This unassuming and laidback town in Kedah has plenty of rakyat tales to charm Alan Teh Leam Seng
“HIDUP saya susah! Kedai sudah dijual! Mana nak pergi?” (My life is difficult! The shop has been sold! Where am I to go?) The Indian news vendor laments in Malay to one of her customers. I’d arrived just minutes earlier at her shop while she was in the midst of complaining loudly.
It seems that her landlord is planning on moving to Kuala Lumpur to be with his children and has decided to sell the shop. Having been a tenant of the property for the last 30 years, she’s fuming over the fact that she’s not been given the right of refusal. After years of diligently paying rent on time, she’s only now learnt that the shop at No. 23, Jalan Raya has changed hands. Her fear of eviction by the new owner is palpable.
The loyal customers of Jayaguru Bookstore are visibly concerned. For many of them, this has been their regular haunt, not only for their daily newspapers but it has also become a convenient venue to meet up with friends and exchange the latest gossip concerning their community.
One of the men attempts to pacify her by pointing to the ceiling of the double storey pre-war shop house. “Tengok semua kayu sudah reput. Tempat ini dah tak kuat. Nasib baik tak beli.” (Look at all the rotting wood. This place is no longer as sturdy as before. You are lucky to not buy.)
At his words, the lady appears slightly appeased. She begins to smile when the others also chip in by telling her that she can easily rent one of the many vacant shoplots nearby should her eviction fear become a reality.
The news vendor’s tale is a classic example of how times have changed in small towns all over the country. Prior to the completion of the North South Expressway in the 1980s, Bedong was a bustling town, which linked Alor Star in the north and Sungai Petani in the south. Back then the roads were filled with vehicles and all the shophouses in this two-street town were completely rented out.
Crossing the streets in Bedong these days is a piece of cake as there’s hardly any traffic around. I immediately feel the small town syndrome the moment I park my car under a shady tree near the market.
DISCOVERING STORIES
“Encik mai dari mana ni? (Where are you from?” the two Malay men standing by their motocycle ask me the moment I alight. “Goodness me! They can really tell that I’m not local with just one glance! The community here must be very close knit,” I think to myself before striking a conversation with the two ayam kampung sellers.
The duo confide that they’ve been selling free range chicken in this same spot for the past 10 years. In contrast to most other businesses in Bedong, the demand for organic chickens have been escalating year after year thanks to decreasing supply and overwhelming demand.
During a brief lull, I learn that chickens were easily obtainable around the Bedong and Gurun areas as recent as five years ago but now, sellers have to travel as far away as Yan and Dulang Besar to get their supply. “These days we have to travel very far and yet, sometimes we return empty-handed,” one of them interjects before a Chinese lady with an Indonesian maid in tow materialises to snap up the last of their remaining birds. It seems she’s a regular customer.
Leaving the party behind, I head towards a row of newly-built single storey shops. Their minimalist design pales in contrast to the richly decorated century-old pre-war shophouses directly across the road. As I walk nearer, my olfactory senses divert my attention to a shop offering a variety of dried seafood. The unmistakable pungent-salty odour comes chiefly from the fermented fish the locals call pekasam.
After striking up a conversation with the friendly shop assistant, Haslina Bakri, it becomes clear to me that the shop here is actually an off-shoot from the main retail outlet at Tanjong Dawai, a small fishing hamlet some 25 kilometres to the east.
Conversing in colloquial Kedah Malay dialect, Haslina tells me that the decision to start this year-old enterprise in Bedong was made after hearing her customers lament at having to make the drive to the coast. “Most of our buyers are from cities like Penang, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. They prefer to exit the expressway at Gurun and stop by our shop in Bedong before heading home. Setting up shop here makes things easier for our customers and in return, we see an uptake in sales. It’s a win-win solution for all,” she adds, before moving on to attend to a customer.
While most of the products are made locally, the shop also sells salted ikan terubok, which is brought in from Sarawak. My heart skips a beat. “Is it possible that they sell the much sought after roe as well?” I wonder. Sadly, my hopes are dashed. Haslina explains that it’s not a viable business venture as demand for the expensive salted fish eggs is too miniscule. “We used to sell some earlier but most people couldn’t afford them. In the end, we were forced to throw away our stock after its short shelf life expired.”
TO THE MARKET
Moving on, I make a beeline for the bustling Bedong market next door. Judging from the number of makeshift stalls that’s spilled over onto the street outside, it’s obvious that this building, built in the 1950s, is in dire need of expansion. The interior is dark and dank. I quickly head for the exit, preferring to check on the activities outside.
Just as I’m contemplating on buying some fresh maize for the home, a spray of water hits me from out of the blue. I quickly turn around to look for the perpetrator, thinking it could be a fruit stall owner who’d unintentionally splashed me while spraying his fruits.
But I’m wrong. Looking at me somewhat sheepishly is a live fish seller who apologises profusely as he points to his basin full of freshwater eels and ikan haruan (snakehead). “Depa selalu lompat. Maaf ya.” (They’re always jumping. So sorry.)
Ikan haruan are highly prized for their high protein content. People with family members or friends recuperating from illnesses and surgery make a beeline for this stall to get their supply of the fish. The customer first selects the fish and then gets the seller to clean it for them.
To my horror, the seller grabs the fish and without any hesitation gives it a good thwack on the head with the back of his cleaver. A wooden stick, about an inch wide, is then forcefully shoved through the dazed fish’s mouth, decimating its internal organs in the process.
He then proceeds to hold the exposed end of the stick with his left hand and begins to scrape the scales off with a smaller knife. All the scales are completely removed after several quick tail-to-head strokes. The process ends with the removal of the bloodied wooden stick and gut. Feeling pity for the remaining fish in the large aluminum tray, I bid a hasty — and silent — goodbye and proceed to my final destination, the post office.
TRACING HISTORY
One of the easiest ways to trace the development of towns in our country is by studying their postal history. Bedong is no different. Around 1910, Semiling became the first town in this area to have a post office to service its booming tin trade. Back then, countless steamers called at the Semiling jetty located at the banks of Sungei Merbau. The jetty was after all the main entry point from Penang into the resource-rich Kuala Muda district.
Sadly, things didn’t last long. Within 10 short years, the rich tin vein that fuelled the boom dried up almost overnight. Coupled with the introduction of railway services in Sungei Petani, Semiling’s fortune began rolling downhill rapidly. The town’s post office was closed down by December 1919 and the postal services shifted to Bedong, which has a more central location to benefit from the rubber boom, which was beginning to take shape in the area.
An acute shortage of the Kedah 1c and 4c stamps suddenly occurred in the middle of 1919. Straits Settlements adhesives of these same values were quickly offered for sale in several post offices in the state, including those in Semiling as a temporary stop gap measure. This philatelic incident became a blessing in disguise for postal history collectors as this phenomenon happened during the last days of postal services in the town, allowing Semiling to go down in history as one of the places which experienced this event.
The Bedong Post Office, which officially opened in the 1960s, is considered a relatively new building. Taking a peek inside, I see only one clerk attending to his solitary customer, an elderly Malay man who looks like he’s just returned from attending to his paddy fields.
As I make my way to my car, I catch sight of the Indian news vendor walking along the street not far from me. She must be on her way home, I guess. Life is simple in this laidback town and I’m quite certain that things will still be the same when I return again one fine day.