‘I lived on Pulau Samulun, now Jurong Shipyard': Musician remembers life before reclamation
SINGAPORE - Jurong Island, home to energy and chemicals firms with their glittering network of complexes, is not always remembered as such.
For musician Mohd Nazir Dolah, it is a lost cluster of islands where the 74-year-old was raised in harmony with a sea teeming with life.
Much of his childhood was spent diving in the azure waters off Pulau Samulun and Pulau Merimau, where he lived, with goggles fashioned from wood and rubber bands by his father, and sailing around on a small boat known as the kolek.
Pulau Samulun was turned into Jurong Shipyard, while Pulau Merimau is one of 14 islands reclaimed by the government for its vision of a regional chemical hub.
With the sea in his backyard, Mr Nazir said in Malay: 'Since I was six, I was eager to swim in the sea whenever I had the chance.'
As Singapore's offshore islands were developed by the Government, Mr Nazir was among scores of villagers who were re-located to the mainland.
On June 14, they gathered at a festival, named Hari Orang Pulau (Islander Day), at West Coast Park to celebrate their heritage and history through workshops, performances and talks.
At the day-long event by ground-up initiative Orang Laut SG, researchers urged attendees who once lived on the islands to record their stories, noting the dwindling community harbouring these memories.
The sea was more than a playground for the islanders, recounted Mr Nazir . It was a cornucopia of fish, crabs and shrimp that his family depended on for a living.
'I loved to eat raw prawns when they fall off the net. My father didn't get mad at me,' he said with a smile. 'They were very sweet, very tasty.'
The clear waters off the reclaimed island of Pulau Samulun were particularly plentiful with catch, he added. 'My mother would say, 'We're not rich, but we're happy'.'
By the time he turned 13, the village chief told the villagers that the Government wanted to take the island, offering each family a house and a few thousand dollars in compensation, he said. There was even an offer from Malaysia to move to Pahang, where they would get a plot of land to grown palms.
Some islanders contacted a lawyer as they felt the money was insufficient, while others simply did not want to move.
But his family followed the village chief's instructions, and moved to Pulau Merlimau, where his father worked for JTC as a surveyor.
It was there that Mr Nazir started to pursue his dream of appearing on radio and television with his family band that specialised in ghazal, a genre of traditional Malay music.
The band was so popular that they would travel by boat to Pulau Bukom, Pulau Sudong and other islands in the south to perform for weddings and competitions.
But life on Pulau Merlimau came to a swift end. At the age of 20, Mr Nazir and his family moved to the mainland when Pulau Merlimau was reclaimed for the creation of Jurong Island.
When asked how he felt now that the islands of his youth were gone, he said: 'It's just memories now.'
After moving to the mainland Singapore, Mr Nazir would tell others that he is from Jurong Shipyard, because hailing from the islands was seen as a source of shame.
The leader of the family band Orkes Melayu Mutiara said: 'It was sad that people looked down on us for being island people, but we couldn't run away from that reality.'
His mindset changed only recently, through a movement by descendants of islanders, like Orang Laut SG founder Firdaus Sani, and his daughter Irma Yanti, who view their roots as a badge of pride.
Said Ms Irma, 43, a vocalist for the band: 'For me, even though I have never been (on the island) before, I feel that we have this sense of history because of my father.'
On June 14, Mr Nasir, his daughter and the rest of the band would help revive another tradition from the islands here by leading the Joget Dangkung. The communal dance was once a staple at weddings in Singapore's Southern Islands and continues to be practiced in Indonesia's Riau archipelago.
These days, when asked where he is from, Mr Nazir has a different answer: 'I lived on Pulau Samulun, now Jurong Shipyard.'
He told ST: 'Now I am proud.
'Now we have a day for island people, so everyone knows where we come from.'
Additional reporting by Hadyu Rahim and Amirul Karim
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