KL's population: where did the FT minister get 8.8 million from?

I almost fell off my chair when I read the headline of a report quoting Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territory), Dr Zaliha Mustafa, as saying that the population of Kuala Lumpur will reach 8.8 million this year.

Zaliha said that the population of Kuala Lumpur is growing by 2.25% annually and is expected to reach 9.8 million by 2030.

She said the rapid development requires Kuala Lumpur City Council to be more proactive in planning and providing infrastructure.

I have lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur for over 55 years, as a tourist guide, before the city became a 243 sq km federal territory in February 1974, but I did not realise there were so many residents here.

It seems that those who wrote the speech could not distinguish between Kuala Lumpur and Greater Kuala Lumpur, which covers 13,565 sq kms and includes the whole of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, parts of Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Perak.

Should the report be picked up by the international media, foreign readers would swallow it hook, line and sinker, as many Malaysians have already done. In this case, it may cause confusion and inconvenience.

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