OBITUARY - Wilson Wong Syak Kee

OBITUARY Mr. Wilson Wong Syak Kee aged 88 years was called home to be with the Lord at 3:45 am on 19 June 2008 (Thursday) leaving behind the following to mourn his loss: Wife : Liew Soon Tshing (Deceased) Sons: Wong F. Y. Wong Fook Foong Eric Wong Fook Lok Christopher Wong Fook Shen Henry Wong Fook Vui Daughters-In-Law: Shirley Claveria Alice ak Kiyun Joyce Huang Shi Chyn Catharine Lee Juk Chu Daughters : Stella Wong Siew Don Evelyn Wong Sons-In-Law: William Chung Yun Onn Yeo Seek Yong Grandchildren: Wong Chun Xing Wong Mei Yin Wong Yee Jin, Teresa Wong Shu Khiong, Jeffrey Wong Shu Liong, Dylan Wong Shu Khim, George Wong Shu Khing, Michael Wong Shu Kong, Matthew Garrick Yeo Wei Leng Jerolyn Yeo Vanessa Yeo Hui Eng The cortege will leave The Sarawak Thong Sim Siang T'ng, Gold Jade Road, Kuching on Sunday 22 June 2008 at 12:30 noon, and for funeral service at St. Thomas's Cathedral, Kuching at 1:00 p.m., and thereafter for burial at Nirvana Memorial Park, Siniawan, Kuching/Bau Road, Kuching. Tel: 013-8129106, 016-8005875 , 014-6815810, 012-8897875 Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in me will live, even though he dies," John 11:25

The Cotton tree on the hill

Cotton Tree
2 June 2008 Monday 4:18PM


Once upon a time behind this cotton tree was a steel tower.  Once in a blue moon warning sound rang out from a siren on the tower. It just a routine drill for the British administration practicing emergency.  A few times I saw pairs of armed solders took positions on several spots on the hill and watch out toward the town. This was also a routine drill.

Once upon a time the present bright concrete building behind this cotton tree was a wooden white structure where the Treasury Office was.  Facing the tree were the back doors while the front doors were on the other side. Wong Syak Kee, my father, his office was somewhere in the middle facing this tree.  His desk was just couple meters to the back door we could see him from afar when we send him drink during tea breaks. His tea break refreshment was hot Millo made by my mother using a glass bottle as container. Those day there was no such thing as PVC Plastic bottle.

Once upon a time my house, a colonial government staff quarter wooden, was just 100 meters walk toward this cotton tree. Whenever I look out toward the blue sky from the windows (with mosquito screen), this is the cotton tree I saw.

Gone was the tall steel tower.
Gone was the wooden Treasury Office of the British colonial.
Gone was also the wooden house I grew up.

Today, after 40 years, upon my return this cotton tree still standing tall before me. The tree saw me left as a young boy and sees me return as a soon senior citizen.

I do not have another 40 years. But this cotton tree has another 40 years……. follow by another 40 years…… and perhaps another……

So please you who dismantled the tower, you who rebuild the office building and you who destroyed my childhood home, please let this cotton tree continue to grow……for another 40 years……..follow by another 40 years…….and perhaps another forever.

Big Trees of home town

2 June 2008

I grew up in a small town with big trees.

I return to see with joy they still standing tall at the very same location as I left them 40 years ago in 1964.

40 years, it a long long time. Like friends waited for 40 years standing at the very same spot for my return.

Big trees of home town, how I wished some one could protect them for another 40 years.

Rajah Charles Brooke built Fort Alice in 1864 as a defensive structure controlling the Lupar River.

This is a fort built entirely of ‘belian’ (ironwood) timber with thick walls to withstand attacks.

All of the original structure remains mostly intact, but in extremely dilapidated and run down condition.

History can not be left to ruin. Fort Alice needs restoration.

Fort Alice

1st June 2008 Sunday

I once lived only 200 meters to Charles Brook's heritage. So closed to history yet realized this only recent years…….

Photo above : Fort Alice 1 June 2008 SUNDAY 5:09PM





The oldest heritage building in Sri Aman, the Fort Alice, was build in 1864 by Rajah Charles Brooke the second Rajah of Sarawak

The name derived from that of Charles Brooke's wife Margaret Alice Lili de Windt.

The structure was built on a strategic hilltop position and had a commanding view of the river with cannons bearing down to stop any threats coming from upriver.

With a fort served as a defensive structure controlling the Lupar River, Simanggang town  played a major role in suppressing piracy, slavery, and head-hunting, while encouraging trade and development and expanding the authority of the Rajah.

Fort Alice was the Simanggang administrative center housing various government departments and even served as a prison.

It was in this fort Rajah Charles used to preside as judge settling disputes among the local Ibans during his visits to Simanggang.

It was built entirely of belian (ironwood) timber. Much of the timber used was taken from an earlier fort, Fort James Brooke, earlier built further upriver in Nanga Skrang.

Today most of the original structure remains substantially intact, but it is in an extremely dilapidated and run down condition and in need of urgent restoration work.  Restoration did began in May 2013.

…… and this Fort Alice is only 5 minutes walk from once a wooden house I grew up in. That wooden government quarter, build much later then the Brooks period during the colonial time, however never preserved as a heritage but torn down to make way for concrete government office in the modern Malaysian era.

Summarized from "Bringing the shine back to Fort Alice – BorneoPost Online" December 2013 FORT Alice has been left to the mercy of the elements after outliving its usefulness as a military outpost, built by Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah, more than 100 years ago to defend Simanggang (now Sri Aman) against attacks by warring tribes. After being abandoned, its dignity as the Division’s bastion of defense during a turbulent period in Sarawak’s history descended to the crass level of “a local den for drug addicts.” And parents were quick to warn their children to stay away from the crumbling building for fear they may get injured by falling shards – or harmed by drug addicts hanging out there. The long-forgotten over a century-old Fort (kubu) has also been passing through different hands and transcending time. The Fort had been given several facelifts to suit the needs of different owners follow prevailing trends. Some added rooms and some added extensions, thus upping the ante for the restorers to bring the original shine back to the worn-down Fort. The Fort resembled a two-storey wooden bungalow although there are ample proofs to show it was a wooden structure built on stilts. During its heyday back in 1864, Fort Alice was the centre of Simanggang town, bringing life to the surrounding jungles and riverbanks. Identifying the different add-ons and dismantling the Fort is a delicate procedure so as not to damage the existing architecture. The original structure is hardier than the newer added on materials, making it easier to tell the old from the new. The dismantled parts were carefully inspected and labeled while some of the rotting timber replaced and the still hardy materials reused. The restoration project started in May, 2013. The whole Fort has been dismantled and replacement parts fitted together piece by piece – like building a house from Lego blocks. The renovated structure sits on a new reinforced concrete pad footing and some of the buried decaying lower parts of the columns which have spliced on the existing woodwork, have been replaced with new belian materials. “The columns have irregular connections because when the originals were coated with modern acrylic paint or bitumen, it was not permeable (the timber can’t breathe) and rotting started to occur from the inside, moving upwards. That’s why we are replacing the bottom parts of the columns........We cut away the rotted parts bit by bit until we reached the solid part of the old column. Then we made a new piece of timber with the same shape and slotted it in like a jigsaw piece,”   Mike Boon explained.  Architect Mike Boon 溫志堅 is the consultant for the Fort Alice restoration project.

10 km before reaching Sri Aman town from Kuching is a surfaced road leading to Batang Lupar River with its three tributaries of Batang Ai , Lemanak and Skrang .

Reconstruction of Fort Alice : http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community
Bringing Back the Shine to Fort Alice :  http://pamsc.org.my/wp-content/
Fort Alice Conservation : http://johntingarchitect.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html
FRIENDS OF FORT ALICE : http://friendoffortalice.blogspot.com/2013/08

“Where were you on the historical day of Malaysia 31st August 1963 ?”

Simanggang Theatre Inn photo taken on 1 June 2008 SUNDAY 8:27PM.  On the night of 31st August 1963 around the same time,  I was standing in front of this building. There was a procession in celebration of the independent of Malaysia from the British Colonial rule

No. 2, Bangunan Panggung Wayang,

Lrg 3 Off Jalan Club,

95000 Sri Aman,

Sarawak

“Where were you on the historical day of Malaysia 31st August 1963 ?”
I was in Simanggang schooling 10 years old.

(Or, some say, 11th September 1963 )

I did not know back then what was going on. The wooden shops in Simanggang were suddenly stuck with postal.  Small slim vertical postal in Chinese characters stuck on all main polls of the wooden shops.  At Primary 3 that time I could read 2 words “Tungu” and “Independent” but none I could fully understand.

That day every thing went on as usual except the night has a big event of procession in the town.

My whole family went to watch the procession.  We stood in front Simanggang Theater.  The not too long procession passed from the left (the shops area) and process toward the right (the hill where Simanggang Club was)

All I could remember now what I saw that night was the front leading the procession were 2 tall big human figures constructed with bamboo frame in paper covering and painted with colors.

Simanggang Theater was just 5 minutes from our house down the hill.

The concrete building of Simanggang Theater remain till today and converted to Theater Inn.


From British Colonie to Malaysia a new nation was born. And I became a Malaysian from a British citizen.

The First Chief Minister of Sarawak was Datuk Stephen Kalong Ningkan from 1963 - 1966

Kalong Ningkan was born in Betong which was then under Simanggang.

Simanggang

June 2008

I decided to come to visit my childhood town for a day or two alone leaving my family members in my parent house in Kenyalang.

After I left Simanggang in mid 1964 at the age of 11 I have not been back to this childhood town.  Except passing through twice before.

How is this little Simanggang town now aday?

The bus of Sarawak Transport Company depart Kuching bus terminal at 13:00PM. and arrive Simanggang late afternoon. Soon after I put up at the nearnest hotel  I start walking to the location of my old house.

My greatest hope is to see my old house again, and the guava tree I used to climbed up, and a hill slop on top of which a bushy tree with sour fruits.

My worry came true, the wooden house has long gone and on the location are 2 block of government buildings.

I asked the guide to let me into and see the compound because I grew up here once upon a time there was a wooden house here.

The guide let me in but he curiousely told me he never ever saw a wooden house here and that ever since he was a child he has been seen these 2 concrete buildings.

Simanggang Recreation Club
http://limasen-lbucks.blogspot.com/2010/05/simanggang-recreation-club.html


FORT ALICE,SIMANGGANG----140 YEARS AGO
http://limasen-lbucks.blogspot.com/search/label/FORT%20ALICE-Simanggang-140%20Years%20Ago

Green Road

Green Road



I was born in the year of the snake in 1953 in Jesselton, my father was 32+ years old. Joblessness forced him to leave his home town to Kuching where with the help of his sister (my aunty) and relatives found him a clerical job with the British Colonial Government.
The Batu Lintang government quarter we lived in was just a kilometer from this St. Paul School. Naturally, I was sent to this Roman Catholic missionary school to begin my education.
My family migrated from British North Borneo (Sabah) since 1953 and permanently settled down in Sarawak.
By the time I entered this St Paul Chinese Primary School, 2 brothers were born.
My father as a government clerk, financially was not well to do but was able to scrape along.
In those days, the Chinese community was composed of 3 major classes, the Business (the Hockien and Teochew), the Agriculture (Foochaw and Hakka) and the Government services (The Hakka).
Those in government services were minority and considered middle class. My father as a government clerk fall in this middle class. We are Hakka.

While those Chinese children in the agriculture families spared of the hard life of agriculture works, my childhood living in the government quarters was a simple one.
St. Paul's Primary School was situated at Green Road, very near to our home at  Batu Lintang Government Quarters. St. Paul has 2 schools, the Chinese School and the English School.
The normal traditional practice of the Hakka government employee has been to send their children to English Schools. A sign of loyalty to the British government and not to Chinese Schools which were Anti-Colonialism and pro communist.
My father somehow enrolled me at the Chinese school of St. Paul.  A mistake many of the relatives indirectly pointed out to my parent. A mistake which my parent often brought out during their argument.
A mistake became obvious to my parent in the later days when all the English educated relatives have a well to do professional and migrated to Western countries  living a comfortable life while I from the Chinese schools has no “futures”……………
But things make a drastic turn in this new century when Chinese language play a leading edge in a new world order………………..