标签： new village

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.

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. .

Rainbow and roast pork makes the day

Natural wonder : The Rainbow Waterfall in Sungai Lembing is popular in the wake of increasing interest in  eco tourism worldwide
By Foong Pek Yee
6 March, 2022
THE tourists get more than roast pork for lunch.
For most of us, that is the first time we see the roasting done in a traditional way –  using firewood inside a huge concrete stove.
Happy together:  At the roast pork lunch in Sungai Lembing New Village after the  Rainbow Waterfall tour.
And the freshly roasted pork (siew yoke in Cantonese) is real good – taste and texture – compared to the ones we have in eateries.
This “siew yoke” lunch is cultural tourism and very popular  in Sungai Lembing New Village.
During the lunch, I met a family of three generations from Johor and Singapore –  grandmother, her children and  grandson.
They say they decided to holiday in Sungei Lembing in Pahang, a popular destination among Singaporeans.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 tourists visited Sungai Lembing over weekends prior to the pandemic.
And the young boy who lives in  Singapore also gets to take a closer look at life in a new village.
Cultural tourism/food tours that promote the traditions of a community is increasingly popular among foreigners and locals alike.
All excited: Tourists getting ready to trek up  the Rainbow Waterfall.
Today, many  Malaysian Chinese and Singaporeans have  their roots in new villages in Malaya dated back to the 1940s
They are the descendants of half a million Chinese in then Malaya whom the colonial government uprooted and re-settled in 452 barbed wire settlements named new villages during the Emergency (1948-1960)
The exercise had saved the Chinese from an impending deportation by the colonial government who deemed the community as communist supporters.
There are still about two million Chinese living  in the new villages to date.
In Sungei Lembing New Village, its popular Rainbow Waterfall tour also tells a story  of  life in a new village.
The youngsters from the  new village and nearby roamed around and discovered the rainbow long ago.
According to a tour guide, the rainbow cast on the waterfall is the effect of sun rays shining through the cascading water.
They called it Rainbow Waterfall-  their favourite hangout.
It was only many years later that the villagers’ search for a living saw them coming up with Rainbow Waterfall tours.
They started off using lorries to ferry tourists to the base, about 12 kilometer from their village.
The half-day tour starts at 5.30am.
The trek up  Rainbow Waterfall involves about two kilometers of jungle trekking and rock climbing after crossing a small stream.
And tourists cheering the moment they spotted the rainbow is not without reason though.
For instance, the rainbow may not appear on a cloudy day.
Note: The tour in Sungai Lembing was before the pandemic.