Prime Minister's Complex Putrajaya : It's Not Just For Aesthetics!

The Perdana Putra Building in Putrajaya, which houses the Prime Minister's office has been in operation since 1999. The building has drawn admirers and critics ever since then - for a number of reasons. "Wastage" said some (politically-driven) critics; and not only for the building, but for the whole Putrajaya township!

In defence, many have offered reasons on why Putrajaya is essential. I see no need to reiterate them but recently somebody psoted in an internet forum on how the defensibility of the building and its surrounding environs was taken into account when the architects designed it all those years ago...here's what he said...

1. Ground accessability - any intruders (Ok make that an attacking army) have to use any one three bridges in order to use the shortest route (from where he did not mention!) to arrive at the building - routes which could be blown up by combat engineers. The other two routes are 'too far' and easily defended

My comment: OK fine...blow up the bridges and the enemy would have to pause (not pushed back, anyway) while waiting for their assault bridges to come up...but that doesn't mean the attack is stopped. The 'back' route is in my opinion is quite defensible as it was dominated by a hill (where the Shangri-La was situated)

2. Putra Mosque - a place of worship is considered a taboo target. So any attacks (or stray rounds, bombs and missiles) against the mosque would be considered a violation of UN Convention (he did not say which one) which will bring the fury of the international community.

My comment : The North Vietnamese were alleged to place their AA and SAM sites near civilian buildings so that any SEAD mission might mistakenly attack the latter - bringing condemnation of the world against the US. The late Saddam Hussein also were alleged to use the same tactic during the First Gulf War. Anyway in the era of GPS-guided munitions, this might only be a moot point...the distance between the mosque and Perdana Putra complex is relatively far.

3. The roundabout - this one takes the cake. To the writer, its not just another (large) roundabout - it's a missile lure! Designed to lure away IR-guided missile, the large surface relects the sun's heat and the water droplets from the fountain would create warm vapour hence confusing the IR seeker even further...the effective range is 1km

My comment : Actually I just wanted to write this - "HAHAHAHA!!! Anyway, this reasoning strecthes your imagination so much that it lost its temper!

- The majority of guided air-to-ground weapon rarely use IR as their guidance with the exception of certain variants of the Soviet anti-ship missile and AGM-65 Maverick. Even then, the missiles were used against something that radiates heat more than their surroundings - things like ships or vehicles. More coomonly these weapons use laser, television or GPS - they won't be bothered by any IR lures!

- IR lures need to create greater heat than the target in order to decoy the missiles. The way I see it the roundabout surface, the roads and the buildings all create more or less the same levels of heat. As for the fountain, wouldn't it cretae LESS heat?

Oh one more thing, he said the lakes also have defence purposes. Apart from acting as a modern-day moat, it also served as 'spy-gadget jammer' - something to do with frequencies being disturbed by water.....

To me only #1 is quite feasible. The second is quite creative whilst the last is complete and utter bollocks! Oh well everyone is entitled to his/her illusions!