Back in 2014 or 2015 an idea was floated to turn the Royal Selangor Golf Club into a big park for KL, and connect it together with other parks with walking and cycling routes.
Article here: https://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/central-park-idea-happier-kl
Buying the golf club to turn into a park was an ambitious idea; it doesn't appear to have found much traction. But shadowed behind the park is another idea: connecting parks together.
There is an obvious comparison with Singapore's Park Connector Network here, which has been expanding since the 90's (now reached over 300 km of paths, apparently). The great thing about this idea is that it necessarily creates a network.
Why is a network so import? Think of driving a car to go somewhere. If you just have one small bit of road, disconnected from everywhere else, you will probably give up pretty quickly. It's same with cycling and walking.
There is a cycling path in Damansara Utama (Uptown) that just goes around the mall, and doesn't lead to anywhere. If someone built a road like that, we would think they are bonkers (unless it was for racing). But for bikes, it's somehow accepted.
Right now, the bike lanes in KL don't form a coherent network, and they have a long way to go before they will. If there was a unifying concept, like connecting parks together, this would provide a planning incentive and a sense of direction/ purpose.
Transport or leisure?
Cycling as a transport choice is still pretty low on the radar for many Malaysians. The current crop of uncle politicians are more likely to have an expensive road bike for the weekends than a commuter bike for getting around Putrajaya. This probably won't change for another 10 years or so (what do you think?).
So here's another strong point of the park connector plan - it lends itself to leisure cycling. This is something that most Malaysians, and those uncle politicians, can understand. Although not ideal for commuting, at least some routes across town would get built, which could then be used as commuting arteries too.
This is in part what happened in Singapore - they did make mistakes with it, for sure. If planners in KL are willing, they can learn from Singapore's blunders. But most likely, Malaysia will have to make its own, like with most things.
Another article here, from The Star: https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/community/2015/10/26/plan-to-turn-golf-club-into-park-being-mulled-rsgcs-status-as-wildlife-and-bird-sanctuary-among-fact
