The Forgotten Village
...snapshots of the artificial settlement
...snapshots of the artificial settlement
Besides the Malay Heritage Centre located in the (ironically) Arab-predominant area of Kampung Glam, Singapore, the other cultural jewel in the crown for the Malays in Singapore is the Kampung Melayu (Malay Village), located right in the middle of the (used to be) Malay-predominant area of Geylang.
The history of the Malay Village herself is full of colour. First conceptualised as an area where the locals generally, and the Malays specifically, can be proud to call their own, the idea of the kampung ('village' in Malay) within land-scarce Singapore was a laudable one, but not without its fair share of critics.
For a start, the idea to have the village as a means to showcase what the Malay culture and kampung-living was all about was a good educational point, although it's sustainability (and the artificiality of the whole set up) was itself a question. Geared towards the idea of celebrating Malay culture, and a showpiece of the richness of the Malay heritage, the village was launched with much fanfare, and was a focal point of some of the community's big cultural celebrations, notably the Hari Raya Puasa (Eid Fitr), where night stalls leading up to the day were set up during the fasting month of Ramadan around the surrounding areas. Of course, these practice was already done before the village was even built, but somehow celebrating a big day within proximity of a cultural icon was presumably a more...'wholesome' experience.
But more recently, the village has suffered from an identity crisis of sorts, firstly of course with the tension that it generates when it was made known even early on that the village was owned/operated by a non-Malay. Not that this was a big issue, given the cosmopolitan outlook and multi-cultural tendencies of the Malays, but to then knew that the model for the running of the village was unsustainable at its best, was another major blow to the community. Little by little, and day by day, the village suffered, both in its ability to attract the locals for its economic survival, and more importantly, in its ability to be identified as something worth 'keeping' by the Malays themselves.
I took some time off to get a feel of what the village was like in her last few days. I don't think I have, and am able to capture the true essence of what the place was like, as pictures can only tell so much. But what I do try to show through my images, is the (almost sorry) state of the village, and hopefully, it can tell a thing or two to the rest of the audiences reading and viewing this, lest it becomes just one more kampung that has been forgotten, no matter how artificial it was.
Irfan Darian
