When the Sun dim for Jonker Walk
Life on
earth and the joy you have. Do you know that we would not be here if Earth was
not formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Tracking further backward in time, do
you know that the Sun is there even there was no Earth.
If you don’t
know, there is a planetarium here .
I believed
only a handful of school students (kindergarten, primary or secondary levels)
in Melaka have visited the Planetarium
Melaka . The first sign of life on Earth is the Great Collision and
+OrangMelaka should know about it. The best time for visiting the Planetarium
Melaka is when one kid begin to learn at kindergarten. The 2nd curiosity
visit to refresh the mind is best at the primary level and the 3rd
analytical visit is recommended at the secondary level. After that, any more
visit, would depend on individual need, for example, the need of submitting his
university paper, his need on his research ….
If the
Education Ministry or Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia could build a fund, to
finance the school students visit to the planetarium, then, every students
would not miss on how life begin. Because there is a Great Collision, there is
life and because there is life, there is continuous improvement. When every
student, has this mindset for a life of continuous improvement, young talent is
nurtured.
Not
delaying on sending students to the planetarium, in about five years to come,
you would see a significant improvement of the mindset of these students and their
sharing of knowledge to their parents, their fellow students, and finally to
their society. Heritage is heritage and it remains as it is.
Heritage shall not
be developed or modified but only the promotion of it and the events or
festivals that surrounded it, shall seduce the appreciativeness of the modern
visitors. With appreciation, modern man would understand the value of heritage,
the traditions and customs.
As the
Earth spin and wobble, you are blessed with summer, autumn, winter and spring
and these four seasons created many cultural traditions inherited from ancient practices.
Heritage is a continuation of such old practices and Jonker Walk is the only
street in Melaka you will find them.
Who decorated
Jonker Walk ?
The founder
of Jonker Walk is Gan Boon Leong. In actual fact, Jonker Walk has it natural
beauty and it is only upon festive, that the folks put up decorative props to
stage the event. Being a street full of inherited practices, I would call the
street Eventful Jonker as event after event take place from Jan 1st
to Dec 31st each year. Visiting Jonker Walk is not complete if you
do not cruise the Melaka River, the Venice Of The East. How can you say, “I
know Melaka well but I have not visited Jonker Walk and I have not see the river.”
The Idris
Administration run by the Chief Minister of Melaka, YAB Datuk Seri Ir. Haji
Idris Haron has done a most recent upgrading for Jonker Walk. Though there was
a grave misunderstanding on the closure of Jonker Walk once generated from the
massive traffic jams daily, the +Bahagian Promosi Pelancongan Melaka with consent of Idris got the State Fund for use to pave every
back-lanes of Jonker Walk and mural to flatter the mind of an on-looker. More
flowering plants lining compactly from end to end on this Walk would surely
invited greater pouring-in of visitors, local and foreign, because these days,
the young one and the old ones too like to take selfies and wefies. Their
selfies and wefies, with old untouched infrastructures and blossom of colorful petals
plus the waving blades of the leaves as their background photographs, shall
guarantee a “Must Go Jonker Walk” attitude to those who are still waiting.
At the apex
of the bridge once bombed when +Japan seized Melaka, I see a guitar that
headlined the world’s greatest venues. At night, the guitar defined the colors
and the logo stand majestically forefront the bluish sky.
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| source : gogomelaka.com |
An
eye-frame inner, from the apex I stood, the brightly unbroken queue when the
morning light fades in till the hot noon sun, for the unique rice balls once
used by conservative mums to trick a playful child to focus on eating has gone.
In daylight or in darkness, the Hainanese shop stood silently at a corner in
the past only known to office workers at those times when the bank teller was
using pen to write how much you have withdraw, or a man uses a piece of chalk
to write on the board, changes on prices of the stocks and shares. Many younger
would not know where Tan, Chow & Loh Securities was, neither do they about +Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation .
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| source : jkdrooling.blogspot.com |
The older
generation Hanian man still has the opportunity to watch bullock-cart passes
through the narrow First Cross St. in between cars, not knowing that his
children has to plant a metal column to guard against skillful and caring
coaches drivers. The coaches take the tourist, traveler and visitor from +Jonker Walk to the next historical site within Old +Melaka .
At
pedestrian’s height, the former Chung Khiaw Bank building was wiped hidden for
a few seconds by a passing coach, and re-appear in bright Hollander’s
brick-stone red on the opposite corner tangent to former OCBC building. The
name, San Shu Gong in Chinese welcoming from your left and from your right.
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| source : www.malaysiafanclub.com |
The former
Deputy Prime Minister, YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhiyddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin
had visited the Jonker Walk on 4th July 2011.
I used to
deliver documents to Atlas Travel, and a printing company nearby, The Royal
Press on 29 Jalan Hang Jebat, Jonker Walk. From these two places, San Shu Gong
is still visible to me and combined together the scene is pretty olden type.
In fact,
when I got married in 1988, my wedding dinner invitation cards was printed by
The Royal Press. Founded in 1938 by Ee Lay Swee, the living printing press
museum still operates on the Heidelberg and today this living printing heritage
is supported by the Sime Darby Foundation in line with international standard
on preservation.
Indulging
in the charm of first sight on Jonker Walk, I didn’t realize the pleasure of
oldness and old things has overcome the steps I took, a distance much further
into Jonker Walk where I watch the ageing yet stout building with plenty of
solid wood that separate the ground and upper floor of the former United
Malacca Berhad office. Today, a café has occupy this place to serve you food
and beverage in the setting of old Malaccan-style.
Further
down the Walk, at a T-junction paved by Jalan Hang Lekiu Masjid Kampung Kling
will not only be fascinating to me but also to many because the mosque is very
old in age, and the mosque and its followers don't mind, sitting on the centre
with a Hindu’s Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple on its right and a Chinese’s Cheng
Hoon Teng Temple on its left. That co-existence from the beginning has not only
become a history but a present harmony to the multi-racial community where once
all these races like the metal, GOLD. This explained the reason why the Harmony
Street is also called the Goldsmith Street on Jalan Tukang Emas in the Malay
Language.
Listen to this man from Poland describing about Melaka in the compound of Kampung Kling Mosque
Don’t worry
visitors ! The Harmony Street though is a holy street, it doesn’t mean you
cannot relax and enjoy your cup of beverage while listening to the local tunes
at +Geographer Café.
Watch out
to my left on Jalan Hang Lekir, another block of old buildings that curved and
converged with the Harmony Street on the North-East bearing, a fragrance peanuts
soup stimulated the nostrils of my nose and that stole my attention on all
other things that I am suppose to fascinate in this part of old town Melaka.
Guess what ?
Watch this
video.
Creamy,
creamy …. soft and tender, my bowl of peanut soup. Try it and write me your
comment below.
The “Melish”
(Melaka’s English) of the 1960s and 1970s, school boys would said, “Let’s
wallop it” which meant “hurriedly eating up a delicious bowl”
This show
that my mind and attention swiftly return back to the main objective of
admiring Melaka’s heritage after enjoying that local peanut dessert.
Immediately, the roar of festive from the Street-Stage urged me to make wide
steps to check out what is going on; the familiar beating of the drums, cymbals
and gongs mixed with rebana or kompang trebled by Hindu’s dholaka and mrdangam. But before the stage, I took a breathful view of the old Aik Cheong Coffee shop
Another
puddle of water by the edge of the road on the beautified pedestrian path near
to the Street-Stage, doesn’t showed a reflection of the round sun that I saw
right after the Tan Kim Seng bridge earlier. This time it was a fiery red
scattered light slowly sinking beneath the horizon, dyeing the sky first
orange, then red to bluer and soon darker blue and in matter of seconds chalky
mauve.
It was
during sunset that the sun begin to dim
for Jonker Walk blended by the glowing lights from the Street-Stage, the
LED signs, the stall lamps, and … which get brighter gradually with from the darker
of darkness. And that, the sun has decorated JONKER WALK DAY & NIGHT.
Trusting
all efforts to get greener, Renewable Energy might be used by this old community,
maybe, one day soon, of harvesting the sun to put sun-power to work after it
dimmed for the night. (Melaka has the country’s latest solar farm and the farm
has been recognized as one of the most resource-efficient. So, don’t be
surprised that the Jonker Walk remain as old with no changes to its heritage,
traditions, and customs when the folks become a solar community. A heritage , an
environmental-friendly and high-tech Jonker Walk would surely courted by many
who learn and adopt a living Negeri Bandar Teknologi HIjau Melaka Maju NegeriKu
Sayang serta Berkat, Cepat dan Tepat.
Daniel Ong
Sunday 13 September 2015
[Upon watching the Chinese lanterns]
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