geo7E7,
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the small tower that you mentioned is a lookout post for the airport firefighters & also acts as a standby tower (talk about contingency planning).The ATC tower in KLIA is built very tall to accomodate 4 satelite terminals & 2 main terminal buildings (now that is design planning!).You must remember the airport is built to meet the needs of the country for 150 years or more.Hence the abundance of spare access lands surrounding the airport.
Yes, the tower is equipped with a surface movement radar!Surprised?Well don't be.Then why the need for the frequencies?Well, with all the traffic that we have now, especially peak times, the obvious needs are for more frequencies bands.A no brainer really.
Personally, I find the ATC guys here are of a very good standard
the only thing that is holding them back is lack of exposure & also they are bounded by their SOP's & this I believe is their way of erring on the safe side.