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The
railway bridge across Semantan River atop the original wooden bridge
that was destroyed during World War II. Couples often take wedding
photos here. Photos: Tan Ee Wah
Star2 Monthly Challenge: Mentakab’s interesting history
Mentakab looks innocuous
as one of the many townships in Malaysia but looks can be deceiving as
still waters run deep. This town stakes substantial claims to fame,
which I will attempt to flesh out here.
When the British wanted to
move the Pahang capital from Kuala Lipis, Mentakab – being centrally
located – was a contender, but lost to Kuantan.
Mentakab has come a
long way since. It merged with the nearby town of Temerloh and
therefore laid claim to Temerloh’s famous Patin catfish (from the Pahang
River) and the Sunday Pekansari market as part of its own. As well as
Temerloh’s celebrity singers Sudirman and Siti Nurhaliza besides
anti-British colonial figures Datuk Bahaman and Pak Sako.
Mentakab
is linked to an outstanding British officer named Frederick Spencer
Chapman whose book The Jungle Is Neutral (The French Foreign Legion
reputedly used it as a reference for jungle warfare in Indochina) became
an invaluable record of the lives and times of the Communist Party of
Malaya in the jungles, then under the guise of the Malayan People’s
Anti-Japanese Army.
Mentakab’s last kopitiam in a Nanyang shophouse, Tai Heng Ah (in the middle) closed shop several months ago.
Colonel
Chapman was the leader of a tiny but daring stay-behind party that
carried out attacks against the Japanese. He met Chin Peng and escaped
to India via a rendezvous with a submarine at Pangkor Laut Island.
Field
Marshall Wavell wrote in the foreword of the book that Chapman’s
exploits reminds one of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia during World
War I. For a period of time, Chapman stayed not far from Mentakab town
where he recalled his frustration at failing to shoot a gaur in the
Kemasul forest reserve.
Unlike most Westerners, Chapman loved the
king of fruits, and proclaimed a durian feast as “the greatest of
delights”. During World War II, the Japanese attacked and committed
atrocities in Mentakab. After the war, a monument was erected in the
football field (Victory Park) in memory of the inhabitants who had
undergone the terrible experiences.
Traces of this slice of
history still exist. During the dry season, exposed stumps of wood can
be seen under the railway bridge over Semantan River. These are remnants
of the original bridge that was destroyed by the British to deny
passage to the Japanese.
The Communists were active in Mentakab
until the late 1970s. An attempt to blow up the railway bridge was
foiled, and the Communists staged their last act of defiance by raising a
red flag atop the seven-storey Swee Lee Building which used to be the
tallest building in the area. Swee Lee also used to be the agency of
Cycle and Carriage (Mercedes-Benz) and was said to hold the record for
selling the most Mercedes cars in Malaysia during the timber boom of the
1970s and 1980s.
During
the 1967 flood. The writer, with his elder brother and sister, looking
out of the shop window (second shop from right). (Inset) A scene from
the great flood of 1971.
An unforgettable event in Mentakab
is the great flood of January 1971. This was one of the five floods that
I experienced in Mentakab; the others took place in 1967, a second
flood later in 1971, in 2007 and this year.
Mentakab earned more
fame in the 1980s when a popular Nescafé commercial was shot, with the
rustic Mentakab train station used as the romantic setting. The ad
featured a female traveller being offered a cup of Nescafé by the
station master, while she was waiting for her boyfriend.
Another
memorable event was when parts of Mentakab were used as a setting for
the acclaimed 1993 Malay film Perempuan, Isteri Dan Jalang starring
Sofia Jane. It was directed by award-winning Malaysian filmmaker U-wei
Haji Shaari who was born in Tanjung Kerayong, Mentakab. He watched many
films at the Rex Cinema located just next to his kampung that eventually
inspired him to learn the trade of filmmaking in New York City. Part of
that film was shot in Mentakab and inside the New Capital cinema.
The historic World War II monument at the padang previously known as Victory Park.
Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan made a buzz in 1997 when he stayed in the town while filming a small part of his movie Who Am I? iSingapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, too, stayed overnight during a visit to Pahang.
Mentakab’s
well-known Tai Heng Ah kopitiam is located in the oldest section of
town – along Jalan Tun Razak. The business operated in a Chinese
shophouse with a pillared five-foot way. Unfortunately, it closed shop
several months ago, marking the end of an era.
Some of the Chinese
shophouses there still prominently display, near their rooftops, the
year in which they were built; the oldest reads 1921.
There used
to be a row of hawker stalls along Jalan Mok Hee Kiang in the town
centre but they were not allowed to operate since 1992. That glutton
street was the pride of locals, many of whom are still nostalgic about
it. A stretch of Mok Hee Kiang turns into a pasar malam during late
afternoon but without the fabulous food of the original hawkers, this
famous street has lost its essence.
The biggest thing to happen in
Mentakab in recent years was the opening of The Star Mall in 2011. It
is a mall with a cineplex and is set amidst housing estates.
Mentakab beckons, like a movie coming to a cinema near you.- Star2.Com, 20/6/2015
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