Gedong villagers endure tought times, hardship
Gedong villagers endure tought times, hardship
Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung
Two years ago Bangka and Belitung (commonly known by the
abbreviation Babel) islands were inaugurated as a new province,
with Pangkalpinang on Bangka island, where tin is abundant, as
the provincial capital.
If you happen to be on Bangka island, you will hear a unique
story about a village where only residents of Chinese origin
dwell.
This place is called Gedong village in Belinyu district,
Bangka regency -- about two hours drive from the capital. It is
located on the coastal area of Penyusuk on the northern tip of
the island. The local administration, feeling optimistic,
declared it a tourist village in 2000.
Residents of Chinese origin make up about 30 percent of the
new province's population of 900,000 people. Chinese migrants
first settled on Bangka island about three centuries ago.
The main reason Gedong was made a tourist attraction is that
its residents are said to be unable to speak Bahasa Indonesia.
But while this may have been true in the past, today the younger
village residents do speak the national language.
To enter the village is to step into a stereotypical example
of poor rural life.
About 66 families live in the village, far from the noise of
the city. The fact that the village is entirely occupied by
Chinese-Indonesians may be the only attraction for tourists.
There is still much room for improvement regarding the road
that leads into Gedong. The road, about two kilometers long, is
unpaved.
When we entered Gedong in the afternoon, sitting under a leafy
tree was Santi Kek, a young resident of the village. When greeted
in Indonesian, she returned our greeting in fluent Indonesian.
Friendly and hospitable, Santi provided us with information
about her fellow residents. Old houses, measuring at least eight
by seven meters, form a line for a distance of 100 meters on both
sides of the road that ends at the beach. These houses have walls
made of wood and roofs of clay tile.
Like the rest of the villagers, Santi was hospitable and open
to outsiders. She was a good company for The Jakarta Post and
Kompas that afternoon.
Besides her, local housewives also chimed in during our
conversation. They served us water and fruit from a nearby tree.
The whole village was quiet in the afternoon. A group of
school children was returning home. The men were out farming,
fishing or mining tin, and would not return until sunset.
"Men are out working during the day. Some of them are
fishermen, others grow pepper or work in the tin mines," said
Santi.
Regarding the Indonesian language, she said that some old
people did find it difficult to understand the language.
"Older people do not speak Indonesian but a few of them do
understand the Bangka dialect of Malay. Everyday we speak
Chinese. But the young, like me, speak Indonesian," she said.
Santi's father, Khek Kui Fong, 67, is a fisherman. Because he
does not speak Indonesia, Santi served as our interpreter when we
spoke to him about how the Chinese migrants settled on Bangka
island.
Kui Fong said the residents of Gedong village had the same
family name: Khek. They are Hakka.
"Generally, the Chinese here have Khek as a family name. There
are some Chinese with different family names; they are married to
members of our big Khek clan. We belong to the same Khek family
from mainland China," said Kui Fong.
The history of the Chinese on the island, which is famous for
its rich tin deposits, dates back hundreds of years.
The Dutch came to the island to mine the tin and sell it in
Europe. Kui Fong said the Dutch, about three centuries ago,
brought Chinese migrants from China to Bangka to work in the tin
mines.
However, few of the Chinese-Indonesians of Bangka today know
anything about their ancestral villages in China.
"I do not know where my ancestral village in China is as my
parents never told me about it," 45-year-old Heri, or Asiong,
head of Gedong village, told the Post.
The residents of Gedong believe that they are the 15th
generation of villagers. Khek Kui Fong said the village was given
the name Gedong, which means mansion, because their houses and
yards are very large.
"In the old days, the indigenous islanders referred to the
houses of the Chinese as gedong. That's why the village became
known as Gedong village. Today, we live a much poorer life than
previous generations. We earn just enough to make ends meet,"
said Kui Fong.
The economic situation of the ethnic Chinese here suffered a
downturn following Indonesia's independence. Tin mining came
under the control of PT Timah, a state-owned enterprise, and
output began to decline after centuries of tin mining by the
Dutch.
The Dutch colonial rulers intentionally prevented Chinese
migrants on Bangka island from mingling with the indigenous
locals, going so far as to provide special school for these
migrants. The teachers were brought to the island from mainland
China.
Understandably, these migrants spoke only Hakka in their
everyday lives and hardly ever spoke Indonesian.
It was not until 1970s, several years after an aborted coup
allegedly staged by the now banned Indonesian Communist Party on
Sept. 30, 1965, that the Chinese schools on the island were
closed.
In place of these schools, the government set up an elementary
school close to Gedong.
"We used to go to Chinese schools. The Dutch brought the
teachers here from China. We cannot speak Indonesian because we
only spoke our Hakka language," Kui Fong said.
Today, many of the younger Chinese-Indonesians from the
village complete their secondary schooling and then move to
Jakarta or Palembang to find work.
All of the Gedong villagers are Confucianists so the village
will turn festive and merry during the two week-long Chinese New
Year celebration, which this year will commence on Jan. 22.
Family members and relatives from far and wide will gather in the
village to ring in the new year.