My Perception of Nibong Tebal Half a Century Ago

Nibong Tebal was a cowboy town with a few streets surrounded by rubber estates and swamp lands. The River Krian was flowing from west to east on the southern part of the town. Two concrete bridges constructed by British colonial government were running parallel to each other across the River Krian. One was a railway bridge. The other one was meant for vehicles. It was built across the river linking the North-South federal highway. On either side of the bridge was a pedestrian walkway. It was a good pastime as well as a good exercise on those days for the local people to take an evening stroll on the bridge to enjoy the scenic view of the tranquil river water and to observe from far the quiet town of Nibong Tebal.
In those days, on the fifteenth of the first month of a lunar year, the Chinese equivalent of the Valentine Day, young people of both genders would converge on the pedestrian walkways of the bridge in the evening to get to know each other and to watch young ladies throwing mandarin oranges into the river in their bid ‘to fish for golden turtles’ [钓金龟婿], sincerely hoping that they would be married to their dreamed men.

Once in a while, the town folks would be astounded to hear that someone had jumped into River Krian from atop the bridge to commit suicide. Horrified stories about the water ghosts [水鬼] dwelling in the river were told umpteen times by the elders to their young ones to dissuade them from swimming in the river or playing by the riverside. According to a widespread belief, the person committing suicide was in fact a replacement ‘too unlucky’ to be targeted by a particular water ghost so that the ghost would in turn be relieved from the sufferings in the river and reborn in a better plane of existence. However, the kids were undeterred by such stories and they still liked to play around at the riverside under the bridges, catching fish or prawns with their bare hands and playing at the sand pitch to dig tunnels or to build castles of their own creations. Of course, before darkness descended over the river, the kids would be home at the dinner table.

The river had had a glorious past of being a major form of transportation for residents staying at the border towns of both states of Perak and Province Wellesley sixty years ago. As the two states were under different government administrations, smuggling activities across the river were deemed to be ‘the fastest and easiest way of acquiring Big Money’. It was no wonder that many people would venture into this exciting and yet lucrative business. As a result, Nibong Tebal had emerged as a fast growing town. Due to its strategic position at that time, it became the administration centre of Southern Province Wellesley. The Police Station, Post Office, District Office ,Session Court and Government Clinic were all located one-stop at the town proper. Two private bus companies were operating at the town to service the commuters at Nibong Tebal and its nearby villages and towns.

Life style at Nibong Tebal was rather simple. The only form of entertainment was either cinema going at the local theatre or chit-chatting among friends, young and old, at the open space coffee shops at the Pai Teik School Union basketball court in the evening.
Television in black and white only made its first debut in the year 1964. At that time a set of television was too costly to be affordable by an ordinary household. Moreover, the programs were still primitive and raw at the initial stages, and therefore, television viewing was still being sidelined.

Twice a year, Chinese opera shows would be performed for a number of days at one go to entertain the town folks in general and the Tua Pek Kong [大伯公], the guardian god of the town, in particular. It was a big event that most of the town folks would not like to miss. The kids were especially delighted as it was just like a carnival to them as they could patronize many eating and gaming stalls operating beside the opera stage in the vicinity of the temple ground.

Annual Basketball League for the Krian District was another big event of the year. The league was organized by the Pai Teik School Union for the basketball teams from the neighboring towns in the Krian district. It was a crowd puller. Every evening the basketball court would be packed back to back with spectators to cheer for the teams they supported. Idol worshiping among the lady fans was not uncommon too. The league would commence for weeks and it had become the major issue of conversation among the town folks during that period of time. Some of the players from Pai Teik Union were later selected to be Penang state basketball players, among others were Liew Guan Peng and Chan Kim Hock.

Town folks, young and old, could somehow recognize each other. They were so familiar with one another that they could even tell who a person was and where he lived. If the name of a child was not known, the folks could still recognize him as the son of so and so, or the son of a particular house or shop, the examples of which were Yee Ngoh Leng [一五龙, Ah Leng as a son of Yee Ngoh] ,Keat Lee Meng[ 吉利明,Ah Meng from the shop Keat Lee], Thye Loong Kia[泰隆子, the son from the shop Thye Loong ], Yee Hong Shun[义丰孙，the grandson from the shop Yee Hong ]. Any mischief or wrong doing of a kid would be made known spontaneously and instantly all over the town. Hence high profile thefts or robberies in the town were seldom committed by local people as they were too familiar with each other that it was not easy for any local offender to conceal his crime; just like a dog would not shit at its own doorstep could be a relevant analogy. This intimacy and closeness among the town folks were established over more than 100 years ever since their ancestors set foot at the town.

Whenever there was a person summoned by the heavenly father[天父] or a magistrate from the Hell[阎罗王], news would be spread to the whole town within a day or two through a paid messenger employed by the family of the deceased, either Ah Au Pek[阿欧伯] or Oo Keat Leng[黑吉灵], through the distributing of a pair of red candles to every household in the town. In the evening every household that received the candles would light them at the five foot path[五脚基].It was spectacular to watch the whole town being lighted up with candles; the children especially would not miss this rare opportunity to 'play with fire'. Each household would then donate a few dollars to the family of the deceased to subsidize the funeral expenses. This was a sort of ‘mutual fund’ on mutual trust, which would lessen the burden of the family of the deceased in their funeral expenses. This ritual was practiced then. I was not sure this practice would be carried on for how long.

The town underwent drastic changes after the communal violence erupted in November 1967 in Penang due to the devaluation of currency and later the racial riot of the May 13 incident of 1969. Many Chinese families from nearby Malay villages like Sungai Acheh, Sungai Bakau ,Bagan Tiang and many other villages shifted to Nibong Tebal. Housing estates sprang up like mushrooms in the outskirts of the town. Population increased by leaps and bounds since then. As a result, the intimacy and closeness among the town folks were diluted day by day in proportional to the inflow of residents from outside.

This is what and how I perceived my home town half a century ago.