The Unsung Heroes.....

          

A beautiful sunrise .

           Those days I used to wonder how some of the people I met were so smart, so sharp and informative... So I thought it must be their special diet.

          I was raised in a plantation deep in the jungle of Terengganu State. The people who managed were mostly foreigners. So, their children went to the same school as I was.  They don’t speak our mother’s tongue so we communicate in English.  So I scored! Hehehehhe.

          I visited the El Dorado of the East! A quiet little town now but was once a very rich and a well-known town because of its tin mining. For more than 100 years, Sg Lembing, Pahang was showered with all the best any nation would wish for.  In 1888, the English came in a big group with their families. They brought in with them electricity, types of machinery,  technologies, hospital and medications, schools, duty-free shop, entertainments, sports and of cause the language! 

 

          At a very young age, the children of Sg Lembing were far more advanced than any others around them.  Sg Lembing was ahead of anywhere else. That time, the importance of Sg Lembing was at par with  Singapore and Hong Kong! So advanced that when people of Sg Lembing went places, they were recognised immediately from the way they spent and their modern and classy attire! 

       I went around this town and realised that it is such a well organised small place of living.

They have everything that only some can only hope to have. From the old photographs that I saw in the museum, the town is as it was before! Only the buildings looked worn out and so are the elders. 

 

Sg Lembing Museum.

          I spent two mornings having breakfast in the marketplace and I realised how warm these people are. The friendship among them was something that I remembered when I was young.... they talked to one another about their daily routines, they sat and ate together, joked around and laughing out loud when a joke was cracked by any of them.  Ya Allah, how I missed this so much that I was in tears by just looking at them. This is the kind of Malaysians I grew up with... humble, warm and very nice. But slowly it’s fading away because we were too busy looking for wealth and forgot the one most important thing in life which is UKHWAH!  The elders said that they were even much closer before until politics came in the way! What have we done?

Tok Empat Dol. 

The marketplace where elders meet.

Selling antiques.

  

          The elders shared the same experiences working as tin miners. Sg Lembing was well known throughout the world because of the largest and the deepest tin mine in the world. It is known as the El Dorado of the East.  Besides tin, they have iron ore and copper. The deepest mine is 2,200 feet and the distance of the tunnel is 322km long! Can you imagine! 

 

The Underground Tin Mine of Sg Lembing

          The town was all lighted up at night and lots of activities for the miners were introduced. They even have club-house for the management and for the miners. They were provided with lots of facilities like swimming pool, indoor games like billiard, darts, music and so on. No one knew about movies but they were provided with a cinema! The people went places in a built-in train as the mean of transportation. The rails circled the town and mines. Besides people, trains are used to carry logs, fuel and most importantly is to carry the tin ore from the mines to the mill for crushing and separation purposes .....more than a hundred years ago!! 

A hundred years story about the tin....

          Their health was well taken care of. A hospital with different wards for males and females, 20 bed of each, modern medicines brought from England,  X-Ray machine, a labour room and most of all specialists doctors attended the patients 24 hours! The site is there but the hospital is long gone. What a pity. The Police Station is intact... still standing strong and well preserved. 

Morning greetings to old friends.

          When I looked at the elders, most of them speak English or at least understand English. Their children did well in schools.  They have schools for all races including the natives. The English School was run by the English. So, language is not a problem. many of their children became doctors, educators, lawyers and many more including ministers.  And I believe this little town succeeded because of the environment and the exposures of modernisations provided them with advanced knowledge. The activities around them, the language created people with a good head start.

Uncle Ah Seng. Was a miner since he was 14 years old.

          But, the children are all away. The school system took them away from home. They grew and have their own life elsewhere. Not many young ones stayed behind and because of that, not much change needed to facelift the infrastructure of this town. The old wooden buildings started to give way, but for a structure that can stand for more than a hundred years... that is amazing! Even the bridges made of steel and wood and the hanging bridges are intact and fully utilised!

 

          In the near future, the heroes of the tin mining will be long gone. The numbers will be getting less and less. This is nature. Most of them are in their 70's and 80's. But most importantly is that they have their yesterday.... a successful history that all of them will remember and cherish the memories they once shared together. Their stories keep them alive and standing tall. The worked hard and earned a lot but when the price of tin collapsed in the 1980s, so is Sg Lembing. Washed down the drain.  Mining had to be stopped. Many left. The management left too because they are done with the 80 plus 21 years concessions. Sg Lembing was handed back to the state of Pahang with a full set of everything! Slowly, Sg Lembing was forgotten.

          The year was 1986, Sg Lembing Tin Mine was officially closed. Just imagine, a once well know with its wealth and phosphorus little town suddenly lost from the face of the map. Nothing last forever. I believe that not many knows about this place and how important it was once before even we learned Ilmu Alam or Geography... but seeing is believing.

           The unsung heroes are still out there cracking jokes and surviving.   Their hair discoloured, wrinkles on their faces and some of them already lost most of their teeth. But they are a happy lot and non- pretentious at all. You can see it from their faces and through their smiles. They did many things to keep themselves occupied and killing time and to keep on living. Those who are good with agricultures did farming, run small kedai makan, some sell antiques items  and so on. 

         The beauty is, the elders shared their yesterday and they are very proud of it. They all have the same feelings and they will proudly tell us the stories of the past and that makes Sg Lembing a must place to visit. The people and the history!!

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