The Heritage Town in Johor Bahru

Johor Bahru is today a large city with huge plans underway to make it a global city. A new Johor Bahru City is arising around the the main thoroughfare Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

In fact a whole transformation plan has been proposed.

The aim is clear, shake off the sloth and step forward as a shining jewel comparable to Singapore in the south. JB’s developmental model is not the same as Singapores. Precisely because of the different time and way in which JB and Singapore were transformed makes the considerations different. JB has had the opportunity to observe the pitfalls of modernisation and transformation.

Instead of scraping their heritage and destroying the environment, it seems like the development plans for JB include playing up the heritage and building an eco-friendly city. They plan to drastically altar the feel of thr main city belt.

Construction along Jalan Wong Ah Fook

Jalan Wong Ah Fook will lose the Jalan (Road) and probably become a Sungei (River). While we destroyed buildings and kept the roads, the JB council has decided to destroy roads and keep the buildings.

Jalan Wong Ah Fook in the future (source)

If it comes true, and I hope it does, it would be a beautiful city to walk around. Johor Bahru grew out from its economic links with Singapore, hence the original city was built around what is now the causeway region. This makes the city the oldest part of JB and consequently, a showcase of the heritage of JB.

The heritage part of town, just like in Singapore, is easily walk-able and a lot more authentic. The sounds and smells are of people living and working as they have done for many years, not a mock up that sometimes appears in Singapore.

Perhaps the best place to start our story is from Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Wong came under the mentorship of Hoo Ah Kay and became known to the then-Maharajah Abu Bakar. When Abu Bakar became sultan and invited Chinese businessmen over, Wong was one of the key players to decide to plump for JB. He began as a contractor for the royal family, building the Istana Besar in 1965.

Wong later entered the gambier and pepper market at the behest of the Johor government to break the monopoly of the Gambier and Pepper Society of Singapore. For all his services to the government Jalan Wong Ah Fook was named for him, and three small branching streets were named after his sons Siu Nam, Siu Koon and Siu Chin. Johor Chinese mostly settled on these streets as well as on Jalan Segget on the other side of the the main road.

While Wong spent most of his time promoting the interewt of Johor, Wong was also a philanthrophist. He co-founded the Kwong Wai Siu Hospital in Singapore, a private hospital dedicated to serving the low income.

Jalan Wong Ah Fook branches out into more than just three streets and the attractions to this place include Jalan Meldrum and the backstreet dining in the evening.

While Wong was a cantonese, the vast majority of Chinese in JB were originally teochew. And dialect rivalries then are not the harmless jibes we known today. In fact a small issue of rice triggered a riot between Hokkiens and Teochews in Singapore in 1854. 500 people were killed and 300 homes destroyed.

Now the teochews came to JB from Singapore, first as political dissidents. 4000 of them arrived in 1840 under the leadership of Tan Kee Soon in protest of a land registration law administered by the British in Singapore. They formed the Ngee Heng Kongsi in Johor (Ngee Heng or Gee Hin was the same group responsible for the riots of 1854, as well as the anti-Catholic riots in Singapore in 1850). Ngee Heng was a respected group and non a clandestine triad (sounds like an oxymoron). In fact Sultan Abu Bakar put Ngee Heng in charge of the Chinese in JB. To prevent inter triad wars, Abu Bakar made it clear that only one Kongsi would be allowed in – Ngee Heng. Everyone else was illegal and would be fighting not just Ngee Heng but the Sultan (a brilliant move I must say!).

Ngee Heng evolved into the political player because of another man, Tan Hiok Nee.

Tan Hiok Nee (source)

Tan Hiok Nee took over the leadership of Ngee Heng after Tan Kee Soon. To quote wikipedia, “from a quasi-military revolutionary brotherhood based in the rural settlement of Kangkar Tebrau, it became an organisation of kapitans and kangchus and revenue farmers based in the state capital of Johor Bahru. The expansion of pepper and gambier planting continued steadily as the cultivators pushed deeper and deeper into the jungle and plantations were established on more and more rivers. Since the Sultan required all Chinese to be members of the Ngee Heng, its influence spread all through the state wherever such settlements were formed, which at the same time, became a means by which the Sultan’s authority was carried to remote areas in Johor. In this way, the Sultan brought all Chinese under one system of political and economic control and extended his authority over his state.”

Tan Hiok Nee became a rich man and the de facto leader of Chinese Johor. Even then, he continued to live in Singapore for a long time. Tan even built two mansions in Singapore, the remaining one is today a conservation house at Tank Road.

The Former House of Tan Yeok Nee @ Tan Hiok Nee along Tank Road in Singapore

A road was named after him, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee.

Jalan Tan Hiok Nee in JB is today known as Arts, Culture and Heritage Street of JB

A stones throw a way from the Chinese centric street, linked by Jalan Pahang,

is Jalan Dhoby. The Dhoby was a name given to Indians/ Indian Muslims who worked as washermen (same etymology as Dhoby Ghaut in Singapore)

At the centre of Jalan Dhoby sits the Salahuddin Bakery a traditional Indian Muslim bakery serving up charcoal oven fired breads.

Living side by side with the Chinese and Indian Muslims were the Indian Hindus and they lived along Jalan Trus.

  Most of them worshipped Mariamman at the Arulmigu Rajamariamman Devasthanam.

The Hindu temple is located next to a Sikh Gurwara. And seeing the history of the two religions, its a surprise they coexist in peace.

The sultan lived to the West of the heritage town with the Johor Zoo, Istana Besar, Administrative centre all located a short walk away from each other.

The Malays lived mostly outside this area and in villages around Johor, evidenced by the few mosques found within the heritage town (which after looking at the history of Johor Bahru is not surprising).

The compact town harkens back to a time when the races lived together without the major racial/religious problems seen today in Malaysia.

Hopefully Johor bucks the trend of increasing racial-religious polarisation and completes her planned upgrade.

Because she has a beautiful heritage, as Malaysia does, something that she should be proud of and a multicultural history that should not be seen only in tourism brochures.

How to get there