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In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, FMT Lifestyle visited this small town in Selangor’s Sabak Bernam district to speak with the locals.
The town, now over 100 years old, has inspired Eric Lee to document its history in a book. Starting in 2020, he spent three years interviewing its elderly residents, and visiting national archives to bring its story to life.
As a Sekinchan native and member of Persatuan Kemajuan Pelancongan Sekinchan, Lee felt an urgent need to learn more about the town he calls home.
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“In 2020, when I started the interviews, the older residents were already in their 80s, and today many have passed away. So I felt we had to do this now,” he said.
Sekinchan was founded in the 1800s as a fishing village, originally known by the Teochew people as Ang Mo Gang. Over time, focus shifted to the paddy fields, giving the town its name – Sekinchan, which means “suitable for planting”.
“In 1938, the British colonialists allocated 5,100 acres specially for the Chinese immigrants,” Lee said, explaining that this was because tin mining was on its way out.
“The Chinese people didn’t know where to go and what to do. If the British colonialists sent them back to China, they would have had to spend a lot of money.”
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Recognising the importance of paddy, the British colonialists appointed four local Chinese leaders to recruit workers through their networks in Malaya.
This effort attracted many Chinese labourers from Batu Arang, who settled in Sekinchan to develop the paddy fields.
On March 15, 1951, the Malayan Federal Government officially gazetted the declaration of the Sekinchan Town Board Area.
But tough times were on the horizon: following the declaration of the Malayan Emergency in 1948, locals were forced to abandon their homes in the paddy fields and relocate to three concentration camps.
These areas later became known as the new villages: Site A, Site B, and Site C.
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The stories of the communist era are familiar to many, but Sekinchan carries an untold side as well.
Yap Kim Dai, now 90, joined the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) when he was just 12 years old. As the leader of the MCP’s junior squad, he settled in Sekinchan with his family in 1953, risking his life to support the communists in secret.
“His duties were to act as a spy or middleman between the MCP and the residents of Sekinchan. He would supply food and necessities to the communists,” Lee revealed.
Today, Yap, who resides in an old folks’ home in the town, cannot recall much of what happened back then, but Lee still remembers the harrowing stories Yap once shared.
“There was once a lady from the MCP who gave birth in the jungle and couldn’t care for her baby girl. She called Mr Yap at midnight, dug a hole near the fence, and left the baby in the hole for him to collect. Mr Yap took her in and raised her as his own.”
Today, Lee said, that baby girl is a grown woman living in Tanjung Karang.
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Following the peaceful surrender of the MCP in 1958, Sekinchan began to thrive. Today, the community remains tight-knit, holding on to the values and traditions of its early days.
Dating back to the 1920s, the Datuk Kong temple located by Pantai Redang has witnessed the growth of Sekinchan over the decades.
Originally located right by the sea, the temple was a sacred place for fishermen who prayed for safety before setting out in their boats.
Next to the temple stands a striking red wishing tree, a local landmark for the past decade. Visitors write their wishes on red ribbons tied to coins, and throw them up into the tree’s branches.
According to tradition, the higher the ribbon lands, the more likely the wish will come true.
Indeed, every Chinese New Year, Sekinchan comes alive in true kampung spirit to celebrate the festive season. And with tourism booming, the future looks bright for this vibrant and historical town. - FMT
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