Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation
Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation

April 2009

A Visit to an Ipoh Tourist Spot!

By |2009-09-19T01:48:19+08:00April 6th, 2009|Categories: Ipoh Town|Tags: , , , , |

A friend visited the Birch Memorial Clock Tower and brought us back these pictures.

The top two are at the top of the steps as you approach the tower from the lower road. Rotting food and goodness knows what else to navigate past as you visit Ipoh’s heritage. Bottom left is the base of the tower, complete with broken bed and water bottle and the bottom right is just across the road from the mosque. What a dreadful sight for our Muslim friends as they leave their place of prayer.

Now you may not like the reason that the tower was put there in the first place – many don’t. But the fact is that the structure is 100 years old this year and represents a key bit of history for this country and its people. Nobody denies that Birch was not a good administrator, nor that he treated the Malays badly, but as they say, that is history and whatever else, it is history like this that brings in tourist dollars.

Surely the place deserves to be treated better than this!

The FMS Bar and Restaurant – Visible Progress

By |2009-04-07T08:50:02+08:00April 6th, 2009|Categories: Ipoh Town|Tags: , , , |

Most people know about FMS, the oldest bar in Malaysia which is currently under renovation. Indeed many people fear that it will never open again. However it certainly looks hopeful.

Taking the photographs from the top it appears that nothing is happening, but go round the back and you will see an amazing transformation (centre pic). The upstairs building work is virtually complete. Then, take a look at the bottom pic – the inside of the downstairs bar. Completely gutted, the new concrete floor upstairs is finished and restoration of downstairs will start soon.

The owner says he plans to reopen early 2010 and that the bar will be in traditional style reflecting its history. And the really good news is that he does not plan to change the front of the building at all, just restore

We look forward to that!

The Old Post Office, Ipoh – Restoration Seems to Have Started

By |2009-04-05T11:27:41+08:00April 5th, 2009|Categories: Ipoh Town|Tags: , , , , , |

Known by Perakians young and old as The Old Post Office, and despite being connected to the Town Hall the building has been empty since the early 1990s and been derelict for years. As can be seen from the top picture the Town Hall has been repainted and shows signs of being cared for but it has been a different story for the Post Office which has simply been an eyesore. However, judging by all the scaffolding the renovation by the Federal Government is underway. That is good news for Ipoh.

Once renovated it is being suggested that it will become an art gallery featuring Raja Muda’s collection of paintings. Whether this is true is not known, but with the amount of money the renovation will cost they must have some plans for it. 

The Ipoh Town Hall building is a historic structure consisting of interesting Moorish Architecture and designs. It was completed in 1916 with the east end used as the Post and Telegraphs Office from 1928. This was the second building to be used for this role in Ipoh. Subsequently when new premises were built for the Post Office, the building was used by other government offices including the Tourism Department and as the Bumiputra Administrative Centre.

The lower picture shows a view from the opposite direction and includes the J W W Birch Memorial Clock Tower partly masked by the Medan Selera (Food Court). The latter is in some serious need of renovation or even a total rebuild as it will negate much of the beauty of the renovated Post office cum Art gallery. With the food court sorted out, the area tidied up and all the rubbish removed, with the advantage of the historic clock tower, this could become a real tourist area.

Unveiled in 1909, the Birch Memorial, can be described as a square decorated tower with a portrait bust and four panels illustrative of the growth of civilisation. The tower was erected on the table-land of Ipoh Old Town at the cost of about $25,000. A dedication to J W W Birch, the first British Resident of Perak, who was assassinated at Pasir Salak in 1875, could be found beneath the site of a bronze bust of Birch in the north-facing niche, but the bust has since disappeared.

Lam Looking Bazaar Restoration Seems to Have STOPPED!

By |2009-06-20T04:49:57+08:00April 5th, 2009|Categories: Ipoh Town|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Lam Looking building in Laxamana Road, Ipoh was destroyed by fire. Heritage buffs rejoiced when they heard that the bazaar had a new owner who was to restore it. Sure enough it was fenced and the rubbish cleared, but since then nothing has happened. Does anyone know when and what is happening next?

The Top pic is the side and front and the bottom the rear view including the spiral staircase.

For those who don’t know the history, It was built as ‘A stylish Art Deco building from 1931, with sweeping horizontal lines, featuring Early Modernist stair-wells.

The Celestial Cabaret and hotel upstairs was a favourite haunt of European expatriates. During the war, Japanese military officers patronised the cabaret which was also a Japanese casino (gambling farm) during the Occupation and a grenade target during the Emergency.

However, the cabaret eventually lost its clientele and was transformed into the Movieland Theatre. This was a cinema that specialised in Cantonese Opera movies that were very popular with the older members of Ipoh’s Chinese residents. But again, all good things come to an end and the theatre was replaced by the Perak Emporium.

As the Perak Emporium it was a major shopping centre from when it opened in the late 1960’s until it closed in the late 1980’s. It also had retail shops at street level, with smaller lots fronting an oval courtyard. Lot No. 8 was journalist Ahmad Noor Abdul Shukor’s “Blue Room”. Fook Seng, at Lot No. 6 retailed gramophones, keronchong songs and Arabic music.

However, the business went into decline around the time that the new store “Super Kinta” opened just along the road and that was the death knell of this grand old building which deteriorated thereafter.

Lam Look Ing, a Nam Wei Cantonese, was born in Penang in 1864. Trained as a naval officer in Foochou, he established himself as a tin-miner in Kampar and a large property owner in Ipoh.’

A Mysterious Ipoh Fire?

By |2009-04-05T11:28:48+08:00April 5th, 2009|Categories: Ipoh Town|Tags: , , , , |

From time to time (but with monotonous regularity) Ipoh suffers a mysterious fire in one or other of the old buildings in Old or New Town. This one in Brewster Road happened on the eve of Chinese New Year 2009. The building had been out of use for years. How did the fire start we wonder?

Does anyone know who owns this building as there could be someone we know interested to buy and restore it?

An Ambush Story From Kuala Selangor in 1951

By |2009-06-02T10:41:43+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

 British Police Lieutenants Street and Allmond were posted to Kuala Selangor within days of their first arrival in Malaya. They reached that town without incident and spent the night there. The following morning they were issued with weapons and were informed that they were to be stationed at one of the local Rubber Estates.

A land Rover and escort of four Special Constables arrived from the estate, which was to be their destination and they were sent on their way. All went well until shortly after the vehicle had turned onto the gravel road leading into the estate when the vehicle was ambushed by a skilfully-led group of Chinese and Tamil terrorists. There was no escape.

Allmond and the driver of the Land Rover together with one or more of the escort were killed during the first burst of gunfire. Street, who had been sitting alongside Allmond, was uninjured but covered in blood from his dead companion, leapt out of the vehicle and made a dash for cover. As he did so a bullet shattered his left kneecap and he collapsed on the road. The shooting eventually stopped and the terrorists emerged from concealment and began stripping the dead of their weapons. At this stage Street realised that he was the only survivor and that his only chance for survival was to play dead. Hardly daring to breathe he shut his eyes and hoped for the best.

Street’s predicament was compounded by the fact that he had fallen face down and could not therefore see what was happening. Having been in the country for less than a week he spoke not a single word of Malay, Chinese, or Tamil and had no idea of what the terrorists were talking about as they went about their business of stripping the dead. A group of them then approached, talking among themselves as they did so, and one, putting his foot under Street’s body, turned him over so that he was facing upwards.

Obviously deciding that his shirt was too bloodstained to warrant removal, one of the terrorists proceeded to cut off his buttons and badges of rank whilst administering the odd kick or two. A considerable amount of discussion was going on between the terrorists and, although he could not understand what they were saying, Street guessed that they entertained some doubt as to whether he was dead. Terrified at the prospect of what would follow if they decided that he was alive’ he breathed a silent prayer and concentrated on proving that, if not exactly dead, he was very close to being so.

He heard the sound of a match being struck and a few seconds later felt an excruciating pain as one of the terrorists stubbed a lighted cigarette on the bridge of his nose. Somehow or other he managed not to flinch or cry out with pain. This seemed to convince the terrorists that he was beyond recovery and he was picked up and deposited with the bodies of Allmond and four dead Special Constables on the back of the Land-Rover which the terrorists set on fire before departing.

Street managed to extricate himself from the bodies on the vehicle and fell onto the road unable to move because if his shattered kneecap.

About three hours later a police party, which had been sent out from Kuala Selangor to investigate why his group had not reported at their destination, found him. He was subsequently taken to Bangsa Hospital in Kuala Lumpur where, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to repair his knee, doctors finally had to amputate his lower left leg.

Such was the life for the more than 500 British Police Officers that served in the Police Force during the Malayan Emergency, many of them not as lucky as Police Lieutenant Street.

The Gambling Farms of the Federated Malay States

By |2009-04-01T03:46:14+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

No doubt you have heard of dairy farms, vegetable farms and the like, but what about “Gambling Farms”?

The term Gambling Farms (so-called because they were run by representatives of syndicates termed farmers) seems to have originated from the Federated Malay States (FMS), for although gambling was prohibited in other British territories, in the FMS, “farmers” were given exclusive rights to set up gambling houses in return for a payment to the government.

By law, only Chinese were allowed onto the premises of these gambling farms. The British justified the legalizing of gambling by claiming that the Chinese were hardened gamblers (a claim which was later refuted by the ‘Protector of Chinese’ – how could he?) and that if they did not do so the Chinese would gamble in their mining kongsis anyway. The licensed gambling farms, which enticed coolies by hiring prostitutes as bankers, staging shows and offering sumptuous delicacies, brought in more than $3 million in revenue to the FMS government every year. However it was said that the moral tone of the Chinese community was deteriorating because of the Farms and in 1905, an Anti-Gambling Petition was sent by the rich and influential Towkays of the Chinese community to the High Commissioner. Not much was done to improve the situation however (after all the government were making big bucks) and it was only in 1913 that the ‘Common Gaming Houses Enactment’ took effect, outlawing most forms of gambling in the FMS.

“The Richest Chinaman in the World.”

By |2009-04-01T03:31:54+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

At the start of the 20th century, the above title certainly belonged to Foo Choo Choon. Prior to him the mantle of the Richest Man in the FMS changed hands several times between the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, from the renowned Capitan China, Chung Keng Kwee, to the entrepreneur Loke Yew. But within the 1st decade of the 20th century, Foo Choo Choon had overtaken Loke Yew in terms of wealth. Foo Choo Choon came to Malaysia as a 13 year-old Chinese immigrant in 1873 and worked for Chung Keng Kwee in his Lahat mining concession. The bulk of his initial wealth was amassed in 1897; from his extraordinarily rich mine in Tronoh which became the richest mine in Kinta at the time. Foo Choo Choon then formed a syndicate and proceeded to obtain further mining concessions, turning himself into a mining magnate. At the turn of the century he sold his Tronoh mine to British interests who floated the mine, and made Foo Choo Choon the first Chinese director of a British listed company. After the sale of a second concession, he went on an acquisition trail that was to turn him into the Tin King of Malaya. In 1905, Tronoh Mines Ltd, of which Foo was the majority shareholder, and Foo’s own mines, topped the list of most productive mines in Perak, prompting the Ballarat Courier to refer to him as “the richest Chinaman in the world”.

The above is a summary of one of many heritage articles written by Dr Ho Tak Ming and published in the Ipoh Echo. If you don’t get the Ipoh Echo you are losing out on your heritage facts. Of course you will also be missing out on the Echo’s ‘from the shoulder’ articles.

A British Police Officer Gave His Life for Us to Live in Peace

By |2009-04-01T03:23:47+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

 POLICE LIEUTENANT M R LIVINGSTONE

KILLED IN AMBUSH IN TEMENGGOR

25 DECEMBER, 1950
At approx 10.00 a.m. on the 25th December, 1950, a party of seven police constables of the Police Frontier Force under the command of Police Lieutenant. M R Livingstone proceeded from Kampong Temenggor to the Temenggor Tin Mine in the Grik area of Perak to investigate a report that the mine had been destroyed by fire.

About 1½ miles from the tin mine the police party was ambushed by an armed gang of bandits estimated at fifty to seventy strong. During the subsequent engagement Livingstone was shot in the head and killed instantaneously. Two police constables were also killed and the remaining four others wounded. A follow-up party of Police and Royal Marines were unable to locate and recover the body of Livingstone until 27th December, 1950.

The funeral of Livingstone took place at a jungle patch near Kampong Temenggor one and a half day’s walk from Grik at 5.15 p.m. on 27th December, 1950. The funeral service was conducted by ASP P J D. Guest of District Police, Grik. The Form of the Service had been sent to ASP Guest, by wireless, by the Church of England padre of the Royal Marines.

The simple but impressive service was attended by members of the Police and the Royal Marines stationed in the vicinity for operations. A salute was fired at the graveside by a Royal Marines guard of honour.

Livingstone had served with the Police Force for only three and a half months but during that short time he had won for himself the respect and confidence of his subordinates and superiors alike. His devotion to duty was of a high order and would have assured him a very successful career in the Police Service.

With the aid of the Military Authorities, the remains of the late Police Lieutenant Livingstone were recovered from his jungle grave and re-interred in the Christian cemetery in Taiping on 8th December, 1954.

The recommittal ceremony was conducted by the Rev. Lewis, Chaplain to the Forces and Vicar of All Saints Church, Taiping. Present were OCPD Taiping and Mrs. Turner, Police Lieutenant J W Wells and a contingent of rank and file. Wreaths were laid by the OCPD on behalf of the Perak Contingent, Federation of Malaya Police, and by Mr. Wells on behalf of Mrs Livingstone, the mother of the deceased, now Mrs E Wharton of Upton, Wirral, Cheshire.

A Wickham Armoured Railcar c1950

By |2009-06-24T13:21:48+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

These Malayan Railway railcars designed by the Brtish and named the Wickham Armoured Railcar, were used during the Malayan Emergency 1948-1960 to carry bullion and other valuables to protect them from the Communist terrorists (CTs). Subsequently they were used as Public Works Department Inspection Trolleys. One example is on show at the Royal Malaysian Police Museum in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a place well worth a visit. 

Images 1909 to 2009 – The Centennial Anniversary Anderson School

By |2009-04-01T02:49:46+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Heritage Books|Tags: , , , , |

Just published, this book includes a history of the school, recollections of years gone by and some thoughts on the way ahead for the next century. It is available from the Old Andersonians Association who can be contacted via the Old Andersonians Club, Ipoh. It is priced at RM130. The scan does not do justice to the cover which is actually much nicer than shown with the lettering blocked in gold. My scanner apologises for the poor result.

Should you need any contact details etc please ask via this blog.

Happy reading!

Faces of Courage – The Story of Sybil Kathigasu GM

By |2009-04-01T02:35:10+08:00April 1st, 2009|Categories: Heritage Books|Tags: , , , , , , |

Published by Media Masters, Singapore and Authored by Sybil Kathigasu, Chin Peng and Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor, Faces of Courage stands as the first in-depth study of Malaya’s legendary war-time heroine, Sybil Kathigasu, and the impact her dauntless decisions and actions had on the members of her immediate family.

An essential aspect of this book is the personalized historical background and insight on the Japanese occupation era provided by former Secretary General of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), Chin Peng. It was Sybil’s association with the Perak People’s Anti-Japanese Army (PPAJA) – the communist-controlled guerilla organization in which Chin Peng played such a leading role – that provided the very foundation on which the Kathigasu legend eventually emerged and flourished.

Faces of Courage throws fresh light on a quite extraordinary story that became caught in a politically-induced, post-World War II time warp.

Sybil’s book, No Dram of Mercy, in which she recounts her horrific experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese Kempeitai, was completed several months before her death in June, 1948. But the manuscript was withheld from publication until 1954. British colonial interests deemed nothing good should be said about the communists in Malaya while Commonwealth forces still struggled to gain supremacy in the bitter jungle war known as the Malayan Emergency.

So often the cursory re-telling of legendary tales creates ill-conceived myths. The Sybil Kathigasu story is a case in point. And here the effect has only been compounded by Britain’s original propaganda ploy.

Faces of Courage is a book within a book. Sybil’s personal record, No Dram of Mercy, constitutes the opening section of this three-part volume. As such it provides a ready reference point for the revealing research, observations and reflections that follow.  

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