月度归档： 2022年5月

A Dinosaur Park hidden inside a village

More than meets the eye.

By Foong Pek Yee

A Dinosaur Park inside a Chinese village comes across an intriguing mystery.
This is a common reaction when people first heard about the park.
The park with colourful replicas of dinosaurs and animals among lush greenery is certainly more than meets the eye.
It was champion in the Clean and Beautification Campaign by the housing and local  government  ministry in the early 1990s.
Datuk Ooi Jing Ting, an ex village chief,  says the villagers had decided to build the park to take part in the campaign.
“We formed a committee to raise money to come up with the park and continue to maintain it after the campaign,” says the visibly proud 66-year-old Ooi.
The well-maintained park and surroundings  says a lot about the villagers’ love for their village.
Jering Village is one of the 452 barb wire settlements called Chinese new villages set up by the then colonial government in Malaya during Emergency (1948-1960).
Today, most of the villagers are the second, third and fourth generation from the day their families settled down in the village.
In their 80s , Yu Kwong Tieng, Choi Sau Fong, Loi Heng See and Seow Kok Toh are the second generation.
Old friends : (from left) -Datuk Ooi Jing Ting,66,  Choi Sau Fong, 81, Loi Heng See, 80 and Yu Kwong Tieng 82.
Their fathers who were the  first generation came from China.
Seow, 86, remembers the shacks – literally a roof over their heads- was all they had when they first arrived at the village.
It was a type of temporary common housing for the early settlers before each family was given a plot of land and 100 Malayan dollars to build their house, he adds.
Good old days: Seow Kok Toh, a great grandfather, continues to cherish the days when he first arrived at the village as a  young man.
The villagers are mostly Foochows  and the dialect is widely used even among those from other clans.
Ooi who is a Foochow, was born and bred in the village.
According to him, there are more than 400 houses in the village.
Meeting place: The shops and coffeeshops are located in this part of the village.
Many of the villagers have moved to cities like Kuala Lumpur to seek a living over the years, and the village is a greying community these days.
The village’s  Chinese primary school, SJKC  Kampung Jering, has about 150 pupils now.
About 90% of the villagers are oil palm small holders, using the land given to them to plant rubber in the old days.
According to Ooi,  each house was given six acres of land to plant rubber; four acres given in 1957 and another two acres in the 1960s.
Nowadays, a typical day for the villagers is spend in the house, coffeeshop and oil palm holding.
Ooi says there are four coffeeshops in the village which open around 6.00am.
Villagers are early risers in this predominantly agricultural community.
The villagers find company in each other and coffeeshops is their favourite meeting place.
If there is anything that remains unchanged, Ooi says it is the villagers who remain close- knitted in good and  challenging times alike.
Filial piety also remains intact.
Ooi says many return to the village to pay respect to their ancestors during the annual Ching Ming festival.
But he says the number returning for major festivals like Chinese New Year is dwindling over the years  as some of them no longer have any family members living in the village.
About 20% of some 400 houses in the village are abandoned units these days.

A lesson on Korean food

A variety of banchan makes a nutritious meal.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

 THE plates of colourful banchan (Korean side dishes) used to fascinate me during meals.
In fact I was more excited over the selection than the main dish.
According to The Korean Food Foundation, the size of a traditional Korean meal is determined by the number of “cheop” – vessel used for side dishes.
There are 3- cheop, 5-cheop, 7-cheop, 9-cheop tables; and a 12-cheop table (Surasang) is for the kings!
It is common to have at least three types of banchan for any Korean meal .
I must say banchan no longer excites me over the years.
But dishes of left over banchan, some untouched,  left on dinner tables suddenly came to my mind of late.
It is not about food craving.
It is triggered by headlines on a looming food crisis worldwide.
An average (South) Korean throws away 130 kilograms of food a year, according to Korea’s Ministry of Environment.
While 95% of the food waste is recycled into products like compost and animal feed,  food waste is certainly never a good thing to begin with.
Once I commented that banchan is more than  enough for a meal,  and the remark did not go down well .
Koreans see lavish meals as something to celebrate.
And I was told that it is  polite not to finish all the food that is offered.

A brilliant career spanning seven decades

He never allows distractions to get in his way.

By Foong Pek Yee
It was the 1985 world tin crash that literally crushed the mine workers and the economy.
Massive unemployment, business shutdowns  saw many left their hometown in droves looking for a living.
It was a picture of grim in Kampar-a rich tin mining town-but all is not lost.
A tin miner in Kampar was determined to revive the town.
He is Tan Sri Hew See Tong who envisioned a modern self- contained town built on ex mining land.
True to the Chinese saying: “We rise from where we fell”, he built Bandar
Baru Kampar meaning Kampar new town.
Today, the town is  an education hub  complete with a private hospital.
An icon’s journey : On May 25, 2022, the hearse carrying Tan Sri Hew See Tong along Jalan Universiti in Bandar Baru Kampar where UTAR,  UTAR Hospital and Westlake International School are located.
It has the trappings of a modern township.
 Hew’s first and big breakthrough was in 2003 when the Kuala Lumpur based Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) opened its Perak branch campus in Bandar Baru Kampar.
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The township got a major boost when Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) opened its main campus there in 2007.
TARC was set up and owned by MCA in 1969, while UTAR is a not for profit private university  owned by UTAR Education Foundation.
Both institutions  were built by public donations, and they were well known for their affordable fees that make tertiary education accessible to the middle and low income groups.
 MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik ( 1986 – 2003) is credited for expan
ding TARC and getting government approval to build a private university (UTAR) in 2001.
Dr Ling and a group of MCA  leaders including Hew took the lead to raise funds for TARC expansion and  building UTAR.
Hew , three-term Kampar Member of Parliament (1995-2008),started  Westlake International School (WIS) in Bandar Baru Kampar in 2013.
And  last month (April) marked another  milestone for Bandar Baru Kampar when UTAR Hospital opened its 100-bed  traditional and complementary medicine department.
Its  250-bed Western Medicine department is scheduled for opening next year.
A fund raising campaign for the hospital is ongoing and Hew was actively raising funds until a few days before he breathed his last.
To complete the story on Kampar, Hew single- handedly designed the Kinta Tin Mining (gravel pump) Museum in Bandar Baru Kampar.
And the scenic lake in Bandar Baru Kampar which is an ex mining pond is testimony to the town’s origins
Picture perfect: The lake is surrounded by development, with the Hew residence fronting it.
A life of dedication that makes a difference to the lives of many, Hew passed away last Sunday (May 22, 2022).
He was 91.
An education icon, Hew is a loving husband, father and grandfather, and a great friend to many from all walks of life.

The place to connect and recharge

Coffeeshops is an integral part of life in a new village
By Foong Pek Yee
They easily chalked up a total of 24 hours of work daily.
The couple are up by 4.00am daily in time to open  their coffeeshop an hour later.
While they close for the day after lunch, they still have the cleaning up to do as well as planning for the next day.
At 68, Chang says she and her husband, Chiew, have been in this routine since they got married 33 years ago.
The shop in Merbau New Village in Manjung, Perak , also double up as their home.
Their three grown up daughters  are having their own career – marking an important milestone for the proud parents.
A daily  routine: Chiew (right) taking orders from a customer
Chang from Pantai Remis says the village is her world since her marriage.
“We only take off  in the first week of Chinese New Year,” says Chang, adding that they occasionally take a day off to run errands outside the village.
Coffeeshops is very much an integral part of life in a  new village.
For many, that is the first place they head to upon waking up.
Chang says the villagers who mostly work in their oil palm small holdings nowadays  start work early morning.
This was the same in the old days whereby majority were rubber tappers, she adds.
They have breakfast at coffeeshops before sunrise and off to work.
This is followed by mid morning coffee break and lunch in coffeeshops.
“It is also a way for them to recharge  and relax as manual jobs can be taxing physically,”  says Chang.
Most of them are owners of small holdings who continue to work  alongside their workers.
Retirees also thronged coffeeshops daily to keep each other company and get update on the latest development at home and abroad.
Face-to-face interaction and chit chat in coffeeshop also gives villagers a break from  social media addiction – something many urbanites are still struggling to do.
 While Chang and Chiew may be busy serving their customers,  they  also  enjoy their company .
Sharing and caring: Chang (left) with Phang who is a regular in her coffeeshop.
That perhaps is part of the driving force that keeps them running their business  rain or shine for over three decades, and  still  going strong.

Creating meaning in life to live well

Growing up in a turbulent era 
By Foong Pek Yee
THE soldiers came knocking on their door one night.
They were told to pack their bags before they got shoved into an army truck.
Huddled in darkness, she and her family members feared for their life throughout the journey from their home in Chemor, Perak to an undisclosed destination.
Recalling the ordeal, Phang who was only 13 then, says stories of  villagers went missing after they were taken away by soldiers  were real.
It was in the  early 1950s, and a turbulent era  in then Malaya.
Phang says she and her family were considered “dai maeng” (literally translated to big life in Cantonese – a term to denote someone who cheated death).
They were taken to Merbau New Village in Manjung, Perak – a  barb wire settlement under curfew – about 80km from Chemor.
It is among the 452 new villages set up by the colonial government to cut contact between the Chinese and the communists.
(The colonial government deemed the Chinese as supporters of the communists)
“It was a long journey before the truck came to a halt. We were told to get down and get inside an attap shack,” she says pointing to the village  community hall next to a coffeeshop where she was having her lunch .
“It was just an attap shack then,” she recalls.
This place certainly has a special place in her heart.
Good old days:   Once an attap shack that gave shelter to the temporary homeless 
Phang says they stayed in the shack for a while before each family was  given a plot of land in the village to build a house and do whatever they can to survive.
She recalls planting vegetables, tapioca and rearing animals for a living.
Phang  took a walk down memory lane when I met her at the coffeeshop recently.
Phang and Chang, the wife of the coffeeshop owner, came across as close friends.
Moments in life: Chang finds time to catch up with Phang (seated) 
Villages are basically close knitted communities.
Phang who got married and stayed on in Merbau has five children. Her husband passed away several years ago.
She says her eldest sister, in her 80s,  her only surviving sibling, stays in Chemor.   Phang is the youngest among four siblings.
Phang is taking care of her youngest child – a daughter in her 50s- who is not well.
A hard life, but all is not lost.
Growing up in the turbulent years has made her resilient to any challenges life throws at her.
“I live each day well,” says Phang when asked what  a typical day is like for her these days.

Looming food scarcity

Tan Tean Chee says food security for the people is important
By Foong Pek Yee
The supply of some 60,000 kilogram vegetables from Chemor daily risks disruption when the farmland is taken over for development, says Chemor Modern Farmers Association.
Its chairman Tan Tean Chee says Chemor in Perak is one of the major suppliers of vegetables daily, producing some 60,000 kilogram of a variety of greens like spinach, kangkung, choy sam, brinjals, chillies, turnips, spring onions and maize.
These are sold to wholesale markets in Ipoh, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selayang.
“Climatic change is already threatening food supply worldwide, ” notes Tan, adding that any other disruption like shrinking farmland should be avoided.
On that note, he expresses his concern as some of the farmers toiling on about 1,200 acres of farmland in Chemor had received eviction notice last December.
About half of the 293 members in the association were affected, he adds.
Tan, 60, who is a third generation farmer in his family says the soil and environment in Chemor is conducive for vegetable farming.
According to the elderly villagers, vegetable farming in the area is dated back to the 1920s.
Tan says vegetable farming is labour intensive, crediting the farmers in Chemor for their hard work and resilience in ensuring steady supply to the market.
He says all is well until 2005 when some of the farmers who do not have legal documents to use the land had to evict to make way for development.
Two years later, in 2007, the association was set up to help the farmers.
Tan says the farmers want to pay to lease the land so that they can continue to farm and contribute to the food supply in the country.
Meanwhile Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj who has been helping the farmers says the authorities concerned should look at farming as food security for the people in the long term.
He points out that climatic change and  food scarcity which  is already happening worldwide is set to escalate, and this is something that needs the authorities’ urgent attention.
Dr Jeyakumar suggests the existing farmland in Chemor  be preserved instead of making way for mega projects.
While mega projects are important for the economy, the  Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) chairman says the farmers who have been working hard for a living and contributing to the food supply for the people is also doing something important for the country.

A wish for his golden years

Liew Wong does not want to burden his children.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

AT 56, Liew Wong is four years from the official retirement age.
He is relieved that his two children, in their late 20s, are working and independent.
Having toiled as a farmer for the last 30 years to raise his family, Liew says his wish from now on is to be able to take care of his wife and himself in their golden years.
“I do not want to depend on my children for a living,” says Liew as he gobbled up his lunch when met at Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak recently.
His weather beaten face tells the story of a hard life.
He is the third generation of farmers in his family from the village.
Farming is a 365 days job from sunrise to sunset, he says.
As a small scale farmer, you are the boss and you and your family are the workers, says Liew, recalling he started to help his father in the farm when he was 10 years old.
It is all about working hard to survive day to day.
Today, his 86-year-old father continues to work in their farm, measuring about two acres where they planted the umbra fruit  (sar lei in Cantonese) and oil palm.
Make way: The entrance to Liew Wong’s farm. He got a notice to
 evict the land.
Farming and village life has its upside though.
They enjoy a peaceful and simple life in a close knitted community from generation to generation since the 1920s.
All is well until 2005 when land issues started to surface.
For many farmers, they toil on land without legal documents since their forefathers set foot in Chemor a century ago.
Since 17 years ago, development saw some farmers having to surrender their farmland when the area is earmarked for the purpose.
Nevermind that Chemor is known for vegetable farming, producing some 60,000 kilogram vegetables daily.
According to the farmers, the terrain and soil in Chemor are conducive for many types of vegetables –  from spinach, choy sam, brinjals, bitter gourds, chillies to maize.
“All along we are willing to pay to the landowners to lease the land, ” says Liew
According to him,  then Tambun Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had in 2012  helped farmers to resolve the land issues.
However Liew says the signing of a  deal on land lease for  farmers was aborted at the last minute.
In December last year, Liew says he is among farmers in Chemor who received eviction notice.
“I don’t know where to get a job to survive if I lost my farm.
“Even young people find it hard to get jobs these days,”he says.

A struggle to keep family tradition

Destiny: Ah Thim and his world
By Foong Pek Yee
IT is a scorching hot afternoon.
But it is also any other day for Ah Thim.
From afar, he cuts a lonely figure in the vegetable farm.
At 54,  he has been a farmer since a teenager; with his life revolving  around his family, farm and Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak,  where they stay.
As fate has it, Ah Thim was inducted into farming after his eldest brother’s death.
Recalling the tragedy losing his 20-year-old brother, Ah Thim who is second among four sons became the de facto head of his family – by Chinese tradition- in a then conservative society.
He has another five sisters.
As the de facto head,  Ah Thim was expected, if not duty bound,  to become a farmer, taking after his father and grandfather who were farmers and keeping the family together.
He became head of the family after his father passed away.
Fast track to the present, Ah Thim, as head of the family, stays with his 80-year-old plus mother and a younger sister who is single in their ancestral home.
He says the sister and a younger brother helps out in the farm.
Toiling on about an acre of land, planting turnips and spring onions, Ah Thim says that is their source of income.
He spends most of his waking hours in the farm.
“I am here by sunrise and work till late evening. In between I go home for lunch,” he says.
Vegetable farming can be  a back breaking job but Ah Thim is not complaining.
“I will continue to do my best. I am used to this way of life.”
Quiet and peaceful: A man fishing at a lake nearby  Ah Thim’s farm.
According to some elderly villagers, farming was their lifeline since their forefathers set foot in Chemor in the 1920s .
The lack of formal education, exposure and job opportunities saw many villagers continue to depend on  farming for a living despite all odds stacked against them these days.
Topping their list of woes is  land issues which surfaced about 17 years ago.
Farmers who have no legal documents on their farmland would have to make way once the land is earmarked for development.
In the case of Ah Thim, he is now left with about an acre of farmland only.
While he is worried over losing his last acre to development, he says he has to depend on the Persatuan Petani  Moden Chemor (Chemor Modern Farmers Association) for help on land issues.
“The matter is too complicated for me to understand,” he adds.
Amidst all the uncertainties, he is visibly happy when he spoke on his only  child- a son-  who is working in Singapore.
No matter what,  Ah Thim says he is always grateful waking up to a new day. .