Ghazali Shafie

Early this year we had to witnessed the departure of King Ghaz, originated from Kuala Lipis.

The former minister of home affairs, Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie passed away in January 2010. He was known as a person very strict and firm with his work and among his friends, he was known as 'King Ghaz'.

He had served under four prime minister,starting from Tunku Abdul Rahman to the era Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He was also act as the Foreign Minister and had joined a number of foreign services and international missions.

If you still remember, that Muhammad Ghazali was the only survivor in the light aircraft accidents that crashed at Kampung Janda Baik on 10 Jan 1982. The accident had killed his guard and the pilot of the airplane.

HHe was born at Kuala Lipis on 22 Mac 1922 and had his early education at Malay School in Raub and then attended the Clifford School, Kuala Lipis from 1939 to 1940.

Pada 1941, he further his education at Raffles College Singapura then to London for his LLB at University College of Wales. His further education was in the international studies at London School of Economics in 1954.

In 1941 to 1946, he was working at various position in the self defense force and the volunteer against the Japanese occupation.

Muhammad Ghazali has work as a clerk in Selangor and later appointed as the High Commissioner of Malaya to India in 1957. He was then the Secretary for Foreign Ministry in 1959 and became the Minister in July 1981 to July 1984.

One of his important assignment was, he was one of the member of the Cobbold Commission in the formation of Malaysia.

He contributed in the formation of rukun negara, a principle to strengthen the racial hormony in Malaysia following the black event of 13 May 1969.

He had been in the Malaysian Cabinet for long time, in 1970 he was a minister with special function and then the Information Minister in 1972.

About 16 months later he was the Home Affairs Minister until 1981, when he became the Foreign Minister .

He resigned from the in Julai 1984 and then focused hs attention onto other areas, where he hold important position in the provate sector and international organisation.

He was the Chairman of Peremba, Chairman of Landmarks Holdings Bhd, Advisor to Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific and Chairman to Westmont Bank Manila, Filipina.

In politic, he became a member of UMNO Council, The Member of Parliament for Lipis, Division Head of Umno Lipis, Member of Veteran Umno. He was the Vice President of Umno in 1972 to 1975.

House Near The Station

Whenever I go back to Lipis, I will pass near his house, next to the police station. His house is on the left and the station is on the right. Now with the development, the house is gone.

Defying Death.

The older generation will remember, how close to death he must had gone through. He was on his way to Kuala Lipis by a small propeller aircraft.

On Jan 1982, Ghazali was in a Cessna with 2 more people. The aircraft crashed in the jungle near Janda Baik. Ghazali survived but the other 2 were unlucky. More.. reading on this web..

'King Ghaz', Vergis and that Cessna crash | New Straits Times ...

14 Jan 2007 ... But foreign minister Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie, then 59, ... Johor, when they were first informed of the missing aircraft by police. ...
findarticles.com/p/news-articles/new-straits.../ai_n44347890/ - Cached

Fighting The terrorists

I do not think any of the present ministers has such a rich variety of experience like Ghazali shafie. This is the story of his involvement against the Japanese Red Army.

1. MY FLIGHT OF TERROR | New Straits Times Newspaper | Find Articles ...

   23 Oct 2005 ... been moved to Home Affairs, where the mercurial Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie. was minister. Osman had joined Ghazali, now Tun, at the AIA building ...
   findarticles.com/p/news-articles/new-straits.../ai_n44306269/ - Cached

   
   

   
   

   
   

Changing Faces Of Kuala Lipis

If you had not visited Kuala Lipis for the last 25 years, you will be surprised with the changes it has gone trough. For a small town with a snail-like pace of progress, I did not expect much changes, as there is actually not much pressure to incur the changes. The economic role of the town is almost negligible, and in fact it is reducing due to the improvement in the transport system.

The followings are observed changes:

1. The town role as the middle man in distributions and collections
When the river transports were the main mode of transport, Kuala Lipis location was suited to be the distribution centers to distribute goods to outskirt villages. So goods from singapore will arrive by train or products from kuala lumpur arrive by lorries and kept by the middleman in kuala lipis and distributed by boats to different villages along the rivers. The two main rivers were river lipis and jelai.

Similarly, product from the plantations and from the jungle will be brought by boats and sold to the middleman in kuala lipis. The examples of the products are, rubber, rattan, rubber from jelutong and resins.

With the improvement in transportation, the sellers from kuala lumpur can reach the smaller villages to collect the rural products and sell the imported products. That also mean that kuala lipis is being bypassed the business chains.

2. The Transport System
During the heyday of railway, Kuala Lipis was the biggest train station in the East Coast. Hundreds of workers were employed to run and maintain the locomotive and the tracks.Now much of them have become part of the history.

I still remember when the station was the center of attraction, hundreds of passengers embarking and disembarking the trains. Goods from the surrounding villages came down with the products to sell. Even my aging grand mum, brought some rubber sheets to sell.

Now, visit the train, remind of the memory, and practically the station is empty. The road has taken over the role, with regular buses and taxis.

I remember how closely knitted the transport was. As you step out of the railway, you will walk into the bus station and taxi station. So it make it easy. Now, the bus station is about 2 km away, and imagine walking from the railway to the bus station in the middle of the hot sun. It seem the old generation have more of the wisdom then the planner of today.

3. The town has expanded.
It use to be a streets town, The main street and the Jelai Street, and of course the third waking path or steps going right through the centre.

Now, 2 more centers are developed, one is across the railway track, they call it the center point. It use to be a green park. The second development site is the new township across the river. The new town was opened for about two years without sign of success. Then they decided to more the market and the bus station at the inconvenience of the customers, The reasons can be only given by the Town authority or Majlis Daerah.

4. The Cinema is Gone.
The town use to have a place for the local people to enjoy the big screen. It is gone now. I think this is the result of the technology development of CD and DVD and the Computer.

I remember the crowd at the festive times, when thousands from the surrounding village descend onto the town.

penjom

An Open Gold Mine in Penjom, Look at the size of the operation.

Penjom is a small village, situated about ten kilometers from Kuala Lipis. For the past 40 years, it was a sleepy village. It was not so in early 1900's. It was the center of mining activities in Kuala Lipis.

When Hugh Clifford arrived in Kuala Lipis in late 1800, he did not visit the present town, but he went to Penjom, even the main market for Kuala Lipis was in Penjom.

Now, nearly 150 years later, the history repeats itself. A new gold mine was opened at Penjom, but this time the physical damage is 1000 times more, with the power of the big machinery, the new improved techniques to exploit for the maximum benefit, the virgin earth was thorn to  pieces. I had some satellite pictures from Google Map.

When the gold runs out, the miners will certainly go, leaving the local people to nurse the wounds and live the whatever would be left, from the greenery and the tropic forest.

There were some complaints about the pollution in the stream, as chemicals were used in the gold processing, but it was quickly squashed by the local interested group.

It  is hope the local people from Penjom will get some benefits, so the benefits can be shared and not limited to the groups in the poshed high rise offices.

Kuala Lipis Welcome Prime Minister

Kuala Lipis was proud to welcome home, the prime minister of Malaysia.

Najib visited the house of his birth place. His father was the state secretary of Pahang stationed in Kuala Lipis in 1950s.

The prime minister of Malaysia made a official visit to his birth place in Kuala Lipis. The birth place will be converted to a museum, to ensure that the building will be preserved.

The District Council, Abu Jamal Nordin quoted that nearly RM1 millions was spent to preserve the house since 13 Nov 2007 and the project was completed in 12 Mei 2008.

However a further RM640,00 will be required to equip the museum and once opened, it is hoped that it will be a tourist attraction.   This is in line with the plan to make kuala lipis a historic destination. This was delivered by  Jamal in his welcoming speech to receive the PM.

NOSTALGIA ... Najib waving to the photographer on his tour to his birth place -- fotoBERNAMA

Kuala Lipis is rich with the heritage from the British Past, it was the capital of Pahang, under the British Colony before it was moved to Kuantan in 1953.

Among the historical building left are the Residence House, Pahang Club and Clifford School.

The 2 storey bungalow was the official residence of Pahang state secretary in 1950's

Kuala Lipis in History

In 1800, the main market for Kuala Lipis was in Penjum, current about 10 km from Kuala Lipis, and at that time connect by Lipis River. When Frank Swettenham went to visit Kuala Lipis, he made a quick market survey, this is what he wrote... among the goods sold at Penjum were kerosene prized RM1 per barrel, tobacco at RM1 per katti, ( a katti is about 600 grams), rice was about RM1 per 20 kg. The shop owner has to pay the Sultan's representative RM50 per month.

In 1887, Clifford, representing the British Governor in Malaya went to Visit  Kuala Lipis. There was no road as it is today. Today, the trip from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Lipis by car is about three hours. To reach Kuala Lipis, this was what Clifford had to go through:

1. From Kuala Lumpur, he had to travel by horses, to Kuala Kubu, through the jungle track. It took three days to reach Kuala Kubu, now one hour by car.

2. The next segment was from Kuala Kubu to Tanjung Malim, then to Hulu Slim.

3. Then By elephants to cross the mountain to Permatang Linggi.

4. From Permatang Linggi, a week ride on bamboo raft to Penjom.

It took about 2 weeks.

Penjom, in Kuala Lipis was already well known from its mining industry. There were already a number of mining companies, both operated by the Europeans and the chinese. The competition was tough, and the Chinese were not happy and complaints that the English was taking over the mines by force.

When the British imposed his rule by bribing the Sultan, the British System was imposed on the state. In 1889, a number of administrators were appointed to collect the taxes and set up the Legal Court.  The system was supported by brute military forces, mainly manned by local recruits as well as the Sikh from India.

Now Penjom has reopen its gold mine and an international mining company from UK is doing the job on the open cast mine.