Should Chinese new villages, which were essentially detention camps, be memorialised? Some who stayed there say no

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Datuk Yap Pian Hon was only seven years old when his family — part of 15,000 people — was relocated to Serdang New...

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Datuk Yap Pian Hon was only seven years old when his family — part of 15,000 people — was relocated to Serdang New Village.It was 1950 and the British had decided to move Chinese villagers living around Sungai Besi to a centralised location to keep an eye on them and to cut off supplies to the Communists.

It was later when Yap served as state assemblyman for the area that seven types of cottage industries were introduced; these included shoe-making and the production of snacks. “Everyone would put out their light from the kerosene lamps as any light visible after the hour would mean trouble. “I wanted to create change. I wanted to help the villagers live a better life and I knew that politics was one of the ways where I could mobilise change,” he said.

“Seri Kembangan grew the fastest among the 452 Chinese new villages in Malaysia. Which other new village do you know has schools and shopping centres? It has a wholesale market, hospital, a college, a fire station and even a branch of the National Registration Department.” he said. “Those were very sad and unpleasant days which the Chinese had to go through. Moreover, there’s barely any identity of a Chinese new village left in Serdang. There used to be an old cinema but it’s been demolished, even the market that was the lifeline of the locals has been rebuilt.

“The Malayan Chinese, in general, were believed by the British to support the Communists who were considered enemies of the state or enemies of the British.

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