CNY & Rural to Urban Migration

Driving alone from my parent's house to the neighboring town, Beruas, it did not look anything extraordinary. The short distance of 11km was lined with rubber trees, oil palm trees and secondary vegetation. Occasionally, there were a few Malay kampung houses along the road. To the runners, this part of the country is superb for running: air is fresh; full of trees and not much traffic. However, I have never tried running there.

Beruas is about 60km from Ipoh. I slowed down when reaching Beruas’s one-street main road. It was quiet. It was lifeless. It could be much quiet than normal day as shops were closed. The most bizarre sight was that I could not see even two Chinese teenagers on the street! How could it be? After all, it is 11am on the Chinese New Year’s (CNY) day, Sunday 29 January. That supposed to be the prime time of CNY.

One kilometer away from the town is the Chinese New Village. The scenario was quite similar except that when I passed by the houses, I could see smoke from the huge joss sticks still burning that were placed in front of the houses.

Every year when I go back to celebrate CNY, I would expect this to happen. The rural to urban migration is taking its toll on the Beruas town and on the CNY celebration. When a teenager finishes Form 5 education, he/she has to leave the town because there are not much education and job opportunities other than tapping rubber trees. With the country’s changing focus from rubber to palm oil producer, there aren’t many rubber trees to tap either.

I spent my primary education in Beruas. Years ago, the town was bustling with activities and teenagers were talking, walking or cycling along the streets freely. There were many teenagers “lepak” (loitering) at the drinks stall with hit songs blaring from jukeboxes in shops next to the main road.

Currently, this town is under the Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yik’s parliamentary constituency. There were noticeable changes in term of amenities and structures of township amid the migration of teenagers.

On Saturday 28 January morning, with the onset of traffic jam for the north-bound traffic at PLUS highway, there was massive exodus of people “balik kampung”. But when I looked at other cars when caught in the slow moving traffic, our Malay and Indian friends were also rushing for the holidays too. There could be not many Chinese going back hometowns for the CNY celebration.

This year, I could not hear any firecrackers sound at all. The enforcement ban on lighting of fireworks and firecrackers were strict. The enforcement officers, donning navy blue uniform, actually come in motorcycles after hearing the sound of firecrackers.

I finally reached Ling Chen Hock’s house. He is my primary classmate and now a plantation owner in Beruas. With the migration, the number of friends is dwindling. From there, we would visit other primary classmates who are still in Beruas or their parents’ are still in Beruas: Ah Choon who is a captain with an international cargo shipping company; Ho Thiam Choy who is a pilot with SIA airline specializing in Boeing 747 for international flights; Ling Jeng Ying, a piano teacher in Sitiawan. Her late father was the Chinese primary school Headmaster in Beruas.

In the evening, we would then drive our cars to another town, Pantai Remis, which is about 30km away for a gathering of other primary school friends: Tiong Kee Huat (works in Brunei as a Financial Controller of a Finance company), Soon TK (the goldsmith of Pantai Remis), ChinTK (works in Kuala Lumpur), Wong HF, OngBL and Lee Yean. Since it is a coastal town, the restaurants there serve freshly catch from the fishermen just back from sea.

Cheers to the friendships. Cheers to more CNY celebrations together.

By KC