Chapter 1: The Island

     

I first arrived in Labuan in 1960, after visiting our relatives in Sipitang and Brunei Darussalam. Little did I know there after that in 1963 I came back not really to reside here but to be brought up here. I didn’t even know that some of my childhood friends are my cousins. Not that I was naïve but I didn’t give that point any thought and only when both my parents passed away did I knew, since they took the responsibility to look after and clear my parents graves.

The island was naturally and still is beautiful with not much developments at that time with or having less or no crime at all. The cost of living was very cheap in those days, with ten cents I could have ‘nasi lemak’ or fried noodles, and a glass of orange. With One Ringgit I can buy a Kati (600 grams) mud crabs, vegetables, sugar, salt, and even a pack of Maggie mee. Yes, that was in the sixties and at this point in time these things might have cost me twenty times more, such is the price of developments throughout the passing of time.

During the old days, Labuan town or Victoria town was formally consisted of a few rows of shop houses, a cinema (later two) and was a barter trade center because of its favorable position in The South China Sea, and it served as a trading town for people around the Brunei Bay and later on, traders from the South Philippines came. They came to trade here since it was a free port. It once served as a regional center for the British Colonial Administration. Most of the road at that time was having English names such as Callaghan Road, Cochrane Road but later as we got our independent, those road names were changed. There used to be quite a number of old buildings (remains of the war) but now maybe less, or more had disappeared or undergone changes as time pass by especially, like the government quarters and the Surrender Point at Layang-Layangan. The old chimney at Tanjong Kubong and the War Memorial for their soldiers who perished during the Second World War are among others still managed to survive but undergone a lot of changes parallel with the price of developments. A price where even my old school was not spared.

Price must have a numerical value and this I refer to it in monetary value or in our Ringgit currency. In other words, money in those days could purchased a lot of things, but right now even my school going child couldn’t hardly survive going to school with one Ringgit a day. One could always argue that we are being paid more than what we used to get in the old days, but numbers will tell the difference, and people used to relate this phenomenon with the level of our standard of living, a hypothetical propaganda. In my opinion the purchasing power of our Ringgit depreciates due to the deficit budget but however, distorted by the consumer index.

Labuan was mostly inhabited by ethnics such as Kedayan, Brunei’s and of course the Chinese (mostly Hokeins) who during the old days normally celebrated the fifteen day of the lunar year by parading their dancing gods (dewa). The Kedayan must had migrated here from the mainland Sabah, since quite many of them live around the Brunei bay, as in the Klias Peninsula and as far as Limbang and Brunei D.S. They used to be paddy growers or seasonal farmers, unlike the Bruneis who were more attached with the seas as fishermen or seamen and that is why they mostly reside in coastal and riverside estuaries. The Chinese were of course the local traders, farmers and contractors. There were not so many works on the island so we just dreamt whats beyond the horizon having in store for us to get away from the local traditions.

Our Malay language is simple to learn, and one can assume that everybody in the island speaks Malay language even though every ethnic have their own dialect. I guess the population of the island at that time was around thirty thousand only and having a very closed interaction. Inter-marriages among different ethnics are very common. So language is not a problem. It set aside the barrier for communications.

Schooling was not as bad as there were three secondary schools having classes up to Form 5 and thereafter, one have to leave the island to move further. Students from neighboring interior district normally continued their schooling here or else have to go to the state capital. Perhaps, being broke and the cost of living in Labuan is cheaper schooling here was preferred. Jobs were scarce on the island and it would not be the best place for me to settle down or a place to retire but the beautiful beaches and the memories always attract me now and then. But the seas surrounding the island always limit my movements and the seas were not always calm. Deep from inside my heart I had the urged for adventures and the island could offered me very little and staying behind would mean I should get a job after completing my Senior Cambridge, or be a fisherman and maybe could have get married, and perhaps could have been buried by then.