapes as well as acquiring knowledge and skills in maintenance and upkeeping of landscape areas".

A promotional video on the forthcoming 'Laman 2004' or 'Malaysia International Landscape and Garden Festival' was also shown during the celebration. The brainchild of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Laman 2004 will be organised by the National Landscape Department and hosted by Kuala Lumpur City Hall. Themed "Colours Amidst Greens", the event will take place on 17-25 July at the Perdana Lake Gardens. It is billed to be on par with England's annual Chelsea Flower Show, an event of international status.