Malay Memories

The Festival of

2009-06-27T03:29:00.000-07:00

THE FESTIVAL OF ID - HARI RAYA PUASA.

Kampong Bahru - More

2009-02-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

A week or two before the celebrations the womenfolk start to get ready. Apart from the daily routine of preparing food, washing, cleaning and sweeping the compound (with brooms made out of coconut leaf sticks-more of this later about various things that could be made using materials out of the coconut tree.). After the breaking of the Fast the family would usually sit around the eating area (at the varendah) to discuss the forthcomng festivities. Topics would be the usual - what to make and what new items to be bought. Usually the items to be bought are the change of net curtains at the windows (old ones are still left hanging for a year until their brought down), new dresses (baju kurong,etc) and new equipment to get. The ordinary folk would shop at Batu Road, Chow Kit Road,or Petaling Street. Some of the well to do families would shop at Robinsons and Whiteways (two prominent British stores frequented by the expats) and get baking equipment such as weighing scales, cake tins, portable ovens (thermostatically controlled) and genuine British made baking ingrediants such as tinned butter, essence of vanilla, currants, raisins and cherries.

These two stores are the places to be seen. It shows affluence. Net curtains are bought by the yard usually from Globe Silk Stores, cut to size and sown using the newly bought portable hand-cranked sewing machine. I remembered hand cranking the machine helping my mother or auntie sewing the curtains. I felt great to be able to do that. Sometime, in my enthusiasm, I would crank the handle a bit fast so much so the thread would go out of sync or the needle would break. In later years the Singer Sewing Mchine Company started their outlets and their electric sewing machines became popular.

In my household, I remembered that we didnt have an electric oven to bake. My mother came up with the novel idea of making an 'oven'. The oven was fashioned from a big rectangular kerosene can which was cut into two separate parts. Three quarters of the can was the bottom part -main oven - placed over a brick stand and the quarter part was inverted and formed the top of the oven. Fire for baking was derived from the use of charcoal or dried coconut husks which were cost free. The drawback was that the burning husks produces a lot of smoke and there were a lot of tears by those that were baking the cakes. The main delicacies - cakes and home made items such as ketupat with peanut sauce, beef and chicken rendang.

Ketupat is uniquely Malayan (Malaysian now) and is pressed rice. Pre washed rice is stuffed into containers made out of woven coconut leaves, immersed into a big pot and boiled until done. I was able to fashion the smal containers then but I dont think I am able to do it now. Lemang, another delicacy is made from glutinous rice which are filled into specially fashioned hollow green bamboo sections, placed upright very near a wooden fire until the rice was cooked.

Outdoor Lighting

2009-01-25T04:19:00.000-08:00

Years ago, some artistic people constructed shapes like stars, moon, ships out of long strips of wood and the cans would then be placed equidistant from one another. They are then hung from high wooden platforms and lighted when the time comes. When seen from afar you could actually see the shapes just mentioned. Its beautiful but has its drawbacks. If the wind blows out the lights they would have to be relit again. A ladder would have to be used. After going up and down a few times the menfolk would just called it a night and would start again on the following nights.

Firecrackers were non existent in those days. It was banned if I'm not mistaken, because more of a security rather then a safety reason. Sparklers are all right and they sell for five to six packets (10 in a packet) for MRINGGIT 1.00. Parents would issue a packet every night and they would be shared amongst the children. They sparkled well but they could burn little fingers if not careful - then off to the General Hospital. The other deadly 'entertainment' is the firing of mortars. These deadly things are fashioned from round metal tubings with one end sealed off using cigarette can tops. Just a few inches from the sealed end a little hole would be made and it is the firing mechanism. They are then placed upright on the ground (just like the mordern mortars of now.). The 'ammo' is a few spoonful of carbide,(a dry chemical substance.) which is fed to the bottom of the metal tubing. Carbide when mixed with water will form Methane a gaseous substance. This mixture when lighted would light up and was the common form of lighting in villages where electricity is not available. But when Carbide is packed in confined spaces (like the bottom of a metal tubing), filled with a sprinkling of water and then lighted, it would give up a loud bang, as if you're hearing a bomb going off. This firings were illegal and people who are caught by the police doing so would land themselves in jail if I'm not mistaken.

Having said this everybody always looked forward to this as it signals the start of the joyous occasion. The other important thing that some households would do is the making of Dodol. Dodol is a toffee-like delicacy whose main ingredients are coconut milk, glutinous riceflour, palm and brown sugar. These ingredients were then mixed in an enormous round metal bowl and placed over a slow burning wooden fire. Two to three men would then take turns in continuosly stirring the mixture usually throughout the night until it is ready. If dodol doesnt stick to the fingers then it's ready to serve.

Petaling Street

2009-01-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

Petaling Street is located in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. It is where Chinese immigrants first set up communities in KL. The whole of Petaling Street would start at 7.00 and go until about 12.00. At that time, they had a lights on strings for the whole length of the street from maybe one or 2 sources. This was a novelty at the time.

There was Chinese and Nepalese stalls. The Chinese sold material, big bolts of cloth. You would choose what materials you wanted, haggled over the price and bought it and then made the clothing. The Nepalese sold ornaments, trinkets, good luck charms and aphrodisiacs. It was alledged the Nepalese came via trading route from Nepal (through Burma, Siam and Malaya) by foot. How far that is true, I don't know.

The buildings were usually 2-storey, with the bottom part devoted to shops selling wares, coffee shops and restaraunts. For Chinese funerals, there were shops that sold items like fake cars and money for the pyre. The Chinese believed that the more things they burnt at the funeral, the better they would be in the afterlife.

The Beginning

2009-01-17T10:02:00.001-08:00

I am a Malaysian, aged 64. I have been living in Ireland both North & South since 1987. But I have been here before to study in 1965 and then went back and worked and started a business, but more about that later. As I said, I came to Ireland in 1987 with my wife and children.I want to write about my past experiences because I want to tell people what life was like in Malaysia in years gone by. I will start on this post with Kampong Bahru.

KB is well known throughout Malaya as it was known then, for various reasons. I remembered at the time, if you were driving and hit someone in KB - you better run! I wanted to write this series, to share with people in Malaysia what life was like and about. I had various happy memories growing up. KB was very idyllic and laid back. KB was a village at that time and growing up in KB was a very good experience for me. My family had good friends there and we helped each other in so many ways. Life was simple and everything was cheap.

I have quite a lot of memories to share with you. Fond memories of KB which is not there as it was anymore. The house that I grew up is gone and flats are in their place.I also want write about living in a foreign country and although I have been here for some time and even been here as a student (it is a good experience, I can write about life in MY in the sixties and life here now).

In the early sixties when I was a student here, things were good and bad. It was the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland but life was also inexpensive. Now the cost of living here in Ireland is quite high. I would like to share what life is like in Ireland - a foreign person living in a different country with different values. For a long time I felt alienated - I was always aware of being different. Life as a foreigner here can be difficult but the people here are nice and helpful. I am also disabled and in a wheelchair. The health system has also really helped me a lot. I feel properly looked after, medically.

Transport in the early days

2009-01-17T10:01:00.001-08:00

Not many people had cars in the early fifties in Malaysia. Only the senior civil servants and even then they only had small cars. E.g. a Rover or a Ford Prefects. The foremost mode of transportation was by Bus or Trishaw. For a long time, the Trishaw was our method of transport. We would go by Trishaw and we got to know one of the Trishaw drivers, a Hakka named Man man kia (translated as 'go slower'). What happened was would be on a steep incline and he would go slow with four people on the Trishaw. This would be my parents and my sister and me. Me and my sister would be squatting on the floor boards where you put your feet. Man man kia would take us all over town. The fond memory is that we went to Borneo Motors (the agent for Ford) to look at the car my father wanted to get. It was a Ford Prefect, registration B3655, black four door. This is the mode of transportation we had. My father was in the civil service and my mother was teaching. Life was good then because 2 people were working and we could afford a good standard of living. We would go on holidays to Penang or the East Coast, Trengganu or Kelantan in our Ford Prefect!

More on Kampong Bahru

2009-01-17T10:00:00.001-08:00

Kuala Lumpur in the early fiftees was idyllic and laid back . People go about doing their own thing but the pace is never hurried. Kg Bharu was never far behind. The people are friendly and seem to know each other. Kg Bharu was a small enclave declared by the Sultan of Selangor as a place reserved only for Malays to build their houses. I was born in 1944 and have three sisters. My parents, sisters all live in Hale Road (named after Mr. Hale, a District Officer) a very small two-roomed housed raised above ground with brick and cement pillars supporting the house. The rooms were very small. My sisters were in one room and my parents and I were in the other. There was a small kitchen at the back.

Food was prepared on stoves fired by wooden sticks. The food seemed to taste much better as bits of ashes came falling into the frying pans when food was prepared.There is no privacy in a way when we take our showers. The shower place was downstairs and we used the wooden stairs to come down to shower. I suppose nobody was shy and we just enjoyed the shower. Of course we wore sarongs to protect our modesty. The toilet was at the back of the house and it uses a bucket system. We have to squat when we use it. It was unhygenic but that is Kg Bharu in the rare old times.

There was no sewerage system for toilets as far as I can recollect and the Municipality hires Indians to pick up the buckets every Saturday nights and the contents were disposed in the Gombak river or perhaps sold to Chinese farmers for feed. It is only alleged. How far its true I'm not quite sure but the Indians with buckets on their shoulders was a picture to behold. Alas there was no Canon digital camera at that time. What a pity.

Before pickup time they (five or six) would sit on the kerb by the side of the pick up lorry.They will sit very happily chewing beatlenut and leaves while waiting for roll call. They would then merrily go about doing their work and in most cases it is a job well done The house has a varendah where the family sat down and watch the world go by. There were not many cars on the road. Most of them were black with white lined tyres. It was the way they designed and made them. Most cars were owned by British administrators,army personnel,etc. Watching by the verendah we could often see cars passing by - a Mayflower a boxy car,a Riley which has walnut panels, morris minors and Austin 7's.

Hari Raya Puasa

2009-01-17T09:58:00.002-08:00

During the week or so before the start of the Hari Raya festival the womenfolk would start to be busy making various types of local delicacies, the main ones being the KETUPAT,RENDANG and PEANUT SAUCE, LEMANG, TIERED SPONGE CAKES, BISCUITS, and not forgetting the CHRISMAS CAKE (note the spelling of Xmas) of which the recipes are written down in an exercise book and religiously referred to every year. The various coloured AGAR AGAR and BOTTLED DRINKS-F&N ORANGE, SODA WATER, STRAWBERRY should be mentioned.

Batu Road and Malay Street were busy with shoppers. There were sales galore in Batu Road. The womenfolk flocked to the clothes shops, the main being GLOBE SILK STORE (still there to this very day) to get the latest materials for their dresses and also for the young girls which are made to order from seamstresses. The NETTING materials, for the windows were much sought after. A change of window NETTINGS every year was a sign of prosperity; be it the 1 Malaysian Ringgit a yard materials or the expensive materials favoured by the affluent ones.

Petaling Street was also a place to shop for materials. The Malay Baju Melayu, Songkok and Chapal for the men and boys could be purchased from Malay shops in Malay Street. As far as I can remember the street stalls came much later. Hari Raya greeting cards stalls came sprouting out. Ready made cakes,biscuits, etc were also sold. Various types of ready of food to break the fast with are also sold though this is a a new phenomenom in later years for people who find people it much convenient and easy just to buy rather then having to cook.

The ready made foods were popular with single people. Which brings me to two important things that the menfolk had to do a week before Hari Raya. First and foremost is the outdoor lighting. When I say "outdoor lighting" it doesnt mean the electric tiny lights. It means cigarette containers filled with kerosene with wicks at the centre of the lids. The cigarette cans which contain 50 cigarettes -Brand names -example 3 FIVES, MATTERHORN,DUNHILL. These cans were available at the local Chinese shops but they had to be booked in advance as the Chinese shopkeepers takes some time to sell the cigarettes individually.The kerosine filled cans were usually placed widely apart on top of hedges or hung on wire fences.

More about me

2009-01-17T09:58:00.001-08:00

I live in a one-roomed flat provided by the National Health Service. All the basic comforts of life is there and it serves my need. There's the kitchenette where I can cook my chicken curry, beef rendang, and fry ayam goreng. The aroma that permeates the flat always remind me of home. Although I live alone there are other tenants in the building and we meet and socialise from time to time. We also go on pre-arranged trip, by bus, to places of interest or to shopping centres. Otherwise its quiet a lonely existence. We live in our little cocoons, in our own little world, oblivious of what is happening outside.

The happier times here are spent with my children comes to visit and stay for a few days. They are grownups now and they lead their own lives. Im glad that they are able to do this as they live in different cities. There are tenants here that have not seen their children in years. A lot of old people live in these Folds (flats) sometimes not out of choice. I guess the extended family concept is seldom practiced. Its alien to them. I'm afraid that its the way of life here.

Going back through the years I can recall with clarity what life is all about in Kg Bharu. It was a very small place mostly populated by Malays living in small wooden or brick houses. Some are built on stilts and decorated with ornately covered wooden carvings forming the gables. They built their houses,fairly small at first funded by savings and loans and as time goes on,when their family grows, they would built extensions to suit their needs. So as time goes on the border between houses started to shrink and it was then difficult to trace the true borders as there were no demarcation lines.

Whether they owned their respective plot of land is open to conjecture as the land belonged to the Sultan and he had graciously designated the area that is Kg Bharu for the Malays to built houses and live there. Most of the Malays there worked in the civil service - clerks, typists, telephonists, and so on, in the government departments. Others worked as nurses, teachers, bank clerks, and so on. Some worked as drivers for the British administrators and businessmen or as bus drivers for the bus transport companies - Len Seng Omnibus Co owned by the Chinese entrepreneurs and the fledgling Sri Jaya Transport Company , a Malay run co-operative.

In most cases the pay was low and to have a meaningful income both husband and wife had to work. If they have children they were packed off to their mothers and fathers to look after them during the day. Some entreprenurial Mak Chiks started their own little businesses by selling Malay delicacies at the Pekan Minggu (Weekly Market) and door to door. Favourites among the delicasies were the Pisang Goreng, Kueh Lapis, Apam Balik, Kueh Kochi. Although the average collective household income is small, they seem to take them in their stride. They were quite happy, thankful and contented with their well being. After all it was the Will of God that they were given such means of aquiring an income.

My father worked for the Police Department for a long time rising from the humble clerk to the Higher Executive Officer lording over 30 to 40 clerks, typists, peons,etc. He had a great deal of say as to who will be promoted at every end of the year. My mother was a teacher and subsequently became the Headmistress of the Sekolah Menengah Kg Bharu 11 ran in the afternoon session between 1 to 6 pm whilst Che Gu Bedah ran the Sekolah Menengah Kg Bharu 1 in the mornings between 7.30 to 12.30. The late Che Gu Bedah was blessed with highly successful children and one of the most successful is Tan Sri Azman Hashim of the Arab Malaysian fame.