Sungai Pelek
Encyclopedia
Sungai Pelek is a town in the district of Sepang
in Selangor
, Malaysia. This town is about 20 minutes from the Sepang International Circuit
and about 25 minutes from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
. The town is near Bagan Lalang beach and Golden Coast Sepang. It has numerous mangrove
forests and the local clay supports a thriving brick-making industry.
This "strange/unusual" river lasted only for as long as the high tide, as most of the water would have drained out to sea by low tide.
and his friends.
The Communist insurgency during the 1950s, also known colloquially as "The Emergency
", saw the building of a chain-link fence around the village. Up until the 1970s, remnants of the fence could still be seen around the village but these are now largely overgrown or have been torn down to make way for the burgeoning population growth.
A natural leader and highly looked up to by most of the villagers. He was often being sought to help solve problems faced by individuals or families in Sungai Pelek.
Ong Eng Siang was given a walking stick by Sir Gerald Templer
as a symbol of respect and "authority to cane" the Assistant District Officers (ADOs) should they not do their job well.
Sir Gerald Templer was in Sungai Pelek with his military trucks to evict and remove the villagers to other locations just to overcome the British frustrations of Sungai Pelek being heavily infested with communist guerillas and their symphatisers.
The villagers were suspected to be frequent suppliers of food and medicine materials to the communist guerillas. In order to eliminate this chain, Sir Gerald Templer was adamant to evict and re-distribute the villagers to other areas.
Ong Eng Siang was among one of the then village community leaders to convince and appeal to Sir Gerald Templer to abort his decision and to understand the problems faced by the villagers who had to scratch for a living at the fringes of the forests, risking their lives daily should they be confronted by communist guerillas.
The villagers knew too well that the security forces of the government could never protect them every day from the communist guerillas.
Therefore, they had to oblige reluctantly with fear for their lives and family members, to supply rations whenever the villagers were asked to do so by the communist guerillas.
Communist guerillas also did do their rounds, knocking on doors in the village, in the wee hours of the night to source for rations.
Therefore, Sir Gerald Templer had to acknowledged the legitimate fears and dilemma faced by the villagers of Sungai Pelek.
In order to reduce constant contact between the villagers and communist guerillas, Sir Gerald Templer ordered the village to be completely fenced-up around its perimeters, leaving a few gates strategically located as entrances. These gates were heavily guarded by police and home guards.
from the Fujian Province of China. There are also Malays, who are mainly of Javanese/Sumatran descent, and India
ns, who are a mixture of Tamils, Singhalese, Bengalis, etc. in this small town.
The Chinese are distributed amongst the New Village and various housing developments known collectively as Taman-taman. A large number of the Chinese are still connected to the land as land farmers. Pig farming was devastated by the JE virus.
Around the village are some smaller settlements like Bukit Bangkong, Batu Empat, Batu Dua, Teluk Merbau, and Sepang Kecil.
Bukit Bangkong was a small aboriginal settlement, which now houses a predominantly Javanese Malay population.
Batu Empat and Batu Dua are small Malay settlements on the road to Sepang town from Sungai Pelek.
Teluk Merbau is a small Indian settlement built by the local palm oil company, originally owned by ICI
. The settlement consisted of dwellings occupied by labourers brought in from southern India who mainly speak Tamil.
s, Methodist
Christian
s and Muslim
s. There are also a small number of Catholic
Christians, Taoists and Sikh
s.
Places of worship in Sungai Pelek consist of a small Methodist church preaching in Chinese, a catholic chapel situated behind the Post Office building, a mosque for the local Muslims and several small Buddhists and Taoist temples. The Indian temple is located approximately 3 kilometers outside of Sungai Pelek and was probably constructed there to be closer to the larger Indian population at the Teluk Merbau palm oil estate.
The first headmaster of the government-run English primary school, the Methodist English School, was Mr Lim Yee Ko
. Mr Lim was also the first headmaster of the government-run English secondary school, Sekolah Menegah Jenis Kebangsaan.
The first headmaster of the private Chinese primary school, Wah Lian Chinese School, was Mr Cheng Yew Sing.
The schools which served the local Indian population were privately set up by the local palm oil factory for its Indian labourers. These schools were located in the Indian settlements around Sungai Pelek.
, coffea plants
and oil palm
s. Home to the prized teka, tawa and pinoh durians. Recently, dragon fruit
has also been planted widely here. The people of Sungai Pelek are active in the bird's nest
industry as well.
Sepang
Sepang is a town and district located in the southern part of the state of Selangor in Malaysia. Formerly a small town, Sepang grew to several recent developments...
in Selangor
Selangor
Selangor also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity") is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west...
, Malaysia. This town is about 20 minutes from the Sepang International Circuit
Sepang International Circuit
The Sepang International Circuit is a racing circuit in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia. It is located near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, approximately 60 km south of the capital city Kuala Lumpur. It is the venue used for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, A1 Grand Prix as well as the...
and about 25 minutes from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Kuala Lumpur International Airport , or KLIA serves the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and is one of Southeast Asia's largest airports. It is also Malaysia's main international airport. It is situated in the Sepang district, in the south of the state of Selangor, about from Kuala Lumpur...
. The town is near Bagan Lalang beach and Golden Coast Sepang. It has numerous mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
forests and the local clay supports a thriving brick-making industry.
Etymology
Local legend has it that Sungai Pelek got its name from the temporary river formed by the overflow of the Sungai Sepang and Sungai Sepang Kecil during high tide. In the local Malay dialect, "sungai" meant "river, and "pelek" meant "strange" or "unusual".This "strange/unusual" river lasted only for as long as the high tide, as most of the water would have drained out to sea by low tide.
History
During the Second World War, Sungai Pelek was under the control of the Japanese. There was active local resistance to the Japanese occupation. Some British military personnel were trapped in Sungai Pelek by the advancing Japanese forces. These British soldiers were aided in their escape by Mr Lim Yee KoLim Yee Ko
Mr Lim Yee Ko was the first headmaster of the government-run primary school, the Methodist English School, which used English as its medium of instruction....
and his friends.
The Communist insurgency during the 1950s, also known colloquially as "The Emergency
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
", saw the building of a chain-link fence around the village. Up until the 1970s, remnants of the fence could still be seen around the village but these are now largely overgrown or have been torn down to make way for the burgeoning population growth.
Notable Village Headman
Ong Eng Siang, PJK (born 1910 - 1989)A natural leader and highly looked up to by most of the villagers. He was often being sought to help solve problems faced by individuals or families in Sungai Pelek.
Ong Eng Siang was given a walking stick by Sir Gerald Templer
Gerald Templer
Field Marshal Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer KG, GCB, GCMG, KBE was a British military commander. He is best known for his defeat of the guerrilla rebels in Malaya between 1952 and 1954...
as a symbol of respect and "authority to cane" the Assistant District Officers (ADOs) should they not do their job well.
Sir Gerald Templer was in Sungai Pelek with his military trucks to evict and remove the villagers to other locations just to overcome the British frustrations of Sungai Pelek being heavily infested with communist guerillas and their symphatisers.
The villagers were suspected to be frequent suppliers of food and medicine materials to the communist guerillas. In order to eliminate this chain, Sir Gerald Templer was adamant to evict and re-distribute the villagers to other areas.
Ong Eng Siang was among one of the then village community leaders to convince and appeal to Sir Gerald Templer to abort his decision and to understand the problems faced by the villagers who had to scratch for a living at the fringes of the forests, risking their lives daily should they be confronted by communist guerillas.
The villagers knew too well that the security forces of the government could never protect them every day from the communist guerillas.
Therefore, they had to oblige reluctantly with fear for their lives and family members, to supply rations whenever the villagers were asked to do so by the communist guerillas.
Communist guerillas also did do their rounds, knocking on doors in the village, in the wee hours of the night to source for rations.
Therefore, Sir Gerald Templer had to acknowledged the legitimate fears and dilemma faced by the villagers of Sungai Pelek.
In order to reduce constant contact between the villagers and communist guerillas, Sir Gerald Templer ordered the village to be completely fenced-up around its perimeters, leaving a few gates strategically located as entrances. These gates were heavily guarded by police and home guards.
Demographics
The population of the village are predominantly ethnic ChineseChinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
from the Fujian Province of China. There are also Malays, who are mainly of Javanese/Sumatran descent, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns, who are a mixture of Tamils, Singhalese, Bengalis, etc. in this small town.
The Chinese are distributed amongst the New Village and various housing developments known collectively as Taman-taman. A large number of the Chinese are still connected to the land as land farmers. Pig farming was devastated by the JE virus.
Around the village are some smaller settlements like Bukit Bangkong, Batu Empat, Batu Dua, Teluk Merbau, and Sepang Kecil.
Bukit Bangkong was a small aboriginal settlement, which now houses a predominantly Javanese Malay population.
Batu Empat and Batu Dua are small Malay settlements on the road to Sepang town from Sungai Pelek.
Teluk Merbau is a small Indian settlement built by the local palm oil company, originally owned by ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
. The settlement consisted of dwellings occupied by labourers brought in from southern India who mainly speak Tamil.
Religion
The main religious groups in Sungai Pelek are split between Buddhists, HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s, Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s. There are also a small number of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Christians, Taoists and Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
s.
Places of worship in Sungai Pelek consist of a small Methodist church preaching in Chinese, a catholic chapel situated behind the Post Office building, a mosque for the local Muslims and several small Buddhists and Taoist temples. The Indian temple is located approximately 3 kilometers outside of Sungai Pelek and was probably constructed there to be closer to the larger Indian population at the Teluk Merbau palm oil estate.
Education
Sungai Pelek has several schools which serve the local community. These schools provide educational instruction in Chinese, Indian, Malay and English. The educational level of these schools range from primary education to secondary education.The first headmaster of the government-run English primary school, the Methodist English School, was Mr Lim Yee Ko
Lim Yee Ko
Mr Lim Yee Ko was the first headmaster of the government-run primary school, the Methodist English School, which used English as its medium of instruction....
. Mr Lim was also the first headmaster of the government-run English secondary school, Sekolah Menegah Jenis Kebangsaan.
The first headmaster of the private Chinese primary school, Wah Lian Chinese School, was Mr Cheng Yew Sing.
The schools which served the local Indian population were privately set up by the local palm oil factory for its Indian labourers. These schools were located in the Indian settlements around Sungai Pelek.
Economy
Besides its thriving brick-making and clay products industry, Sungai Pelek has numerous small plantations of rubber treesPara rubber tree
Hevea brasiliensis, the Pará rubber tree, often simply called rubber tree, is a tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae, and the most economically important member of the genus Hevea...
, coffea plants
Coffea
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Seeds of several species are the source of the popular beverage coffee. Coffee ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded...
and oil palm
Oil palm
The oil palms comprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis is native to West Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis oleifera is native to...
s. Home to the prized teka, tawa and pinoh durians. Recently, dragon fruit
Pitaya
A pitaya or pitahaya is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus . These fruits are commonly known as dragon fruit – cf...
has also been planted widely here. The people of Sungai Pelek are active in the bird's nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
industry as well.