Gelang Patah

UTAR NEW VILLAGE COMMUNITY PROJECT

REPORT

NAME OF VILLAGE:

GELANG PATAH 振林山

JOHOR

Project carried out by:

Student Name Student ID. Course Year /

Trimester

1. Chang Ru Er 1101185 Bachelor of

Commerce Accounting Y3/T3

2. Teh Zhi Ying 1000663 Bachelor of

Commerce Accounting Y3/T3

DATE OF COMPLETION:

NOVEMBER 2013

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ABSTRACT

Gelang Patah was established in the year 1914. It is located roughly 25 km from

Johor’s capital city, Johor Bahru. Gelang Patah is 6 kilometres away from the exit

to the second causeway link to Singapore. It has 3 primary schools and a

secondary school. Currently, the government is constructing a university in the

area. Agriculture is the main economic activity in this area. Traditionally, the

rubber estates and pineapple orchards provide many villagers with their main

source of income. However, the Iskandar project has brought new developments

to Gelang Patah in recent years.

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HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE

Gelang Patah is located in the southwest of Johor state, roughly 25 km

from Johor Bahru. It is 6 kilometres away from the exit to the second causeway

link to Singapore. The village was established in 1914 by two brothers, Zheng

Jing Lun and Zheng Jing Zhao. Most of the people in Gelang Patah speak in

Hokkien and Chinese.

Unfortunately, Gelang Patah is known for the plane crash in this area. It

occurred on 4th

December 1977 in Tanjung Kupang which is south of Gelang

Patah. A Malaysian Airlines aircraft, flight number MH653 bound for Subang

Airport, crashed in the area. The crash killed everybody onboard instantly. Among

the victims were Malaysian Agricultural Minister, Dato’ Ali Haji Ahmad; Public

Works Department Head, Dato’ Mahfuz Khalid; and Cuban Ambassador to Japan,

Mario Garcia. The aircraft was hijacked by an unidentified hijacker, causing it to

crash.

A memorial site called the Tanjung Kupang Memorial serves as both a

memorial site and also a grave for those who were killed in this tragic flight.

A Malay novel, titled “Tragedi Empat Disember”, was written about this

tragedy and it became one of the books students in the states of Malacca, Johor

and Kelantan had to study as a fulfilment for their Malay Literature course in

school.

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Figure 1

Figure 2 The maps of Gelang Patah (Figure 1, 2)

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Figure 3

Figure 4

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Figure 5

Figure 6

Newspaper cutting from the tragedy (figure 3- 6)

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Figure 7

Figure 8

Memorial of the Tg. Kupang Tragedy

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Figure 9

Tanjung Kupang Memorial (Image credit: azuanzahdi.com) (Figure 7- 9)

Figure 10

The novel Tragedi Empat Disember

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POPULATION, HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION

The population of Gelang Patah has decreased in the last 10 years because

many of its young generation have left the village to pursue their career goals in

bigger cities like Johor Bahru and Singapore.

The settlement pattern in Gelang Patah is clustered and the area is

accessible by road.

Gelang Patah began to have piped water in the 1960s. Clean, piped water

is provided by the JKR. Gelang Patah also has electricity supply, courtesy of

Tenaga Nasional Berhad. The waste disposal of the village is handled by the local

municipal government. As for sewage disposal, the flush system is used. The

telecommunication for the area is mainly provided by Telekom and also other

mobile service providers like Hotlink and Digi.

There are clinics in the area, a police station and a fire station. Gelang

Patah has a few temples, burial ground, mosque and surau. There are shop houses

in Gelang Patah and also a wet market. Many people in Gelang Patah commute

either by foot, bicycle or public buses.

Gelang Patah is affected by the Iskandar development project because of

its close proximity to this development area. Thanks to the Iskandar project,

Gelang Patah has become more developed in the recent years in order to keep up

with the more modern looking new buildings and townships the Iskandar project

has to offer, for instance, Legoland.

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Figure 11

A road in Gelang Patah

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SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

The 3 main religions in Gelang Patah are Buddhism, Taoism and Islam.

There are those who practice Christianity and other religions as well. Because of

the ethnic composition of its population, the main languages spoken are Bahasa

Malaysia, Mandarin, and also Tamil. For the Chinese in Gelang Patah, the most

commonly spoken dialect is Hokkien because many early Chinese immigrants

came from Fujian province.

The Long An Temple has an ancient history of about 100 years. The local

Chinese, worship the deity Da Er Ye (大二爷伯), and they celebrate Da Er Ye’s

birthday with a festival at the local temple. There are two Chinese temples in the

area and also a mosque and a church.

The ruling party in the Gelang Patah is the opposition party, DAP.

However, up to the 13th

Malaysian general election, Gelang Patah was ruled by

the country’s ruling party, Barisan Nasional. In the recent general elections,

DAP’s veteran Lim Kit Siang contested for the parliamentary seat of Gelang Patah

and won by 14,762 votes.

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Figure 12

Long An Temple (龙安宫)

Figure 13

Gelang Patah Holy Word Church

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Figure 14

Lim Kit Siang. (Image credit: news.abnxcess.com), Member of Parliament for

Gelang Patah.

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EDUCATION

There are nurseries such as Gelang Patah Nursery, Smart Reader Kids, and

also NURI Kindergarten, which enhance the level of preschool education in

Gelang Patah. There are three primary schools in the village, Sekolah Kebangsaan

Gelang Patah, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Ming Terk and Sekolah Jenis

Kebangsaan Tamil Gelang Patah. SJKT Gelang Patah has about 25 students and

12 teachers.

Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Ming Terk was established on 5th

April

1932 with the enrolment of 30 students. The primary school started with 4 acres of

land. The land was donated by Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Lee Kong Chian, a prominent

Chinese businessman and philanthropist active in Malaya and Singapore from the

1930s to the 1960s. In the 1990’s, new classrooms were built to cater for the

school’s larger enrolment. And now it has about 950 students and 50 teachers.

Besides normal classroom, the school has 11 multi-media classrooms for students

in standards four to six.

EduCity is part of the Iskandar Malaysia project and it is located 1

kilometer east of the Gelang Patah Interchange on the main Second-Link

Expressway. Under the project, there are various universities planned for this area.

These universities include Newcastle University from the UK (established as a

medical University in EduCity), Raffles University Iskandar, Reading University,

and a Dutch Maritime University. This development will bring many new

opportunities to the residents of Gelang Patah.

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Figure 12

Sekolah Kebangsaan Cina Ming Terk

Figure 13

Canteen in SJKC Ming Terk

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Figure 14

The new block of the SJKC Ming Terk

Figure 15

Left: Our group member, the interviewer

Right: Mr. Sham Wai Yin, the school chairman of SJKC Ming Terk and also the

interviewee

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Figure 16

Sekolah Kebangsaan Gelang Patah

Figure 17

The Universities under constructions as part of the EduCity Project, Iskandar

Malaysia.

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ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

There are two main economic activities for the people in Gelang Patah:

agriculture and industry.

However, most of the agricultural land has been developed. The nearby

forest has also been cleared for development. In developing the Iskandar Malaysia

project, Gelang Patah is set to become a free trade zone link with Nusajaya, the

area where new education institutions will be established.

Figure 18

The map of project Iskandar Malaysia

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Figure 19

Figure 20

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Figure 21

Figure 22

Shoplots in Gelang Patah (Figure 22- 25)

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The Iskandar Malaysia project focuses on 5 main areas in Johor, one of

which is Gelang Patah. Gelang Patah’s development will focus on the port and

marine services, warehousing, logistics, engineering, hi-tech manufacturing, food

production, petrochemical industry and entreport trade. The Iskandar Malaysia

Project has brought many opportunities for international investors and this has

boosted the property value in Gelang Patah and those areas close to it such as

Nusajaya. The Iskandar Malaysia Project is scheduled for completion in 2025.

In terms of land bank availability, about 700 acres in the Free Trade Zone

in the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) are still available for development in various

sectors including warehousing and international procurement. The proposed

2,215 acres of the Maritime Centre at Tanjung Bin also offer investment

opportunities to players in oil and gas industry.

Figure 23

News cutting

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TOURISM VALUE

Gelang Patah is situated near the Iskandar Malaysia (formerly known as

Iskandar Development Region), the main southern development corridor in Johor.

This project was established in mid 2006 and administered by the Iskandar

Regional Development Authority. Legoland, an international theme park has

recently opened in the area thanks to the Iskandar development project. There are

only six Legolands in the world and the only one in Asia is located in Nusajaya,

which is only a ten-minute drive from Gelang Patah. The other five Legoland

parks are located in the West, one in Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark

while the other two are in America.

Another tourist attraction at Gelang Patah is the well-known local seafood

restaurants. The seafood is awesome in Gelang Patah and is highly recommended

by bloggers and tourists. The fresh and reasonably priced seafood attracts many

tourists, especially those from Singapore, many restaurants enjoy brisk business,

especially on weekends.

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Figure 24

Figure 25

Legoland Malaysia (Image credit: instagram.com/Audrey Lim) (figure 24 & 25)

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Figure 26

Figure 27

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Figure 28

Seafood Restaurants in Gelang Patah (Figure 26-28)

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PROBLEMS

There is no hospital in Gelang Patah. The village has a clinic but that’s

about it. If the people there need to be admitted to the hospital, they would have to

travel a distance to get to the hospital in the nearest city which is Johor Bahru.

Gelang Patah is about 30 minutes away from the capital city. That is quite an

inconvenience and in emergency cases, being able to get the patient to the hospital

in a short time would mean all the difference between life and death.

The crime rate in the village is relatively moderate. There are the usual

cases of break-ins and a few cases of snatch theft. In April 2012, six teenagers

were arrested by the police after they were found to be involved in motorcycle

thefts in Gelang Patah. Among the six was a school dropout. The police, however,

were able to apprehend the six thanks to information given by the public. They

were also believed to have stolen 42 motorcycles in Nusajaya and areas

surrounding it.

Any previous problems regarding public transport would soon be solved as

a bus terminal, GP Sentral is nearing completion in Gelang Patah. This terminal

will cater to the “Johor-Singapore market” as it will take passengers from Johor to

various drop-off points in Singapore. The completion of this bus terminal will

help people taking day-trips into Singapore for their work.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

New investments and businesses are needed to boost the local economy.

The village now consist of mostly the middle aged, the elderly and the young

children. Most of the graduates choose to work in bigger cities like Johor Bahru

because of the better working opportunities. They are likely to stay back, if there

are equally good offers in Gelang Patah.

We would also recommend that new shopping and entertainment facilities

be built here. Since a university is under construction and will be opening soon,

students will need a place to hang out during their free time and it will also give

the locals a place to go. A shopping complex, for example, could address this.

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DISCLAIMER:

Information contained in this report was compiled by the University’s students on voluntary basis.

Although every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the report, the University accepts no

responsibility whatsoever for any errors or omissions, if any, the University reserves the right to

make changes on the information at any time without prior notice.

Should there be any queries regarding contents of the report, please contact:

Department of Soft Skills Competency

Tel: 03-79582628 ext 8274, 8656, 8269 (Klang Valley Campus)

05- 4688888 ext 2295/2297/2299/2300 (Perak Campus)