He was an egomaniac, blinded by exalted visions of himself, indifferent to the consequences of folly. He was aided in his projects by a young architect, an honest and capable man, who by the vagaries of fate became the Minister of Armaments, where his gifts were diverted from the creation of beauty to instruments of destruction.

Nature is an uncompromising critic of human intervention. Government planning receives its final fitness certificate only after nature's tests. Development altering ecological balance is soon corrected by powerful forces. In Malaysia a decisive appraisal approaches, finding whether our ego-maniacal forced-feeding for fast development is fit or faulty.

Economic forces are considered controllable and predictable. Open market forces of supply and demand bring about necessary balances through self-regulating mechanisms. Free markets function smoothly with little friction and losses are minimal. This customary functioning can be a soporific, dampening a proper sense of caution.

Aggressive government planning overrides normal market controls, removing the brake which reins in excesses. Burdens accumulate and pressure increases, usually in invisible areas. The inevitable release of this built-up economic pressure is often sudden, and as tragic as the restoration of balance brought about by nature. Both are without mercy.

China faces the consequences of an agricultural policy by Chairman Mao Zedong. Sand storms buffet Beijing from the now sear surroundings, to be tamed by more government planning. A ring of trees is to be planted, on land occupied by ten thousand people. The trees are to stop the sand. The people are to be relocated. The wind and sand have not responded to inquiries.

Sand is an ingredient in concrete. In Malaysia, concrete finds architectural expression both exotic and torpid. Such boldness defies the natural forces which level and distribute. Their beauty is often exciting and engenders gratitude for architects of genius who envision, and engineers who elevate the dream to reality.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia built a palace in a great garden, with surrounding homes and offices for courtiers. To the untrained eye it is garish, monstrously devoid of any architectural flourish to distinguish an Islamic heritage. Neither East nor West, it is the worst of both worlds.

Mahathir says it reflects "the independence of Malaysia", implying a nebulous local culturalindividuality, worthy of admiration, which is routinely proffered in justification of outrageous deviation from accepted standards of beauty and human rights. This proclivity for uniqueness cloaks a multitude of mischief, malfeasance and malice.

Putrajaya has vacant office space, to be filled by government departments occupying space in Kuala Lumpur. But presently a glut of commercial space exists in the Klang Valley, so when the government ministries transfer to Putrajaya, the offices they vacate will contribute to the existing imbalance in Kuala Lumpur.

The concrete shells of unfinished projects dot the horizons of central Malaysia, in a profusion of square footage that presages a buyer's market for this decade and beyond. Yet new developments continue apace, indifferent to skeletons standing hauntingly across the horizon.