Jurong Island, home to energy and chemical 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 Merlimau, 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 Merlimau 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 that “since I was six, I had been 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 relocated to the mainland.
On June 14, they gathered for a festival, named Hari Orang Pulau (Islanders’ 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 that the dwindling numbers in the community treasure 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 fell 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 are not rich, but we are happy.'”
By the time he turned 13, the village chief had 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 grow oil 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 Corporation 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 at weddings and competitions.
But life on Pulau Merlimau soon came to an 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 is just memories now.”
After moving to the mainland, Mr Nazir would tell others he was from Jurong Shipyard, because hailing from the islands was seen as a source of embarrassment.
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 his daughter Irma Yanti and Orang Laut SG founder Firdaus Sani, who view their roots as a badge of pride.
Said Ms Irma, 43, a vocalist for the band: “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 Nazir, his daughter and the rest of the band helped revive another tradition from the islands here by leading an upbeat two hour-long set accompanying the Joget Dangkong. The communal dance was once a staple at weddings in Singapore’s Southern Islands and continues to be practised 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 The Straits Times: “Now, I am proud… we have a day for island people so everyone knows where we come from.”
- Additional reporting by Hadyu Rahim and Amirul Karim
Ang Qing for The Straits Times
