UTAR NEW VILLAGE COMMUNITY PROJECT

REPORT

NAME OF NEW VILLAGE:

SRI MEDAN 铁山

JOHOR

Project carried out by:

Student Name

ID Number

Course

Year /

Semester

1.Nicholous Ngai Hon Meng 1300335 Centre for

Foundation Studies

Y1 / S3

2.Teh Bin Shun

1300515 Centre for

Foundation Studies

Y1 / S3

3. John Wong Lin Onn

1300613 Centre for

Foundation Studies

Y1 / S3

4.PungTzyyChyuan

1204064 Centre for

Foundation Studies

Y1 / S3

DATE OF COMPLETION

OCTOBER 2013

SRI MEDAN

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ABSTRACT

Sri Medan was established in the year 1918 and is over 95 years old. It is

located in the district of Batu Pahat in the state of Johor. Town close to this new

village are Batu Pahat and Yong Peng. The main attraction in Sri Medan is the

Taman Botani Johor. Its main economic activities are plantation of palm oils trees

and rubber trees. Today, most of the villagers are elders and kids. This is due to

younger generations are now migrated to main city to seek for job with a higher

paid rate and even further their studies.

SRI MEDAN

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HISTORY

Sri Medan also named as “Tie Shan”, which carries the meaning of the

Iron Mountain because it is one of the largest iron mining sites in Malaysia. Back

then iron mining is the main economic activity of the village.

In the year 1918, the Ishara Sujikaisa, a Japanese mining company started

the mining operation under the British supervision hence the Sri Medan was

famous for the mining activities in that particular period.

Before World War II, the government of the British colonial felt threaten

by the Japanese forces and immediately shut down every operating companies in

Malaya, so does the Ishara Sujikaisa Mining Company and put a hold to the entire

mining operation in Sri Medan just before the Japanese forces invaded Malaya.

After the year 1953, the Malayan Mining Company was established and

the mining operation is continued. The founder of Genting Group, Tan Sri Lim

Goh Tong is one of director of the company.

In the year 1967, the mining operation was ceased by the government

because the mining site was left a 300 feet crater and has a high possibility of a

landslide which will put the miners to harm. The renewable of licence of the

Malayan Mining Company was hold, putting the company to an end. Finally,

leads to an end of the iron mining of Sri Medan.

Image of Sri Medan Iron Mine, 1959

SRI MEDAN

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POPULATION, HOUSING, TRANSPORT

Sri Medan has a population consisting of the three major ethnic groups of

Malaysia which are the Malays, Chinese and Indian. In the year 2013, the Malays

are made up of 16500 villagers who can be considered as a major population of

the village, followed by 1278 Chinese villagers and 26 Indian villagers. Because

of the composition of its population, the main language used in intercultural

communication is the Malay (Bahasa Melayu). The other main dialects used by

Chinese villagers are Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Hainan and Teow Cheu, but the

most commonly spoken language is Hokkien.

Sri Medan is a modern new village which indicates that the housing area in

this area has upgraded to brick houses from the old wooden houses and tall-legged

houses. Housing estate here has been modernized to suit the villager modern

lifestyle with individual flushing system in every home, electric supply, water

supply and etc.

Wooden houses

Tall-legged houses

SRI MEDAN

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Brick house

With the presence tarred road in Sri Medan, the transportation used here

has also been modernized into motorcar, motorcycle, bus and etc. However,

motorcycles can be considered as the main transportation for almost every

household own at least one of it.

Motorcycle as the main transportation

SRI MEDAN

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ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

In the past, the main income of Sri Medan village is iron mining. Sri

Medan used to have few iron mines on mountains and these jobs opportunity

attracted a lot of people to come to this village to work and these workers started

to stay in this village as a part of villagers but these iron mines had stopped

46years ago due to the potential dangerous of landslide.

After the workers of iron mines lost their jobs after the iron mines has been

stopped, this village’s main income has changed to plantation of rubber and palm

oil. Rubber and palm oil plantation have been started many years ago but it only

accounted a small amount of main income. These plantations accounted 15% of

the village land. Rubber and oil palm are mostly sold locally to factory to process

into usable material for example rubber tires, eraser, cooking oil and others.

For the past few years, the production of rubber had decreased because of

the flood history of the village and that makes the production of palm oil increased

and accounted 90% of economic activities and main income.

Site of plantation

SRI MEDAN

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Site of plantation

Besides from plantation, Sri Medan village also has a wet market in the

village which available for every Friday and Sunday, 7am to 11am. There are also

other financial activities such as sundry shop, coffee shops or restaurant, hair

salon, supermarket, mini market, financial institution, council stalls, gold smith,

furniture, florist shops and also motorcycle& car workshop. The business of

motorcycle workshop in the village is better than car workshop since most of the

villagers are using motorcycle as their main transportation.

SRI MEDAN

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SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

Religions practised in the village are Taoism, Buddhism, Muslim and Christian.

The places of worship include a Buddhist temple “Xing Lan Zhuo Gong Miao”(兴蓝卓公

庙) and a mosque (Masjid Parit Hj. Khalid Sri Medan).

The main festivals held in the village are the mass greeting (团拜) celebrated in

Lunar New Year，Bai Tnee Kong (拜天公) celebrated on the ninth day of the Lunar

New Year and Xing Na Du Gong (兴拿督公) which is a locally celebrate festival held

during the mid-autumn festival. The Xing Na Du Gong festival was originated from a

local ritual by the iron miners of making obeisance to banyan tree to beg for

protection during the mining operation. Now the celebration is carry out in the

“Xing Lan Zhuo Gong Miao” temple since the ceasing of the mining operation.

.

Temple of Xing Lan Zhuo Gong Front view of Xing Lan Zhuo Gong temple

SRI MEDAN

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Xing Na Du Gong festival

Concert for Xing Na Du Gong festival

Banyan tree

SRI MEDAN

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In addition to the religious festivals, other festival held at the village

includes the Loy Krathong Festival (灯节 ) which is a traditional Thailand’s

festival once held in the Simpang Kiri River. Around 20 years ago, some

Thailand’s Buddhists were invited from Thailand to conduct the ritual of releasing

the water lantern (水灯). The students from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,

Skudai were invited to witness this event in coordinate to their visit to Sri Medan.

Unfortunately, this event was banned ever since because it was carried out without

a permit。

SRI MEDAN

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EDUCATION

a) Kindergarten / Nursery

Basically there is no Chinese kindergarten or nursery in Sri Medan.

Although there is some Malay’s kindergartens or nurseries such as “Tadika

Kemas Sayang” in Sri Medan, but Chinese parents from Sri Medan will normally

send their children to kindergarten of Chinese-owned in other villages.

b) Primary school

SJK (C) Chong Hwa is the only Chinese primary school in the village.

This school was previously known as Sekolah Cina Chin Teck which was

established in the year 1942 during colonialism of Japan in Malaya.

At the very beginning after the school established, there were only 40

students and 1 teacher. Currently in the year 2013, there are 91 students which 86

are Chinese and 5 are Malays, 11 teachers, 2 senior assistants and 1 headmaster.

The main language of the students is Chinese.

SJK(C) Chong Hwa, Sri Medan

This school was once employed as a rescue centre for the flood victims

during the invasion of a great flood in Sri Medan at November 2006 and January

2007.

SRI MEDAN

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The facilities in the school are quite adequate. There are computer lab,

science lab, library, cafeteria, school hall, music room, football field and etc.

The old school hall

The new school hall

In 4 November 2012, a fund raising dinner was held to collect fund for the

construction of new school hall.

SRI MEDAN

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SJK(C) Chong Hwa fund raising event

Others than Chinese primary school, there is Malay primary school in the

village which is SK Sri Medan.

c) Secondary school

There is only one Chinese secondary school which is the SMK Sri Medan.

According to headman of village, the amount of Chinese students studying in the

secondary school is gradually decreasing year by year. Therefore, Chinese

language subject is removed from the syllabus of the secondary school, causing

most of the Chinese students to further their studies in other secondary school in

other villages or even in the city.

SRI MEDAN

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INFRASTRUCTURE AND FACILITIES

Sri Medan is a developing village and is modernising rapidly day by day.

The water source of the village is piped water and is supply by the SAJ Holdings

Sdn Bhd. Moreover, electricity is available in every household which supplied by

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), the largest electric utility company in Malaysia.

There is a perfect wastes management system here in the village. Wastes

are collected by rubbish collector 3 to 4 times in a week while sewage disposed is

through the toilet flushing system by individual septic tank.

Drainage system

The Telekom reduces the telecommunication problems in the village. For

mobile phone, only Digi line can support 3G. However, the 3G line will not be

stable all the time. Furthermore, free Wifi were available to the public for easy

access to the Internet.

SRI MEDAN

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Free WiFi Service

Community facilities offered to the villagers include health facilities,

education facilities, postal facilities, recreational facilities and etc. In the aspect of

health facilities, there are two clinics in Sri Medan, a private-owned and a

government-owned. This village does not have hospital and the nearest hospital

was located in Batu Pahat (Batu Pahat Hospital) which is 20km from this village.

Sri Medan has a low crime rate and the villagers are living in harmony yet

there are a new police station and an old police station here which offer 24 hours

services to the public. The new police station is now functioned as the operating

office while the old police station is used for accommodation for police officers.

Unfortunately, the village does not have fire station but fire hydrants are available

in every corner which will help in the fire fighting. Postal service is also available

here with the present of a post office.

Sri Medan old police station

SRI MEDAN

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Sri Medan post office

As for the places of worship, Sri Medan has a mosque named as Masjid

Parit Hj. Khalid Sri Medan and a temple which named as “Xing Lan Zhuo Gong

Miao” (兴蓝卓公庙).

Numerous types of shops are available in the village such as goldsmith,

tire shop, coffee shop and motorcycle servicing shop. Wet market is available on

Friday and Sunday from 9am to 11am for the convenience of villagers in

purchasing fresh grocery. A mini market is allocated in the middle of the village

for the villagers purchase daily goods.

G&S mini market

The resident of Sri Medan usually walk on foot, travel by motorcycles and

motorcars. However, the main transportation of the village will be motorcycles.

SRI MEDAN

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Public transportation is also available in the village which is the public bus service

but the buses are scheduled to arrive to each stop in every one hour, which will

cause a major inconvenient to the villagers.

Other facilities include a Chinese primary school a Chinese secondary

school for education purposes, a futsal field for recreation, and a multipurpose

community hall. Lastly, Sri Medan used to have one public library. However, the

public library has been closed down now due to the shortage supplies of study

materials.

Futsal field

Community hall

SRI MEDAN

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Satay Sahlan

SRI MEDAN

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PROBLEMS

Sri Medan has tarred roads which reach satisfactory in the village however

dues to lack of maintenance the condition started to worsen and start to form

potholes. This will increase the risk of road accident causes to road users.

Besides that, the village is facing the problems of declination of population

of Chinese villagers. This problem is mainly cause by the migration of younger

generation to main city especially Singapore because of the higher working

opportunity in a modern city.

In Sri Medan, there is no fire station. The fire engine needs to depart from

Batu Pahat which located 20km away from Sri Medan and it will take more than

30 minutes for it to reach the village. This will reduces the chance of any possible

rescue due to the delay.

Moreover, taxi service is not available in the village while bus only

available once per every hour because of the low head count of villagers and small

area coverage. Plus, it is due to most of the villagers practically own a transport

now hence local villagers will not required any public transports. However this

will cause a major inconvenient to tourists and will affect the tourism value of the

village.

Rubbish can be seen around the ground and even at the road side. This

poor hygienic condition is lethal to those with a weak immune system especially

senior citizens and children. This problem is formed because public rubbish can or

trash can are hard to come by and the public cleaning services are not perfect.

SRI MEDAN

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Rubbish at the roadside

Potholes

SRI MEDAN

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Sri Medan has poor road condition due to the lack of maintenance. The

roads are not well-tarred and there is no footpath for pedestrian. Applying to the

Ministry of Works (MOW) can be carry out to maintain the road condition from

time to time in order to decrease the risk road accidents and installing a footpath.

Besides, the population of Chinese villagers in this village gradually

declined. This is because secondary school in Sri Medan did not provide Chinese

subjects to the students. Due to this reason, most Chinese families will migrate to

other places in order to allow their children to continue the studies of Chinese

subject. Therefore, the Ministry of Education should include Chinese subjects in

the secondary school prevent the youth from leaving the village.

Moreover, taxi services are not available in this village and only one

public bus service provided per hour. More transportation services should be

provided in this village to enable the villagers or tourists to travel from a

destination to a destination.

Lastly, the road sides of Sri Medan are filled with trashes. The rubbish can

was hardly found along the roadsides. Thus, the related parties who were

responsible for the cleanliness of the village should place more rubbish bins on the

roadsides in order to maintain the panoramic view of the village and also ensure

the hygiene of the village are well maintained.

SRI MEDAN

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TOURISM VALUE

Sri Medan has many attractive places which can be transformed into

tourism destinations. One of the most attractive spot in this village is Taman

Botani. Before Taman Botani was established, this place was famous of iron

mining. According to the headman, there are many abandoned iron mine in the

past. However, the small iron mine has been patched and right now, only 2 biggest

iron mine left. There are named as “Number Six Lake” and “Number Seven

Lake”. “Number Seven Lake” is deeper (about 300m depth) but smaller in size

compared to “Number Six Lake”.

Besides, Taman Botani has uses a century and above for beautifying

purpose. Until now, the improvement progress in the garden still takes place.

According to the headman, many villagers will fish by the lake during sunset. This

garden also provides mountain climbing activities. Many youths used to camp and

barbeque here during weekends or holidays to relieve their stress. Due to the

panoramic view of the garden, many couples tend to take their wedding

photography here. In addition, free wifi was provided for the tourists. The

operation hour for Taman Botani is from 8am to 8pm.

Taman Botani Johor

SRI MEDAN

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Number Seven Lake

Another tourism spot of the village is Satay Sahian Sri Medan. This food

stall is famous of their mouth-watering satay. Even Sultan Johor likes the satay

served from this stall. During Chinese festival in 2006, Sultan Johor ordered

23000 sticks of satay to serve the villagers. The owner of the stall hires 15

workers to prepare the satay for that event. This food stall opens only after 6.30pm.

Map and regulations of Taman Botani Johor

SRI MEDAN

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

In relation to the tourist attractions, future investment, future expansion

and the problems mentioned above, the following recommendations are made.

Based on Sri Medan economics activities and resources, there are few

opportunities for future investment in building Mara University and constructing

new highway with toll. These two constructions are related to each other. If the

construction of Mara University started, the new highway and toll construction

will start as well to overcome the traffic conjunction problem because the

university will increase the population of Sri Medan village by few thousand or

even more.

Besides from university and highway, the famous Taman Botani in Seri

Medan village can be used as wedding photography scene that requires fees

because the view of Taman Botani is very beautiful after reconstruction. There are

2 lakes are very suitable for wedding photography scene that originally were iron

mines that stopped operate 46 years ago.

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)