Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Kampung Baru is a roughly 220 acre (89 hectare) Malay enclave in central Kuala Lumpur, a few hundred metres from the Petronas Twin Towers, gazetted as a Malay Agricultural Settlement (MAS) on 12 January 1900 under Section 6 of the Selangor Land Enactment 1897, following a land grant associated with the Sultan of Selangor. It was organised into seven villages for Malay smallholder farming, but the soil proved unsuitable for paddy and the settlement turned residential instead. Its Sultan Sulaiman Club hosted the 1946 Malay Congress that resolved to found UMNO, and the village became a flashpoint of the 13 May 1969 riots. Despite adjoining some of Asia's most valuable real estate, over a century of restrictive land tenure and inheritance-fragmented titles, known as pecah waris, have defeated every redevelopment master plan since 1991. The most recent, an October 2025 federal strategy, again promised heritage preservation and Malay-only ownership safeguards.
Kampong Bharu
1900, the spelling used in the original gazettement; retained today only as the legal name of the Perbadanan Pembangunan Kampong Bharu (PKB) statutory corporation, established 2011
Kampung Baru
current standard Malay spelling, used on maps, road signs and in everyday reference
1899-1900
The Sultan of Selangor grants land for a Malay settlement between the Klang River and Batu Road; it is formally gazetted as a Malay Agricultural Settlement (MAS) on 12 January 1900 under Section 6 of the Land Enactment 1897 (Selangor Gazette No. 21/1900), covering about 90 hectares (223 acres).
11 March 1900
The 11-member MAS Board convenes for the first time to administer the new settlement, which is organised into seven constituent villages: Kampung Periok, Kampung Masjid, Kampung Paya, Kampung Pindah, Kampung Hujung Pasir, Kampung Atas A and Kampung Atas B.
26 February 1932
Colonial authorities regazette the settlement's boundaries at approximately 220 acres (89 hectares), the figure still cited in modern land records.
1-4 March 1946
The Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kampung Baru hosts the first All-Malaya Malay Congress. Forty-one Malay organisations, chaired by Dato Onn Jaafar, resolve to form the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and to oppose the proposed Malayan Union.
1965
The Selangor state government issues 838 individual land titles to occupants, formalising private ownership within the settlement for the first time.
13 May 1969
Kampung Baru becomes one of the flashpoints of Malaysia's worst racial riots after a crowd gathered at Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris's residence in the village that evening. The Sultan Sulaiman Club shelters residents during the violence and is rebuilt afterward with joint federal and state funding.
30 March 2009
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launches the RM500 million Puncak Baru project, a planned 60-storey condominium and office tower on a 1.5-hectare City Hall plot meant to catalyse wider redevelopment; construction never proceeds and the project is quietly abandoned.
2011-2012
Parliament passes the Kampong Bharu Development Corporation Act 2011 (Act 733); separately, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) allocates RM20 million to rebuild the settlement's historic mosque, which is demolished in 2012. PKB begins operations in July 2012.
18 October 2015
Prime Minister Najib Razak launches Legasi Kampung Baru, a RM529 million project by UDA Holdings for 639 homes, a 30-storey office tower and a pedestrian gateway toward KLCC. The same year, PKB unveils a Detailed Development Master Plan promising 17,500 homes for RM43 billion over 20 years; both are later shelved.
28 August 2020
Putrajaya calls off a proposed government buyout of Kampung Baru land after fragmented, multi-heir titles (pecah waris) made a single negotiated land price unworkable, opting instead for lot-by-lot organic redevelopment.
9-10 October 2025
Federal Territories Minister Zaliha Mustafa tells Parliament that Kampung Baru's 219.91 acres remain Malay Agricultural Settlement land, distinct from the separately governed Kampung Sungai Baru, and outlines a four-pronged strategy of heritage preservation, GLC and wakaf-backed financing, and Malay-only ownership of any replacement homes.
Rumah panggung (stilt houses)
Roughly a dozen timber stilt houses in traditional Malay kampung style survive along the settlement's older lanes, raised on posts originally to cope with monsoon flooding from the nearby Klang River, and are increasingly rare against the surrounding high-rises.
Sultan Sulaiman Club
Founded in 1909, burned down in 1930 and rebuilt in 1932, this clubhouse hosted the 1946 All-Malaya Malay Congress that resolved to found UMNO and later sheltered residents during the 1969 riots, after which it was rebuilt again with joint federal-state funding.
The seven original villages
The 1900 gazette organised the settlement into Kampung Periok, Kampung Masjid, Kampung Paya, Kampung Pindah, Kampung Hujung Pasir, Kampung Atas A and Kampung Atas B; these names still mark informal neighbourhood divisions within Kampung Baru today.
Malay Agricultural Settlement land status
Kampung Baru's titles are held under the Malay Agricultural Settlement (Kuala Lumpur) Rules, a distinct legal regime from the Malay Reservation Enactment 1913 that covers most other Malay reserve land in Malaysia; only ethnic Malays may hold or inherit these titles.
Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru
The settlement's historic mosque was torn down in 2012 and replaced with a new building funded partly by a RM20 million allocation from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in 2011, intended as a catalyst for wider redevelopment that ultimately did not follow.
Fragmented land titles (pecah waris)
Malay inheritance custom divides land equally among all heirs each generation, and in Kampung Baru some individual plots of only a few thousand square feet are now split among more than a hundred co-owners, a fragmentation that has stalled every redevelopment master plan since 1991.
Kampung Baru was gazetted as a Malay Agricultural Settlement on 12 January 1900 under the Selangor Land Enactment 1897, following a land grant associated with the Sultan of Selangor. It was meant to give Malays a foothold in the fast-growing colonial town through smallholder farming, though the land was soon judged unsuitable for paddy and turned residential instead.
Every master plan since a 1991 government proposal has stalled over fragmented, multi-heir land titles known as pecah waris, which make a single negotiated sale nearly impossible, compounded by resident distrust after catalyst projects like the RM500 million Puncak Baru (2009) and RM529 million Legasi Kampung Baru (2015) failed to materialise. Putrajaya formally abandoned a government-led buyout in August 2020 in favour of lot-by-lot organic redevelopment instead.
Pecah waris is the Malay inheritance custom of dividing land equally among all heirs each generation, and in Kampung Baru it has splintered some plots of only a few thousand square feet among more than a hundred co-owners. This makes it extremely difficult for any single developer or agency to secure enough consenting owners to redevelop a parcel.
No. Kampung Baru is governed under the Malay Agricultural Settlement (Kuala Lumpur) Rules rather than the Malay Reservation Enactment 1913 that covers most Malay reserve land elsewhere in Malaysia, a distinction the Federal Territories Ministry publicly reaffirmed in October 2025. Both regimes restrict ownership to ethnic Malays but are administered separately.
A crowd gathered at Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris's Kampung Baru residence on the evening of 13 May 1969, shortly before Malaysia's worst racial riots broke out, and the settlement became one of the areas hardest hit by the violence. The Sultan Sulaiman Club in the village sheltered residents and was later rebuilt with federal and state funding.
Perbadanan Pembangunan Kampong Bharu (PKB), established under the Kampong Bharu Development Corporation Act 2011 and operational from July 2012, is the federal statutory body coordinating Kampung Baru's redevelopment, land negotiations and master planning. Its name retains the colonial-era Kampong Bharu spelling even though the settlement is now commonly written as Kampung Baru.
The settlement's historic mosque was demolished in 2012 after 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) allocated RM20 million in 2011 to fund its replacement as a flagship catalyst project. The new Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru was substantially complete by 2015, though the wider redevelopment it was meant to spark never followed.
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