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AUG 16, 2004

A touch of old Kampong Glamour

Life is returning to the textile haven and former seat of Malay royalty, now a conservation area

By Vivi Zainol

IT HAS been four years since Tengku Jamiah Tengku Puteh, a sixth generation descendant of Sultan Hussein Shah, the 19th century ruler of Johor and Singapore, left her ancestral home at Istana Kampong Glam.

But in a way, she has never really left the place, where the sultan and then his descendants lived for nearly 160 years.

For the last few years, the busy restaurateur, who owns a family catering business, has been 'keeping an eye' on the 10,000 sq m piece of land tucked at the quiet end of Sultan Gate in the Arab Street area.

She lives just across the road from the property, on the second storey of a rented shophouse in North Bridge Road, but in many ways, her former home is very much on the 51-year-old's mind.

Take the name of her restaurant and catering business: Nilam Cahaya, which means 'Sapphire
Light' in Malay.

'This restaurant is part of my dream to bring 'light' to the land nearby where I used to live, which is like a gemstone that has lost its shine,' said Tengku Jamiah in Malay.

Seated in her coffee shop, dressed casually in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, she recalls how full of life Kampong Glam used to be from the 1950s to the 1970s.

'The 1950s and 1960s were the 'golden' age of Kampong Glam. Arab Street was the place to shop and buy textiles. Vendors used to ply the streets selling textiles day and night.

'In the afternoons, food vendors would come out with their pushcarts and start selling food on Kandahar Street, Pahang Street, Bussorah Street, Sultan Road and Palembang Road. They sold food like mee goreng, satay, rojak and popiah.

'I used to help my grandmother sell food like goreng pisang (fried banana fritters). Even in those days, we had to make a living, though we were descendants of the sultan,' she says.

Named after the gelam tree, which grew abundantly at the mouth of the Rochor River, the Kampong Glam area was the historic seat of Malay royalty.

The settlement was in existence even before Raffles arrived in 1819.

By the 1950s, the area, which includes Arab Street, Bussorah Street, Muscat Street, Pahang Street, Baghdad Street and Sultan Gate, had 620 shophouses which were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Even then, Singapore's multi-ethnic mix was evident - Chinese lived side by side with Indians, Arabs and Malays.

The area around the Moorish-influenced Sultan Mosque in Arab Street was the central gathering place of Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Indonesian immigrants, traders and pilgrims.

There were theatres screening Hindi and Malay movies, such as the Alhambra in Beach Road, and the Royal and Diamond cinemas, where Seiyu at Bugis Junction now stands.

There was also a market called Pasar Besi which sold all sorts of produce where Gateway East and West buildings are now.

But by the late 1970s, things began changing. First, Pasar Besi was demolished, then came land reclamation off Beach Road.

Haj pilgrims also began taking planes to Mecca, instead of ships, and they stopped gathering in the area.

By the 1980s, Kampong Glam, though a popular haunt because of its dizzying variety of imported cloth such as organza, lace and silk, had lost its 'shine' - very little transpired after dark.

Some blamed it on the substantial road infrastructure improvements taking place nearby. Victoria Street was widened, Ophir Road was extended and linked to Marina Centre.

Two Mass Rapid Transit stations, Bugis and Kallang, were constructed adjacent to the Kampong Glam conservation area.

This led to families moving out. They were followed by traders, who moved on to Geylang.
In 1989, Kampong Glam was gazetted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority as a conservation area. From 1993 to 1994, it started a conservation project in Arab Street, Baghdad Street and Bussorah Street and stipulated that the first storey of the pre-war shophouses be used for shops.

It also built the Bussorah Street mall by converting the road into a walkway. By 1993, most of Kampong Glam's residents had moved out.

Says a former Bussorah Street resident, Mr Abdul Rahim Ismail, 49: 'The shophouses were mostly owned by traders and the State. So when the area was declared a conservation area, many decided to take back the shophouses from residents to be sold or rented.'

'Of course there were some feelings of sadness and anger about leaving. My family had lived there for three generations by the time I was born. But we knew the house wasn't ours.'

Till today, many former residents of the Kampong Glam area are still in touch because they are related by marriage.

The last to leave, in 1999, were around 79 descendants of Sultan Hussein, living inside the Istana Kampong Glam bungalow, which was already in a rundown state, and a number of small zinc-roofed kampong houses adjacent to it.

The same year, the Government announced that it was setting up a Malay Heritage Centre at Istana Kampong Glam and its adjacent building, Gedung Kuning (Yellow Mansion).

Since 2000, daily visitors to the area have been mainly school children and tourists visiting the famous Sultan Mosque. At lunchtime, office workers crowd the area, and it is still known as a textile buyer's paradise.

But lately, there are signs that life is returning to the area after dark.

In the past year or so, cosy art galleries, Middle Eastern restaurants, spas and retro and antique furniture stores have been sprouting up along Haji Lane, Arab Street, Bussorah Street, Kandahar Street and Baghdad Street.

And on Saturday nights, the keen-eyed observer will notice a neatly parked row of Harley-Davidson motorcycles along Arab Street.

The modern machines have replaced the trishaws of old, and instead of pilgrims gathering, well-to-do bike owners sit in the coffee shops and chat till late into the night.

Step away from the hum of conversation in the coffee shops, and the strains of Middle Eastern dance music can be heard emanating from the second storey of one or two shophouses.

Walk into one of them, and you'll see young Malay-Muslim women indulging in the latest 'in' thing - belly-dancing.

With the $16.7 million restoration and con- servation work to build the Malay Heritage Centre in Sultan Gate coming to an end, more vitality is expected in the area soon.
The two-storey bungalow known as Istana Kampong Glam, which was rebuilt in 1842 by Sultan Hussein Shah's son, Sultan Ali, has been restored to its Palladian glory.

By the end of November, it will open as a museum which will encapsulate the whole theme of the Malay Heritage Centre - the history, traditions, culture and future challenges of the Malay community.

It will showcase artefacts from the Malay archipelago and dioramas similar to those in the Singapore History Museum, depicting places, events and snippets of life among the Malays through the ages.

The culture of the past will also make a comeback in September, when the centre's grounds will be opened. Among the activities planned: Daily cultural performances like Malay dance and gamelan.

Meanwhile, the newly built adjacent annexe buildings will conduct workshops in batik painting, pottery and other activities portraying Malay cultural life, such as traditional food festivals.

Ask Tengku Jamiah about the burst of activity in the area, and she cracks a smile.

'The place is slowly coming back to life,' she says.

Even if it means she will never return to Istana Kampong Glam?

'When I left the Istana, I couldn't even bring myself to pass by the place, let alone look at it.

'I used to cry thinking about it. But now, I don't cry any more. My dream has come true.

'My former home has become a place that'll preserve a place in history for the Malays - for my grandchildren, for the Malays, for everyone.'

In short, the answer is: Yes.

THEN & NOW

1897: The British courts rule that the 23ha Kampong Glam settlement would become Crown land.

1989: Kampong Glam is declared a conservation area.

1992: A Malay Heritage Centre Working Committee is formed to look into the possibility of redeveloping the Istana Kampong Glam palace and Gedung Kuning into the Malay Heritage Centre.

1997: Plan to preserve Istana Kampong Glam and the surrounding area is announced.

1999: The Malay Heritage Foundation is set up to spearhead the Malay Heritage Centre project.
The Government says it would pay 79 descendants of Sultan Hussein Shah a total allowance of $350,000 per annum over 30 years. This was 10 times the allowance it was paying then, which was about $29,200 a year.

The setting up of a Malay Heritage Centre at Istana Kampong Glam and Gedung Kuning is announced.

2000: The restoration and construction of Malay Heritage Centre begins.

2002: Descendants of Sultan Hussein Shah, 19th century ruler of Johor and Singapore, living in Malaysia, make another unsuccessful bid to regain their right over their ancestral home.
Singapore Tourism Board, working with the Malay Heritage Foundation, commissions an urban masterplan study of Kampong Glam.

2003: Restoration work on Gedung Kuning is done. Opens as Tepak Sireh restaurant.

2004: Work on Istana Kampong Glam is completed.

Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

posted by Marcus Ang @ 8:23 AM