Merdeka 118 is the newly crowned tallest building in South East Asia. Located in Malaysia, it stands at 678.9 meters tall and is located in a place of historic significance for Malaysians, near the aptly named Merdeka Stadium, the place where, in 1957, independence from the British was declared on its hallowed ground.
Merdeka, consequentially, is a direct translation of the word independence in Malay. The Chief Minister of the Federated Malay States at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman, in a historic moment with an audience which included Malay rulers and English representatives, etched in the memory of Malaysians, shouted the words Merdeka 7 times, declaring its independence, siring a whole nation into being and becoming its first prime minister.
Sixty plus years later, today in the grips of a global pandemic, in 2021, Malaysia is currently in a technical recession, defined by having gone through a deficit for 3 quarters in a row. Prices of basic needs are going up, vegetable prices, for example, have doubled.
A lot of critics and detractors are feeling that it is the wrong timing for Merdeka 118 to be launched at all. Some of the detractors argued:
“Average salary in Malaysia is RM 1500, we don’t need this behemoth…”
“Expenditures in infra is more important…
