Language and ethnicity in a Malaysian town, 1903-2010

Spatial differentiations in the Kampar Methodist Churches

by WONG Zi Tao A0078603A B.A. (Architecture) National University of Singapore, 2010

Dissertation submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, September 2010

Spatial differentiations in the Kampar Methodist Churches Language and ethnicity in a Malaysian town, 1903-2010 By WONG Zi Tao A0078603A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Architecture on 13 September 2010 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture

Abstract
Methodism was first introduced into Malaysia in the 1890s, affecting the development of the nation in various aspects, especially in these two areas: the religion of Christianity, and the early English-language schools education. This is particularly so in places where the local population consisted of predominantly Chinese or Indian people. Kampar was one of these places: it was one of the first few places to have constructed a Methodist church and an English-language school in the early 1900s. However, from that starting point, the architecture of the Kampar Methodist Churches had a very specific evolutionary process in terms of both form and function, which is heavily related to the following social factors: language and ethnicity. At present, the Kampar Methodist community has separated into four distinctive congregations, namely the Kampar Chinese Methodist Church, the Kampar Wesley Methodist Church, the Kampar Tamil Methodist Church, and the Kampar Sengoi Workers Training Center. Inherently, the building of a Chinese church and an English school had already encompassed the factors of language and ethnicity from the very beginning. This dissertation studies the extent to which such linguistic and ethnic influences affect the transformation of the architecture of the Kampar Methodist Churches from its beginning to the present (1903 - 2010). Intersecting with other factors such as the local developments (the tin-mining industry; emergence of the Chinese-language schools; the recent completion of the University Tunku Abdul Rahman etc.) and the national historical events (Independence from the British government; Malaysia religious policy; the formation of an autonomous Malaysia Methodist Church etc.), language and ethnicity divided the church and defined their subsequent architectures.

Dissertation Supervisor: Dr Lai Chee Kien Title: Assistant Professor

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Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Lai Chee Kien for guiding me in researching and writing this dissertation. Without your constant encouragement, this dissertation wouldnt have been possible.

My team mates, Regina and Mun Chun, for your valuable inputs during our discussion sessions together.

To Weilin, for editing my paper which is infested with tonnes of spelling and grammatical error, and for your critical feedbacks.

To You, my God, for carrying me through this time, and giving me the wisdom and heart to document my home church.

Table of Abbreviation

KCMC KTMC KWMC SWTC ACS UTAR SEK MCMS MEM LCEC TRAC MCAC TAC KSM JHEOA OA

- Kampar Chinese Methodist Church - Kampar Tamil Methodist Church - Kampar Wesley Methodist Church - Sengoi Workers Training Center - Anglo Chinese School - University Tunku Abdul Rahman - Socit des Etains de Kinta - Methodist Church Malaysia Singapore - Methodist Episcopal Mission - Local Council Executive Committee - Trinity Annual Conference - Malaysia Chinese Annual Conference - Tamil Annual Conference - Kumpulan Sengoi Methodis (Sengoi Methodist Group) - Jabatan Hal-Ewah Orang Asli (Department of Aboriginal Affairs) - Orang Asli (the Native people of Malaysia)

Content

Abstract Acknowledgements Table of Abbreviations List of figures and tables Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Methodology and Scope Chapter 2: History of Kampar & Malaysia Methodist Church 2.1 History of Malaysia Methodist Church 2.2 History of Kampar v 2.3 Chapter conclusion Chapter 3: The individual Churches and their histories 3.1 Kampar Chinese Methodist Church 3.2 The Kampar Methodist Church Network: KCMC, KWMC, KTMC and SWTC 3.5 Chapter conclusion

3 4 5 8 10

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Chapter 4: The physical manifestations and changes 4.1 Methodist Church: its architectural ideas. 4.2 Architectural Description of current buildings. (Photography and Illustrations) 4.3 The role of the Lay Leader in Church architecture. 4.4 Chapter conclusion Chapter 5: Malaysia and the 4 congregations 5.1 The National Policies and Religious Buildings 5.2 Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (JHEOA) and the Sengoi Sunday Chapel Conclusion Appendix A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 Introduction of the Sengoi people. History of KWMC, KTMC and SWTC Summary of Interview with Mr. Chye Kooi Loong ( 19 June 2008) Transcription: Interview with Mr. Mutu Ganamuthu (29 July 2010) Summary of Group Interview with Mr. Thiagarajan a/l Viran and other KTMC members (3 August 2010) Transcription and Translation: Interview with Pastor Bah Uda Aman (4th August 2010) News article from the Malaysian Bar (Badan Peguam Malaysia) (18 February 2008) The Srigala Incident (Reproduced from Denton 1997:68-69) Power Point Slides from KCMC 100th Anniversary Celebration. (Source: KCMC)

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Bibliography 88 total word count: 10359 words)

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List of Figures
1. Map of Perak (History of English Schools in Perak, E.C. Hicks 1958) 2. The organisational structure of Malaysia Methodist Church 3. Events in the Malaysia Methodist Church history 4. Map of Kampar,1897 5. Map of Kampar, The Padang and Hospital Scheme, 1948 6. Map of Kampar, showing the shift of the town centers 7. Larger plan of the Padang and Hospital Scheme, showing the road detouring and the various bungalows, 1948 (Malaysia National Archive) 8. Kampar Chinese Methodist Church 1904 (Khoo Salma, Kinta Valley) 9. Kampar Methodist Churches and their congregations. 10. The first Kampar Chinese Methodist Church, also the Anglo Chinese School, 1903. (Methodist Church in Singapore, Archives and History Library) 11. The second KCMC, at 5 Jln Kuala Dipang, 1919. (Methodist Church in Singapore, Archives and History Library) 12. KCMC after renovation (library and kindergarten on the right), 1959 13. Relative location of the Church within the ACS Campus 14. Time Line comparison of the History of Kampar Methodist Churches with the History of Malaysia Methodist Church 15. Kampar Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built in 1908 16. plans of the earlier Methodist churches in England A (Dolbey, George W., The Architectural Expression of Methodism) 17. Plans of various earlier Methodist churches in England B (Dolbey, George W., The Architectural Expression of Methodism) 18. Key stages during the evolution of each congregations architecture. 19. Individual churches at the present state. 20. Pages from the year books of ACS and Pei Yuan School (Mdm Yu Ching Yen & Mr. Wong Foon.) 21. Map of Malaysia showing the locations of individual Orang Asli tribes, with the table of individual tribes.
All of the illustrations and photography were works of the author unless otherwise stated. 8

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

Kampar is a town in the State of Perak, Malaysia and is known for being one of the largest tin-mining towns during the industrys boom in the 1920s. (Fig. 1) In addition to that, Kampar was also a place that helped spread Methodism in the State of Perak. The Kampar Methodist Church was one of the earliest church buildings the missionaries constructed in the early twentieth century, after Singapore, Penang and Ipoh.

I grew up in Kampar and attended KCMC with my family when I was little. It is my interest and great opportunity to investigate and document the history of my home church. The notion came about when I realized that there was limited literature about this specific topic, connecting the history of Kampar, the Chinese community, and Christianity. The scope of the research grew to a study of Kampar Methodist Churches (including all the different congregations) as I uncover the interesting spatial divergences within the Kampar Methodist Churches and the way they relate to one another.

Presently, the Kampar Methodist Churches have divided itself into 4 congregations, and 7 buildings. My research questions are: (i) What are the reasons that contribute to such separation, when Kampar is a relatively small town and predominantly inhabited by Chinese people? (ii) What are the external influences, if any, that caused such divergence and did those influences have any specific effect on any congregation?

Looking at the different congregations, namely KCMC, KWMC, KTMC and SWTC, they are separated by different languages and ethnicity. Therefore, my hypothesis for such a phenomenon is that language and ethnicity of individual congregations have key influences on the development of the churches, coupled with local and national forces that further shape the individual congregations in very specific ways, resulting in the divergence of architectural space, form and function.

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1.2 Methodology and Scope

The relevance of this dissertation as an architectural study lies on the following idea: language and ethnicity have major effects on our surroundings and our lives, thus providing a valuable window for one to analyse a particular place across different times. These effects are often recorded in terms of architecture, with the different spaces being formed, style and expressions of a building and the resultant communities who use the spaces. It is almost like studying the rings formed at the tree trunk: each ring left behind can tell various stories about the tree, the soil of the location, even the atmospheric condition of the surroundings across time.

For the context of Kampar Methodist Churches, language and ethnicity have very specific effects affecting the individual communities: KCMC, KWMC, KTMC, and SWTC. It is necessary to clarify that Kampar is not a Methodist town, and other religions are being practised by the local population as well. Even so, this dissertation is focusing on Kampar Methodist Churches because of the interesting mixture of events, people, place and issues this subject poses.

In order to establish and examine the background of this topic, the history of Kampar and the history of the Malaysia Methodist Church were studied. Various secondary sources such as books and journals were also referrenced. Among them, two separate publications provided general yet comprehensive accounts on these two topics: Kinta Valley by Khoo Salma and Abdur-Razzaq Lubis (on the history of Kampar) and From Mission to Church by Earnest Lau (on the history of the Malaysia Methodist Church). For the recent developments of the history of Kampar (1990s onwards), the dissertation relies on online resources and personal knowledge of the author.

With reference to the specific history of Kampar Methodist Church, the research work relies on different primary and secondary sources, and they are divided into three parts:

(i) For the earlier history of the church (1890s to 1940s), archival records of the Malaysia Message from the Singapore Methodist Archive; meeting minutes and official letters of the Perak Secretariat and Kinta Land Office from the Malaysia National Archive were examined.

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(ii) For the later history of the church (1950s to 1980s), references were drawn from various publications such as the anniversary booklets, yearbooks, special commemoration journals of respective congregations. Interviews with respective pastors and church members were also conducted. (iii) For the recent developments of the church (1990s to 2010), information was obtained through interviews, photography and site visits to the individual churches.

Before the discussions of the individual churches and their changes, a general study of Methodist Architecture was conducted by studying the text and drawings of George W. Dolbey, to understand any underlying principles that the Methodist churches might have when building a church. Later, the physical changes of the different Methodist churches in Kampar are illustrated with photographs, drawings and interviews.

Finally, a study of how different historical and current events in Malaysia further affected the different congregations specifically, contributing to their unique way of spatial division, differentiation and the subsequent formation. Language and ethnicity are discussed in every chapter to draw their relationships with different aspects of the town, the church and the people.

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Chapter 2: History of Kampar & Malaysia Methodist Church

2.1 The Malaysia Methodist Church

The Methodist Churches in Malaysia consists of seven annual conferences under the umbrella of the General Conference of the Methodist Church in Malaysia. (Fig.2) Four of them are located in Peninsular Malaysia: the Chinese Annual Conference, the Tamil Annual Conference, the Trinity Annual Conference and the Sengoi Mission Conference. All of these annual conferences are represented in Kampar, but not evenly. KCMC is the largest, with a present congregation of about 400 people; while the SWTC consist only a few mission workers and students. It is due to this rich ethnic and cultural mix within the Kampar Methodist community that provided a study topic in which religious spaces are defined and conscribed by language and ethnicity in Malaysia.

Fig. 2 - The organisational structure of Malaysia Methodist Church

The Methodist churches in Malaysia were not always separated in their organization at its earliest stages in 1880s. As the individual groups of churches became more self-reliant, most wanted self-governance, which led to the setting up of different annual conferences. These decisions were made mostly because of the need to better manage the different churches with their congregations different individual needs.

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History of Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia

In order to study the history of Methodist Church in Malaysia, it is necessary to view the history collectively with Malaysia and Singapore Methodist Church, because the church organisation was one unit before finally separated into two in 1976. The Methodist Church in Malaysia and Singapore can be divided into a few eras:

1. The formation of the Methodist Episcopal Mission (MEM) (1889), 2. The formation of the Malaya Annual Conference in Malaysia and Singapore - before autonomy (1924), 3. The formation of the 5 Annual Conferences in Malaysia and Singapore, under the autonomous umbrella of Methodist Church of Malaysia and Singapore (MCMS) (1968), 4. The separation of the MCMS and the subsequent formation of the Malaysia Methodist Church and the Singapore Methodist Church (1976).

Figure 3 illustrates the major events of the Methodist Church in Malaysia and Singapore.

The Methodist missionaries first arrived in Singapore in 1895, which eventually led to the expansion of the Methodist Mission Movement in the region. In 1889, the Methodist Episcopal Mission (MEM) was formed by William F. Oldham, hoping to spread the gospel northwards and beyond. Before the official formation of the MEM, and its headquarters in Singapore, the island was already an outreach station of the Burmah district of the South India Conference.1

Oldham first reached out to the Indian immigrants and built the first Anglo-Tamil School in late 1885 as well as the first Tamil Methodist Church in 1886.2 Mission work was limited to the Tamil-speaking group at that time as Oldham had only command of the English language. Also, the MEM had not been able to hire a Chinese missionary at that time. Things did not remain stagnant much longer as Oldham soon made friends with the Chinese merchants in Singapore, and with their help, set up the first Anglo-Chinese School in 1886. With that development, the first Chinese Methodist Church was built soon after. With such positive developments in Singapore, MEM began to plan and send missionaries to Malaya, and George F. Pykett was appointed to start the mission in Penang.

Methodist missionaries finally made their way to Perak, and William E. Horley was the first to arrive to Ipoh
1 2 Earnest Lau, From Mission to Church, The evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia:1885-1976, Pg. 113. Ibid., Pg. 12. 14

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Fig. 3 - Events in the Malaysia Methodist Church history.

in 1895. Rev. Horley had a more detailed job description to expand the ACS movement into Perak. He began his ministry with a small school in Ipoh, until the Perak Government donated a four-acre land for Rev. Horley to build the new school. In 1902, he then moved on to other townships around Ipoh and started the Kampar ACS in 1903. That building was also used as the Kampar Chinese Methodist Church.

With a firm foundation in Singapore, and a strong support from the United Methodist Church from America, Methodist missionaries traveled around Malaysia and Singapore to spread the gospel. It is with three principles: evangelism, education and philanthropy that the Christian workers built schools, hospitals, and churches.3

Organisation

Organisation of the Methodist Church became more developed and complex as more churches were being set up at different locations in the country. Different churches were set up for different congregations, and the Methodist Church Annual Conference was responsible for regulating the supply of pastors for individual places. The organisational structure can be generally viewed as a 5 tiered structure: The General Conference (headed by a Bishop), the Annual Conferences (each headed by a President), The Mission Conference (headed by a Superintendent), The District (headed by a District Superintendent), and finally the individual churches (headed by the Leader of the LCEC - Local Council Executive Committee, and the pastor)

By the time the Malaysia Methodist Church was formed in 1976, there were already different annual conferences based on different congregations in place. Within Malaysia, the English speaking TRAC is the oldest but the Mandarin speaking MCAC has the largest number of people. The Tamil speaking Methodist churches used to be under the jurisdiction of TRAC (formerly the English speaking Malaya Annual Conference before 1968), until their autonomous formation of the TAC in 1968. In West Malaysia, the SMC for the Sengoi Methodist community was only established in 1976. Naturally, the difference length of each annual conferences history contributes to the respective churches development and congregation size. This situation almost parallel to the Kampar Methodist Churches development: KCMC has the largest number of people, and SWTC has the least. The different annual conferences based on language and ethnicity have direct impact on the development of the different congregations in Kampar.

Chen, Andre K.T., History Malaysia Methodism 75 Year Anniversary, 1885-1960. November 1968. 16

2.2 History of Kampar

Kampar has her origin in Sumatra, where there was a state with the same name. The first sultan of Perak, Muzafar Shah (reigned 1528-1549), was from Kampar, Sumatra, when he fled his home city to Perak, Malaya after his brother was made the Sultan in Sumatra.4 Earlier in the 19th century, Kampar, formerly known as Batang Tonggang, was a place where the Orang Kampar 5traded and bartered with the locals with merchandises such as the tobacco, ceramics and iron. Later, many Orang Kampar began to settle in Batang Tonggang and the village began to grow.6

Before the Kinta Valley tin-mining rush, Larut was the major mining area in Perak and Chinese miners began to flock to Kinta Valley in the early 1890s. Before long, many miners arrived at Kampar and the landscape and history of this town had changed ever since. The old Kampar town or Batang Tonggang was not far away from the center of the mining area, which is close to the current railway station. Batang Tonggang was the trading area while Mambang-di-Awan was the mining and residential area, consisting mainly of Chinese immigrants. (Fig. 5) The two areas were located close to each other and they grew to merge into one area known as Mambang-di-Awan. Later, E.W.Birch, who was the Secretary to the Government, formally renamed Mambang-di-Awan to Kampar on the 13th of March, 1894.7 The old Kampar Hospital was constructed next to the railway station, as did the official residences for the British officials. (Fig. 7) An old photograph shows a picture of the tin mines in the fore ground, while the older shops and houses clustered around at the immediate background. (Fig. 8) Further in the background reveals a few rows of shophouses, obviously newer and built of more sturdy materials than those next to the mines. Towards the upper middle portion of the photo shows a side view of an important-looking building, which was the Kampar Methodist Church..

Being a town which was predominantly inhabited by Chinese people, the Hokkien Society set up Pei Yuan School (), the first Mandarin school in 1912, with classes conducted in Mandarin. It attracted many students whom their parents preferred them to learn Mandarin than English. The first 'school' was nothing more than a few rooms above a shophouse along Jalan Gopeng. During the following years, other schools were also built to support the slowly growing population, but most of the schools were Chinese schools: the

4 Khoo, Salma Nasution, Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysias Modern Development, Perak, 2005, Pg. 144. 5 Orang Kampar , or people of Kampar was the people from Kampar, Sumatra (Indonesia). They were merchants or traders who migrated from Sumatra and settle in Perak and Johor. The name of Kampar the town has indirect relations with Orang Kampar. After many generations of inter-marriage between Orang Kampar and other Malay immigrants in modern Malaysia, Malay people of Orang Kampar origins are starting to trace their roots of Kampar culture and language. 6 Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar, Perkembangan Pendudukan Melayu di Daerah Kinta (Perak), 1880-1930an, Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya, 1976/1977. 7 Khoo, Salma Nasution, Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysias Modern Development, Perak, 2005, Pg. 144. 17

Fig. 7 - Larger plan of the Padang and Hospital Scheme, showing the road detouring and the various bungalows, 1948

Fig. 8 - KCMC 1904 with the mines.

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Kampar Girl School(1916), Chung Hwa School (1920) etc. By then, the infrastructure of the Kampar Town Center slowly developed. Jalan Idris and Jalan Gopeng were the busiest streets as these two main streets had most of the shops, restaurants and other facilities to serve the Kampar public.

It is unclear exactly when the center of the Kampar shifted from the train station to the Kampar Town Center due to the tin-mining industry. However, in 1948, there was a major town planning decision made by the Perak State Executive Council to relocate the old hospital from the train station to the current site on top of the hill beside Jalan Gopeng. The development scheme was known as the Padang and Hospital Mining Scheme 1948.(refer to above Fig. 5) Within the scheme, the Perak State Government worked with the French tin-mining company, Socit des Etains de Kinta (SEK), to relocate different buildings next to the Kampar train station: The Kampar Hospital, Government quarters, 29 squatters, the Kampar Club, and a major road diversion for Jalan Degong. KCMC had already been relocated by 1919, therefore it was not included in the scheme. It is therefore reasonable to speculate that the town centre of Kampar shifted to Jalan Idris and Jalan Gopeng over time as the mining area grew, displacing the physical landscape before 1950s.

Thus, up till 1950s, the local population were distributed across Kampar in the following way: the colonial officers and administrators, the wealthy European tin miners, and some of the civil servants serving at the train station and the hospital were living near the SEK mines; while the Chinese business men, students, teachers, and other commoners were staying near the town center. (Fig. 5) The smaller communities such as the Indian and Malay people were living in dispersed smaller villages further from town. Being a tin-mining town, Kampar continued to attract more Chinese people to work at the mines and this contributes to the uneven growth among the different ethnicities.

There were no major physical and economical developments after WWII until the 1980s, when the Kampar Bandar Bahru (was developed by a group of local developers. (Fig. 6) This brought a lateral shift to the Kampar landscape, in terms of built up area, as the development was a very large-scaled project, including approximately 2,000 units of terrace houses and shops (5,000 units in 2010).8 Among the developers, the largest one was the company owned by Tan Sri Hew See Tong. One great contributing factor which made such large developments possible in a considerable small town was that the land within the development was mostly reclaimed tin-mining lakes. These large areas of lakes and river sand land were considered unwanted wild areas before being filled up and houses built. Coupling with the housing development, jobs were generated by the investment and construction of three foreign electronic factories.
8 http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/7/17/north/6651734&sec=north (accessed on 29 August 2010) 20

This development attracted many people of various ethnicities to move to Kampar, with different proportions. Sengoi and Indian people who were living in the villages began to work in the factories. Large number of Chinese people from the surrounding towns such as Jeram, Malim Nawar, Gopeng and Air Kuning also worked in these factories, and many of them bought houses in Kampar Bandar Bahru. It was a timely development as the old tin-mining dependent economy was no longer able to support the Kampar population.

At present, Kampar is expecting another large group of immigrants from around the country, as the University Tunku Abdul Rahman draws students and teaching staff to Kampar. The university, which is located in Kampar Bandar Bahru, attracted more housing development and other businesses into Kampar. Unlike the Kampar Town Center, Kampar Bandar Bahru town planning has allowed vast room for expansion and new networks of roads to reach surrounding towns and villages which previously only accessible by the old trunk road.

Chapter 2 Conclusion:

It is not by coincidence that the first Methodist Church built in Kampar was for a Chinese (ethnicity and language) congregation in 1903, as the population then consisted mostly of Chinese immigrants who moved to Kampar for the tin-mining industry. The founding of Kampar ACS by the Methodist missionaries, and Kampar Pei Yuan School (by the local Chinese community supported the growth of the town, as well as the church. Methodist churches of other languages were not formed before 1950s because there were not enough Christians of other ethnicities within Kampar to constitute a critical mass for a new congregation. This formed the foundation of the Methodist community in Kampar.

With the development of the town, the church building was moved from the train station right into the heart of the Kampar Town Center, sharing the land with ACS. This move changed the environment of the church: from high class area of colonial bungalows near the train station; to the centre of the middle class town center, surrounded with Chinese-owned shophouses and schools. This drew more Chinese people into the church. Even though the initial missionaries were Europeans who spoke mainly English, KCMC was conducting the service in Cantonese, as it was (and still is) the most common Chinese dialect spoken in town. Through time, pastors who were locally trained managed to conduct the Sunday services without the English language, and solely in Cantonese.

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With reference to the history of Methodist Church in Malaysia and Singapore, the singular Kampar Chinese Church congregation began to form separate churches (based on the different languages) after the formation of the various Annual Conferences under the Malaysia Methodist Church umbrella. In order to begin a new church, it requires two things: the number of people and the administrative support of the annual conference. Thus, when the size of the other ethnic communities in Kampar grew in the 1980s, together with the different language-based annual conferences already in placed, Methodist churches for the Tamil-speaking and Sengoispeaking congregations were formed.

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Chapter 3: The individual Churches and their histories

Kampar Methodist Churches or the Kampar Methodist Christians consists of four congregations and seven buildings. The following table (Fig. 9) summarizes the properties of the individual congregations. In this chapter, the description of the Churches histories will be centering on the main congregation: KCMC. KCMC is the first congregation who occupied the first KCMC church building at the Kampar train station in 1903, and most of the subsequent developments from other congregations branched off from this earliest congregation.

Congregations

KCMC Kampar Chinese Methodist Church

KWMC Kampar Wesley Methodist Church

KTMC Kampar Tamil Methodist Church

SWTC Sengoi Workers Training Center

Founding date Congregation size (approximately) Language used Ethnicity of Congregation Annual Conference

1903 450 Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese MCAC 1. KCMC Main Church. 2. Kampar Bandar Bahru Methodist Center. (sold in 2006) 3. Malim Nawar Methodist Center. 4. Kampar Wesley Gospel Factory. 3

1956 250 English Chinese, Indian and others TRAC 1. Methodist School (moved out in 2009) 2. Kampar Wesley Methodist Center

1952 175 Tamil and English Indian TAC 1. Methodist School (moved out in 2007) 2. Wisma Tamil Methodist Kampar

1980 75 Sengoi and Bahasa Melayu Sengoi SMC 1. Methodist School 2. House-chapels in villages

Physical Building(s) and Facilities

Number of Buildings

1 + several house chapels

Fig. 9 - Kampar Methodist Churches and their congregations.

3.1 Kampar Chinese Methodist Church

When the missionaries came to Kampar in the early 1900s, the town was already known as a bustling tinmining town, and the local population consists of mainly Chinese workers, especially those of Cantonese and Hakka origin. There were a few missionaries who visited Kampar a few times and thought that this was a good place to begin a new church as there were so many non-believers working and living here.

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Rev. Ling was an ordained pastor from China and was one of the Foochow people who came to Malaysia under the persuasion of Rev. Dr. Leuvring to settle in a nearby plantation town called Sitiawan in 1903.9 While in Sitiawan, he led the community to start a church. Due to the success in Sitiawan, Rev. Ling was sent to Kampar to start another church for the Cantonese community. Being a Chinese missionary, and the ability to communicate with the local tin-mine workers, he managed to gather a small group of people and began a church. This formed the first group of church members for KCMC. The small church was renting a shop house near the market place, and the monthly rent was 63 dollars.10 A request was made by Rev. W.D. Cooper in September 1903 to the Perak British Resident in Taiping for a government land grant so that the church could build a proper building to be used as a church and a school. Perhaps the request was not granted as it was written by Chye Kooi Kean:

The Chinese Methodist Church was built on a hillock facing East i.e. the Bujang Melaka (mountain) range. It was a brick building with a corrugated iron roof and was situated about half-way from the town to the former railway station. The church was half a mile from the post office and stood on a mining lease owned by a Hakka miner Leong Kon Chen.11

Nevertheless, the church was completed in 1903, and the new building also served as the Kampar ACS, founded by Rev. W.E. Horley in the same year. Sharing the same building, the KCMC/Kampar ACS begin to serve the Chinese workers and their children: a school on weekdays and a church on Sundays. With limited manpower, Rev. Ling Ching Mi was also the first teacher in charge for the school, and the enrolment was 45 students.12 This one classroom school slowly gained a reputation and in 1904, with the helped of Mr Phong Ah Sang, the enrolment increased to 70 students. It is interesting to note that there was no cross or crucifix on the main faade of the building, as shown in the Figure 10. The reason for this could be due to the lack of readiness of the local Chinese community to accept Christianity, especially the tin-miners, to accept foreign missionaries to build a western temple in their immediate surroundings. Therefore, operating a church within a school gives the Methodist missionaries to slowly reach out to the people.

9 Shih, Toong Siong, The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective. 2004, Pg. 5-6, Persatuan Kutien Daerah Manjung (Sitiawan, Perak) In 1903, Rev. Dr. Leuvring, a German missionary who speaks many languages, including Foochow, Cantonese, Hakka, and Malay, went to Foochow, China to pursuade a group of people to live in a rice-growing settlement in Sitiawan, Perak. Arable land was given to all the immigrants to start their plantations, schools and churches. This trans-migration of the community was a scheme planned and funded by the Colonial Administration in Malaya, as an effort to increase food production within the State of Perak. Rev. Dr. Leuvring was representing the MEM for such work and led a big group of Foochow Chinese to the settlement of Sitiawan, as well as to Methodism. A similar scheme was carried out in 1901, and the Foochow Chinese went to Sibu, Sarawak. 10 11 12 Kinta Land Office, The Perak Secretariat. Letter to British Resident from Rev. D.W. Cooper. September 15 1905. Chye, Kooi Kean, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary & Dedication of Parsonage, Wesley Methodist Church Kampar. May 1992. Hicks, E.C., History Of English Schools in Perak. Pg 27. 1958, Published by The Perak Library, Ipoh. 24

Fig. 10 - The first Kampar Chinese Methodist Church, also the Anglo Chinese School, 1903.

The First Move

When the first church/school was built, Kampar was still a young town as it was only formally founded in 1984. The old town center was essentially a cluster of people and several small scale tin-mining companies, without proper infrastructure and roads. Later, as Kampar grew, people needed a bigger and better planned town center to accommodate more houses and public facilities. In late 1910s, the new town center, which is the current Kampar Town Center, was planned and constructed. Like many other small towns in Malaysia, Kampar had 2 main streets (Jalan Gopeng and Jalan Idris) of shop houses and intersected by roads connecting to the main public facilities (temple, mosque, post office etc.)

KCMC was one of the buildings affected by this shift of the town center. At the same time, ACS was facing problems with limited spaces, as the student enrolment had grown to 112 students in 1915.13 Rev. Horley and the school committee began to plan for a building for the school and the church. Their plans were heavily supported by Mr. Eu Tong Sen as he donated a large sum of $3,000 and the site for the construction of the

13

Hicks, E.C., History Of English Schools in Perak. Pg 27. 1958, Published by The Perak Library, Ipoh. 25

school and church.14 The plan for moving was suspended during World War I and only resumed in 1919. With that, the first KCMC was demolished and a new church was built at the current address: 5, Jalan Kuala Dipang, 31900 Kampar, which is adjacent to ACS. (Fig. 11) Both buildings are still standing on the original site.

The second KCMC and ACS each has their own building within the same plot of land, allowing much interaction between the school community and the church leaders. By this time, Pei Yuan School was already founded by the Kampar Hokkien Chinese community in 1912.15 Both English-speaking and Cantonese-speaking Methodists were attending the church. Even though the church had such strong affiliation to the English school (ACS), the service continued to be conducted in Cantonese. Pastors who did not know the Cantonese language would have the help of a local church member with the translation during sermon delivery.

During World War II, due to its prominent location and appearance, the church and the school were successively occupied by different political and military bodies: the Malayan Volunteer Infantry, the Japanese Army, and the Indian National Army. The last occupant was the MPAJA (Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army) which took over the building for several weeks in August 1945.16 Therefore, church worship and various activities were severely affected as all the activities were strictly monitored and limited. Growth of the congregation was hindered. However, it is also because of such military occupations that helped preserve almost all of the buildings from being destroyed during war.

In 1947, the Malaysia Chinese Annual Conference (MCAC) was formed as a separate entity from the Malaya Annual Conference, which previously supervised all the Methodist churches in Malaya and Singapore (Tamil, Chinese, English, Malay etc.) KCMC, being majority Cantonese-speaking, registered the church under the umbrella of the MCAC, and formally recognized herself as a Chinese Methodist Church, in ethnicity and language.

In 1959, KCMC went through a major renovation. The church was originally a timber construction, except for the front and the back wall, which were of brick construction.17 The timber were showing signs of severe deterioration and the church committee decided to raised funds for major repairs, replacing the timber walls with brick and mortar.(Fig. 12) From the main faade, all the elements were kept and new signage was put up to commemorate the important dates for the church.
14 15 16 17 Hicks, E.C., History Of English Schools in Perak. Pg 27. 1958, Published by The Perak Library, Ipoh. Pg. 27 Chan, Gin Lee, Pg97, Dec 1957, Published by. Lau, Earnest, From Mission to Church, The evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia:1885-1976, Pg. 179. Pg. 52. 1960. 26

Fig. 11 - The second KCMC, at 5 Jln Kuala Dipang, 1919.

Fig. 12 - KCMC after renovatoin, 1959

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The church building was not solely used by the Chinese congregation, but shared with KTMC and KWMC when they were formed in 1952 and 1956 respectively. This situation of sharing was being reflected on the signs put on the faade: it contained English text and Chinese characters. Although these three groups of people were using the same building, little documented evidence showed that they were a united community: no reports on joint activities, events or celebrations. They conducted their services separately. Throughout all this time, ACS was also growing on the same plot of land: from a building of two-blocks with a center assembly area; to a complex with an additional three-storey block of classrooms, new canteen, and a basketball court. Fig. 13 shows the present relative locations of the church within the school compound.

Fig. 13 - Relative Location of KCMC within ACS

With the church having a predominantly Cantonese-speaking congregation, it continues to draw Cantonesespeaking people to the church. Due to the local population composition, KCMC was growing at a faster rate than KWMC, and the once renovated church building was no longer able to fit the full congregation. In order to address the space constraints, the church was preparing to build a new church: a building committee was set up in 1986 to engage a local architect for the church planning and design. The plan to construct a new building was met with a challenge: the Perak State Government did not approve the project.

The building committee appealed several times to no success. In May 2001, due to the pressing need to accommodate the large congregation in KCMC, the building committee had a general meeting and arrived at a solution: altered the original building plan to a church extension plan.18 Within a few months, the church
18 KCMC, 100th Anniversary Powerpoint Presentation Slides: , 2003. Slide No. 9 (The Slides were prepared by the KCMC 100th Anniversary Celebration Committee for the KCMC New Sanctuary Dedication Service in Dec 2003.) 28

managed to obtain the approval from the local government, and construction work began in August, completed a month later. The renovation works included the demolition of the sanctuary west wall and extend it to the edge of the site, construction of a new parsonage and a new toilet. The new asymmetrical configuration can be clearly seen from the main street, and has a larger seating capacity of 300 people.

Kampar Chinese Methodist Church and the Daughter Churches.

Since the 1980s, the church (pastors and church members) was doing more than organising Sunday church services in Kampar. Much effort was invested to reach out to other Chinese-dialects speaking communities nearby, and one of the towns was Malim Nawar, some 20 kilometers away from Kampar. In order to serve that community more efficiently, a satellite church was founded in 1995, in the form of a shophouse along the main street. Taking the precedence of the missionaries, the shophouse was also used as a tuition center for the children at that community on weekdays. Another satellite church was founded when Kampar Bandar Bahru was developed: in 1997, the shophouse-church conducted their Sunday services at night. Both satellite churches were named as Methodist Center, that is, Malim Nawar Methodist Center and Bandar Bahru Methodist Center.

The Kampar Bandar Bahru development was growing with more residential areas, the new UTAR, and another industrial area. This growth within the area also led to the expansion of the Bandar Bahru Methodist Center. Plans were made to purchase a bigger place for the night Cantonese congregation, and the solution was a factory lot in the industrial area. The new facility was located in the heart of the industrial area, beside an ice factory. Funds were raised for interior renovation work so that the factory typology could suit the church setting. In 2007, the facility was opened for church service, and it was named as, which translates as the Kampar Methodist Gospel Factory.

Presently, under the umbrella of KCMC, there are 3 facilities: the Malim Nawar Methodist Center, the Kampar Wesley Gospel Factory and the KCMC. All 3 congregations conduct the Sunday services in Chinese languages (Mandarin and/or Cantonese) and attended by mostly Chinese people.

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3.2 The Kampar Methodist Church Network: KCMC with KWMC, KTMC and SWTC

The entire network of Kampar Methodist Church consists of 4 congregations, namely KCMC, KWCM, KTMC and SWTC. The detailed histories of the 3 smaller congregations, namely KWMC, KTMC and SWTC are documented in the Annex A2 of this dissertation. For the purpose of this papers discussion on language and ethnicity, and their effects on the churches architecture, these 3 congregations will be discussed collectively against the history of KCMC. Figure 14 shows the relative location of all the congregations, and their respective seven buildings.

Out of the three smaller congregations, KWMC was the one who first started : it began as a small group of English-speaking Methodists in 1933, consisted of mainly student and teachers of ACS. They did not form a church yet, but joined the KCMC congregation for their services, and had a separate English bible study group. Ethnically, this group of non-Cantonese-speaking members consisted of mainly Chinese people, with a few Europeans and Indians.19 The attendance for this group was around 30 people, a relatively small group comparing to KCMC which had a congregation of 150.

In 1947, a major organisation change within the Methodist Church of Malaysia and Singapore took place: the MCAC was established in December, as a separate body from the previous English-oriented MAC. KCMC automatically fell under the jurisdiction of MCAC as the dominant group of the congregation was Cantonese speaking Methodists. Although the non-Cantonese speaking members still stayed with KCMC, they parted with KCMC and formed their own church (KWMC) in 1956. This separation was merely an organisational change as KWMC still continued to use the main sanctuary of KCMC due to limited resources.

Not all the Indian Methodist members were worshipping with the KWMC congregation; the Tamil speaking Indian Methodists were joining another church founded by the Gopeng Tamil Methodist Church. Gopeng Tamil Methodist Church started a small house-church in Taman Pelangi, Kampar as a branch of their main church in Gopeng. Although Gopeng Tamil Methodist Church was the center, the church members were from different small towns around Kampar and Gopeng: Tapah, Malim Nawar, Jeram etc. This is due to the small population of Indian people living all across Kinta Valley of Perak, as it was (and still is) a Chinese dominant place.

19 Annex A2, Part I - The key players for the founding of KWMC were ethnically more diverse than KCMC. They had a Chinese leader, Mr. Yong Ngim Djin; a European principal for ACS, Rev. Douglas P. Coole; and another headmaster for ACS, Mr. A.T. Ponniah. 30

As a separate event, the Tamil speaking Methodists began to organise themselves in Kampar. In 1952, Mr. Kandiah from ACS took the lead to organise Tamil Sunday services in the main sanctuary of KCMC. This event marked the beginning of KTMC and the congregation then consisted of only ten families.20 For an Indian Methodist in Kampar, one could attend either the English-speaking KWMC or the Tamil-speaking KTMC. Both congregations were using the main sanctuary of KCMC, and they shared the building at different times.

Due to the proximity of the congregations and the affiliation with ACS, and the lack of human resources for the three congregations, pastors from each congregation and teachers from ACS were invited to preach at different churches, depending on the linguistic ability of the speaker. The spirit of sharing was very evident among these three congregations. Sometimes, the classrooms of ACS were opened for the use of the congregations to conduct their Sunday Schools and other activities. This sharing of facilities, including the classrooms of ACS gave the three congregations a large compound to conduct their church activities. Thus on Sundays, the entire compound was considered as the church, even though it was not a formal arrangement between the school and the congregations.

With respect to the Sengoi community, KWMC took the first step in organising joint activities for the two communities. This is partly due to the organisational structure of the Malaysia Methodist Church: the Sengoi Mission Conference was under the jurisdiction of the English speaking MAC. In 1964, when KWMC was under the care of Rev. Samuel Chong, he worked well among the youths (referring to the Boys and Girls Brigades) and the Sengois as well.21

In the 1980s, KCMC was growing at a fast rate due to the development of Kampar Bandar Bahru. KWMC and KTMC were having more members as well, after being established for about 30 years. The main sanctuary of KCMC were not enough to be shared among these three growing congregations, thus they decided to separate. In 1981 KTMC made the first move to the Methodist School, which was under the care of the Sengois. Nine years later, KWMC also changed their worship location to the Methodist School.

The main reason that the Sengois could accommodate another congregation to move in and use the facilities in the Methodist School was this: they were using the school as a training center (Sengoi Workers Training Center - SWTC), so they did not have a full congregation using the spaces in the school, especially on Sundays. The
20 The KTMC congregation usually refers to their number of people in the form of families. This is due to the custom of many Indian families: when the father became a Christian, the rest of the family normally followed. This tradition still remains today. 21 Tham Leong, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary and Dedication of Parsonage, June 1991. 32

Sengoi members worshipped within their respective villages in the setting of a house-chapel. So, KTMC and KWMC took turns to use the school: few years after KWMC moved into SWTC, KTMC moved out in search for another worship place. By this time, both congregations had not been able to have their own building to be called as their home churches. They have shared with KCMC and SWTC for the last 40 years. Both congregations were planning for the construction of their own church and they each set up their own building committees.

Finally in 2007, KTMC succeeded in purchasing and renovating a 3-shoplots building along Jalan Gopeng and converted into a church: The Wisma Tamil Methodist Kampar, Gopeng. KWMC also managed to have a church of their own: in 2009, they had designed and constructed a new building 100 meters away from KCMC. This Kampar Wesley Methodist Center had many facilities such as the pastors office, canteen, classrooms and a sanctuary for their Sunday services.

Chapter 3 Conclusion:

Kampar being a Chinese dominant town had allowed KCMC to be established as the oldest church among the four congregations. For the first KCMC, it was built by the European missionaries but run by the local Cantonese-speaking Christians. Methodist work during the early 20th century was very much restricted to the Chinese community (both Cantonese and English speaking) because of the populations ethnic composition of Kampar. With respect to KWMC, even though there were Chinese members in the congregation (with Europeans and Indians), it did not manage to draw many Cantonese-speaking members because of the difference in language. This had caused them to grow much slower than KCMC. For KTMC and SWTC, they did not have enough people of their ethnicity within Kampar and were only able to set up their Methodist communities much later.

With the longest history among all, KCMC had better facilities than the other three congregations, and most important of all, the main sanctuary in KCMC. Due to the limited resources of the two younger congregations, KWMC and KTMC were sharing the facilities with KCMC. The English schools of ACS and the Methodist School (managed by the SWTC) had strong affiliations with the Methodist community, shared their school facilities with the three congregations. At this point, the spatial division between the schools and the church was very small, but the four congregations were using the spaces separately at different times.

33

When the Methodist School next to KCMC became available, due to an untimely closure of the institution, three smaller congregations took up the place and share the resources: The Sengoi Methodist group took charge in taking care of the building, and using it as a training school and hostel for the emerging Sengoi Christian community; KWMC and KTMC used the place for their regular Sunday services; and a small kindergarten was set up by the KWMC to teach the young children from all three communities.

Due to the separate language-based Annual Conferences in the Malaysian Methodist organisation, churches were expected to seek assistance and support from the respective Annual Conferences. As such, limited efforts were made to unite all the members together for events, leading to little knowledge or sense of community towards each other, even though there was a period when all 4 congregations shared the facilities together. In such climate, whenever the congregation became self supporting and financially stable, it is comprehensible that the people wanted a separate autonomous church of their own. With that separation, each community brought with them their unique set of people, resources and ideas to build their own churches.

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Chapter 4: The physical manifestations and changes

4.1 Methodist Church: Its Spaces and Architectural Ideas.

Methodist Church in Malaysia, or Methodism (1784) in general, is relatively new compared to the Roman Catholic Church (314), the Protestant Lutheran Church (1517), and the Church of England (1534). 22 Therefore it is crucial to divide the comparison of church into 3 parts: (i) (ii) (iii) Methodist Church and the Earlier Churches; Early Methodist Church in England and Kampar Methodist Church; and finally The different Methodist Churches in Kampar based on language and ethnicity.

It is important to note that the term church used in this part of the paper refers to the entire church organisation, instead of a singular building unit.

Methodist Church and the Earlier Churches

The earlier churches in the Middle Ages were far more complex than the Methodist Church. The planning of the earlier churches included spaces like the transepts, aisles, chancels, and they were usually very large in scale. The notion of a church is a Gods House and this usually drives the builders to construct the best building within a locality.23 On the other hand, the Methodist Church has a different idea whereby the church is a Congregational Worship Space: a domestic hall in which the church members congregated to worship.24 These churches usually have a simple form with a simple plan: an altar on one side, the entrance on the other, and seats in between.

One of the main reasons for such differences in expression, and in the spatial planning is the difference in worship. As pointed out by White The relationship of architecture to worship is a complex one. Church architecture reflects both the way Christians worship and the way the building shapes worship, or misshaping it.25 It is due to a long established form of liturgy and worship that shaped the complex planning and structure of the earlier churches. Methodist Church by comparison has a much simpler worship procedures and formalities, as the focused ideology was to evangelize and reach out to more people, instead of drawing people
22 23 24 25 Chye, Kooi Khean, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary and Dedication of Parsonage, June 1991. Pg. 6-7. Dolbey, George W., The Architectural Expression of Methodism: The First Hundred Years. 1964, London, Epworth Press. Pg. 8. Ibid. Pg. 9 White, James F., Church Architecture: Building and renovation for Christian worship, 1998, Akron, Ohio. 35

in. It is because of this ideology that the Methodist Church was criticized by Drummond, Evangelicalism was architecturally uncreative.26

With the above two statements, one can draw a parallel in the context of Kampar. These two different ideas can be clearly seen in the architecture of the two early church buildings in Kampar, namely KCMC and the Kampar Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Fig. 15), which was constructed in 1908.27 Both church buildings were constructed in the 1910s. Although language and ethnicity may not be the factors here, it is clear that different Church ideologies would result in difference in architecture expression. Therefore it is established that church buildings with different denominations are likely to have different architectural expressions.

Fig. 15 - Kampar Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built in 1908

Early Methodist Church in England and Kampar Methodist Church

Being of the same ideology, these two categories of churches are found to be similar. The similarity may not be found on the architectural expression, as this is usually affected by factors such as affordability, construction technology and climate. The similarity lies at the planning of the church. From Figure 16, the plans of the different early Methodist Church buildings were of a similar nature: congregation seating space occupies most
26 27 Drummond, A.L., The Church Architecture of Protestantism, 1934, Pg. 189. Khoo, Salma Nasution,, Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysias Modern Development, Perak, 2005, Pg. 146. 36

part of the church main sanctuary, the shapes are essentially a rectangle of similar proportion. This is the case for the first KCMC, the second KCMC, and also the rest of the Kampar Methodist Churches (KTMC, KW, SWTC, Kampar Wesley Gospel Factory)

The church or church compound also included other facilities, and the parsonage, or the pastors living quarters were usually found near or within the church. From Fig. 17, it is clear to see that there are secondary spaces attached to the main sanctuary. These spaces are different from the secondary spaces of the Early Churches (the transepts, aisles, chancels etc.). In the case of Methodist churches, the secondary spaces were usually the supporting spaces such as guest rooms, living quarters (for the pastors, church workers, or visitors), kitchen, prayer rooms etc. They do not form or contribute directly to the worship environment of the main sanctuary.

Kampar Methodist Churches falls into this category of spatial planning, but with some modifications. The usual secondary spaces such as the living quarters and the kitchen are found in all the Kampar Methodist Churches. New spaces such as the kindergarten and schools classrooms were additions specific to the missionaries, as they were reaching out to the people through providing education. Therefore, the Methodist Churches in Kampar (and in Malaysia) are found to be spatially consistent with the early Methodist churches in England, which is an expected phenomenon since the churches are from the same denomination and sharing the same ideologies.

37

Fig. 16 - Plans of the earlier Methodist churches in England A 38

Fig. 17 - Plans of the earlier Methodist churches in England B 39

4.2 Architectural Description of the current buildings

This section of the paper is dedicated to the architectural description of the seven buildings of the four congregations. The diagram below (Fig. 18) shows the key stages during the evolution of each congregations architecture. KCMC currently has three buildings: the 2nd KCMC, the Malim Nawar Methodist Center and the Kampar Methodist Gospel Factory. Both KWMC and KTMC each has a building now to accommodate all their church activities and needs: Kampar Wesley Methodist Center and Wisma Tamil Methodist Kampar/ Gopeng. For SWTC, they are still occupying the Methodist School, and has several house-chapels in different villages to serve their dispersed Sengoi Methodist community.

Fig. 18 - Key stages during the evolution of each congregations' architecture.

The next illustration (Fig. 19) (combination of Sketch-up models, Photographs and Annotations) shows the individual churches at the present state. Notes were given to illustrate their respective building types, supporting facilities within the vicinity of the church and other important points about the building.
40

4.3 The role of the Lay leader: (iii) The different Methodist Churches in Kampar based on Language and Ethnicity.

Within the organisation of a Methodist church, the key persons are the pastor, the members of the LCEC (Local Church Executive Committee), and the president of the LCEC. These persons are more generally known as the lay leaders of the church. Usually when a church building committee is set up, a president is elected. He or she may not be the LCEC president, but it is common to find another member of the LCEC taking this position. Meeting decisions are usually made as a committee, and sometimes (with regards to financial assistance) the meeting minutes may be submitted to the respective Annual Conferences. All the Kampar Methodist Church uses this organisational model with the exception of the Sengoi Methodist community, because the Sengoi Methodist community is less developed as a community and its members are more widely spread out in the different villages.

Therefore, the level of influence (with reference to the church physical development) of the building committee is very strong. With that, it is important to examine the background of the lay leaders in terms of their educational and cultural background. These factors are largely language and ethnicity based.

First and Second KCMC: difference in ethnicity

With reference to the first and second KCMC church (i.e. the one near the train station, and the one at the present location.), the lay leaders were of different ethnicity. When the European missionaries first arrived in Kampar, they brought along their Western ideas of how a church should look like. The site for the church was also affecting the architecture: it was near the train station, which is located in the area dotted with colonial buildings such as the administrators bungalows, the Kampar Hospital, the Kampar Club and post office. The Anglo-Chinese colonial environment of the first KCMC influenced the architecture of the building (Fig. 9).

During the relocation of the church in 1919, the second KCMC had a less western design: simple pitched roof structure, minimal ornamentations on the gabled wall and simple door and windows. (Fig. 10) This shift in design could be due to two reasons, which are related to ethnicity. Firstly, the site for the second KCMC was in the middle of the Kampar Town Center, where most middle-class Chinese people lived. Perhaps the church saw the need to tone down the western-ness of the church in order to change the mindset of people that
42

Christianity is a western religion. Secondly, the local Chinese congregation already had 16 years of experience in organising their church. Chinese lay leaders were elected and they formed the building committee which determined the design of the church.

KCMC and KWMC: difference in language

Comparing KCMC and KWMC, the two churches had a different recent development in the past 20 years: KCMC underwent an expansion project, and a new factory-lot church; whereas the KWMC raised funds to design and construct a new complex, offices and classrooms. Lay leaders of these two congregations are of different background, although they are of the similar ethnicity and generation. Most of the lay leaders are in the age group of 40 to 65 years old.

60 years ago, there were two biggest schools in Kampar: the English-speaking ACS, and the Mandarin-speaking Pei Yuan School (). The cultural identity in each school was very different, in terms of their cultural associations and students were from different family background. A general survey of the schools annual magazines and publications reveals that: in the 1969 Kacsian (Kampar ACS-ian) Special Career Guidance Issue, there was a report on the school annual dinner, which was called the Cambridge Dinner. Societies and groups such as the Boys Brigade, Rangers, and St. Johns Ambulance Brigade were participated by many students. Within the career guidance section, there were two full pages of photographs, accompanied by another two-paged article describing and encouraging students to take up the nursing profession, an occupation popular among female students looking for a well paid government job.28 The prevailing school culture in Kampar ACS can be classified as Pro-colonial.

Contrasting to such pro-colonial atmosphere, Pei Yuan School still had a strong affiliation to China and Taiwan. In the school annual magazine of 1957, there was an extensive list of teachers who were teaching in the school. In the list, almost all the teachers were trained and graduated from China or Taiwan.29 There was a hand drawn map of China and an elaborated chart indicating the number of students from the respective provinces in China. In other words, the idea of different dialect groups within the school was still very evident. Although there were articles about career guidance or career choice, a graph was included in the magazine to show the occupation of the students parents. The top three occupations were (Gong - Manual labour or general
28 29 Fig. The spread on the career guidance for nursing. The KAcsian, Special Career Guidance Issue, 1969, Kampar. Pg57, Dec 1957, Published by. 43

labour)(Shang - Small or big businesses) and (Ji Xie - Machinery or technicians).30 (Fig. 20)

The drastic difference in school culture and aspirations from these two schools was largely due to language (the school language medium) and ethnicity (the teaching staff and the general culture). It is with such different backgrounds that led to the different developments of the two congregations, even down to the extent of the way they commission the building. When KCMC was planning for the church expansion project, they approached a local contrator, Brother Hoi ( - ) to design and construct the new church.31 The finished building looked like a regular house, with the covered terrace in front and a metal-roofed multi-purpose area at the rear. KWMC engaged architect Ar. Ding Poi Kooi from Ipoh to design a multipurpose complex for the congregation.32 The finished building had a more modern appearance, with greater emphasis on the interior of the main sanctuary and was more wheelchair friendly.

4.4 Chapter 4 Conclusion:

The Methodist Church of Malaysia is architecturally different from the Early Churches in England, due to the vast difference of history and cultural background. However, early Methodist Church in England, which forms the precedence for the missionaries when they arrive to Malaysia and Singapore, do have similarities in plan and form. This is largely due to the common ideology for Methodism, which is to evangelize and reach out to the surrounding people, as opposed to drawing people in.

Within the context of Malaysia, or more specifically Kampar, there are different variations among the Methodist churches, in terms of the recent development, way of expanding and choice of architectural expression. This is due to the different cultural background each of the building committee has, which is largely due to the difference in language and ethnicity.

30 31 32

Pg80-81, Dec 1957, Published by. KCMC LCEC Meeting minutes: May, 2001. Interview with Mr. M. Ganamuthu, 29 July 2010. 44

Fig. 20 - Pages from the year books of ACS and Pei Yuan School 45

Chapter 5: Malaysia and the 4 congregations

5.1 The National Policies and religious buildings.

Malaysia gained independence on the 31st of August, 1957. The leaders had always been aware that the country is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religion country. Thus, in the Articles 3 and 11 of the Merdeka Constitution, the matter of religious liberty were covered as follows.

3.(1) Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation. 11.(1) Every person has the right to profess and practise his religion and , subject to Clause (4), to propagate it. 11. (4)State law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the Muslim religion.33

Another major restriction is the law against religious proselytizing of non-Muslims among Muslims: if found guilty, the maximum penalty is one year in prison and RM 3,000 fine.34 There are two main policies which caused Churches in Malaysia having difficulties building new churches: 1. State law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine; 2. No teaching of religious materials from a non-Muslim persons to Muslims.

When a congregation planned for a new church, they would apply for permission for the construction from the State government. However, most applications came back unsuccessful because of the implication of the new church building might be used to spread Christianity to Muslims. This claim is not without any basis: For KCMC, the initial new church building plan was to be completed by 1995. The building committee submitted several applications to the State Office since 1986, but they all came back unapproved.35 Eventually KCMC changed the Building Plan into a Church Extention Plan: within a few months, the project was approved and the new church was completed in September 2001.

Other projects by KWMC and KTMC faced the same challenge: instead of submitting a building plan for a church, they each submitted a plan to construct a Methodist Center. It was an act of comprise: the two new
33 34 35 Gordon P. Means, Public Policy Toward Religion in Malaysia. Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vol. 51, No. Ibid. Pg. 390. KCMC, 100th Anniversary Powerpoint Presentation Slides: , 2003. Slide No. 8. 46 3, Pg. 390.

buildings were officially Wisma Tamil Methodist Kampar and Kampar Wesley Methodist Center, in other words, not churches. The KCMC Kampar Methodist Gospel Factory in Bandar Bahru was approved in the similar fashion.

5.2 JHEOA and the Sengoi House-Chapel

From the previous chapter, we know that SWTC do not own a building in Kampar town center to be used as their church: instead, they are occupying the Methodist School. There are a few functions within that vicinity: a kindergarten which is open to the public, Sengoi workers training center, hostel for the SWTC students and the office for SWTC. For Sunday worship services, the church building exists in the form of several small house-chapels within the different villages. This is because of the Sengoi community still lives in relatively inaccessible and small villages, and this form of small scale home-churches suited their needs. The natural tendency to bring the church to the people is one of the reasons why the Sengoi Methodists still prefer to worship in this setting. However, there is another major force that exists on a national level keeping the Sengoi community worshipping in the jungle.

JHEOA

JHEOA or Jabatan Hal-Ewah Orang Asli is a governmental department set up in 1961 with the aim to organise all OAs (Orang Asli) administrative affairs: their land, legal and personal rights. The main reason for such a department was to provide more government services such as education and health care to OA. Also, the government was still concerned about the OA being susceptible to communist propaganda.36 The disastrous episode of active (almost forceful) resettling the OA in 1953 was not to be repeated again, thus a more passive approach was adopted through JHEOA administrative means.37

With JHEOA, the governments ultimate goal for the OA is to help them integrate with the Malay sectoin of the community.38 Eventually, the government envisioned OA entering a close relationship with the Malay people, but remaining culturally distinct from them, preferably as an Islamised subgroup of the Malays.39 It is beyond the scope of the paper to discuss why the government took such a stand, and how this would benefit the country as a whole.
36 Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 67. 37 A more detailed historical account may be referred in Annex A0, subchapter Orang Asli and MPAJA. 38 Ministry of the Interior, State of Policy regarding the administration of the Aborigine Peoples of the Federatin of Malaya. Lumpur: Ministry of Interior, 1961. 39 Halinah Todd, Stolen Birthright: Orang Asli Rapidly Losing Land. Utusan Konsumer 206. Pg. 11. 47 peoples. Kuala

This process of integration was being criticized by Dentan as assimilation rather than intergration, as he pointed out that :

the governments current goal of turning all OA into Malays explains why it continues to administer OA under a set of laws that denies them the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens as well as the special privileges it guarantees to other indigenous communities. and the only way OA can attain the rights of other indigenous citizens is by changing their ethnic identity.40

Whether the motive was as cynical as Dentan had stated, JHEOA had been actively promoting Islam among the OA, to encourage the integration between the two ethnic groups. Some of the Muslim missionaries were met with success and parts of Malaysia actually have villages of OA converted to Islam and living harmoniously with the Malay people. However there were challenges and objections from the OA towards Islamisation at other places, and many of those objections were related to ritual requirements rather than spiritual ones.41 One of the major ritual requirements which OA objected was circumcision: OA find the idea of chopping off flesh very repugnant.42 With built up pressure from the government and some of the Muslim missionaries, some OA sought refuge in becoming a Christian or Bahai.43

It was in this religio-political climate that Christian missionaries visited the OA, especially the Sengois, and more specifically the West Semais in Perak. Unlike the Muslim counterparts, the Christian missionaries ventured into the backcountry where most OA lived and they actually stayed with them instead of making brief visits.44 Such great effort was met with success as it was recorded that at least 1,500 OA had become Christians by 1984, and overwhelmingly Perak Semais.45 Although there was no written law to prevent nonMuslim missionaries to reach out to the OA community, there were few isolated incidents that illustrate the governments opinion towards Christianity and their mission work in the OA community. The Srigala Incident was the largest incident, involving thirty Semai Christians in Selangor in August 1990.46

40 Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 80-81. 41 Ibid. Pg. 148. 42 Ibid. Pg. 148. 43 Ibid. Pg. 149. 44 Chan Siew Wah, Probe on Missionary Activities. The Star, 1987, Oct 10. 45 Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 149. 46 Ibid. Pg. 68-69. Details of the incident is reproduced in the Annex A6 48

peoples.

peoples.

SWTC and their Village House-Chapels

It was highlighted earlier that SWTC currently runs their Sunday services and other church-related programmes in their house-chapels within the individual villages. This form of architecture, besides bringing the church into the village, also conveys a sense of secrecy: there were no external visual clues to inform people that this is a Christian building. The house-chapels were designed and constructed very similar to the surrounding houses, blending them in with the surrounding houses. When there was no Sunday service, a caretaker lives in the house, sometimes with his/her family. During an interview, when asked why there was no cross or crucifix being put up on the exterior of the building, Rev. Bah Uda answered that they wanted to keep matters below the surface, so not to draw unnecessary attention.47

The fear and worry of unnecessary attention is one of the key factors that shaped the SWTC way of conducting church services now. Efforts were invested to keep matters below the surface, so that the Sengoi Methodist Community could conduct their activities without worry. The various historical events discussed above have such direct and unique effect on how SWTC practice their religion.

47

Interview with SWTC President, Rev. Bah Uda Aman. Annex A4 49

Conclusion

This dissertation presented a variety of key elements shaping the architecture of the Kampar Methodist Churches: history of Malaysia Methodist Church, local and National events and evolution of the Kampar Methodist Churches. Within each key elements, it can be subdivided into different aspects related to language and ethnicity: Kampar population (Chinese, European, Indian and Sengoi); Chinese people (Cantonesespeaking, Mandarin-speaking and English-speaking); Indian people (Tamil-speaking and English-speaking); Annual conferences in the Malaysia Methodist organisation (TRAC, MCAC, TAC and SMC); Policies on different ethnic groups (Orang Asli and non-Orang asli) etc. Looking at all the key elements and their respective subdivisions, it informs us how closely and specific one congregation can be affected in this web of factors.

In the beginning, the main force that shaped the architecture of KCMC was Kampars history: the tin-mining industry which attracted many Chinese workers, which in turn attracted the Methodist missionaries to set up a school and church here. Here lies the first influence of language and ethnicity: KCMC and ACS were set up by English-speaking Europeans for the Chinese people. The site chosen for this building was within an area of colonial government linked buildings: colonial bungalows, government hospital, train station, post office and the Kampar club. It was in this Anglo-Chinese environment that resulted the architecture of the first KCMC.

Sixteen years later in 1919, KCMC was shifted to the present location due to the encroaching tin-mines of SEK and the insufficient space for the ACS students. The second KCMC was built in the middle of the middleclass Chinese town, close to the other Chinese school in Kampar: Pei Yuan School. By this time, the Chinese Methodist in KCMC had a majority of Cantonese-speaking members and had already acquired some skills and experience in running the church. Lay leaders of the KCMC built the second church. The design of this building was less western as compared to the first building (Fig. 9&10 above): simple pitched roof structure, with minimal ornamentation on the main gabled wall and the absence of a chimney. Once again, language and ethnicity came into play, in the form of the cultural background and preferences of the lay leaders.

With time, the church grew, along side with the other churches in Malaysia and Singapore. The linguistic and ethnic factors that affected KCMC was no longer a simple singular direction. Forces from the Malaysia Methodist Church organisation had an impact to the Kampar Methodists: by separating into different languagebased annual conferences (Fig. 2 above). This marked the beginning of multiple language-based congregations in Kampar, which led to the inevitable separation from the main KCMC church. KWMC, KTMC and SWTC
50

wanted their own church and space, in order to be fully autonomous. Coupled with the uneven population growth (with respect to different ethnicities), the four congregations each had varied resources, sizes and ideas to build their churches.

Being a Christian organisation in Malaysia, the Methodist church had always faced challenges when it came to building a church. This prevalent hidden national force affected different congregations at different degrees, depending on the ethnicity of the congregation. In chapter 5, we saw how the Sengois communities, or Orang Asli in general, are being affected by government agencies such as the JHEOA. This ethnic-based pressure further shaped the architectural evolution of the Kampar Methodist Churches.

The spatial differentiations in the Kampar Methodist Churches arose from many factors; but it was the language and ethnicity of the congregation that remained at the core. These forces surfaced at different times, gave each congregation a unique nudge towards their unique architecture of the current church, defined their identity now, and provided a foundation for any future developments.

51

Appendix

A1 - Introduction of the Sengoi People.

In Malaysia, there have been native people living in the country before immigrants came and occupy the land. The Native people of Wets Malaysia were formerly known as orang sakai, a term with some negative connotations that they are uneducated, uncivilized and poor.48 The offensive name was replaced by the term of Orang Asli when it was formally introduced in the 1960s. Orang asli is a Bahasa Melayu term which translates directly to the Original People.

Orang asli is not a singular ethnic group, but consists of several tribes across the entire Malaya peninsular. Widely, they can be categorised into three groups, based on their cultural similarities and location: Negrito at the northern area, Sengoi in the Central region, and Aboriginal Malay in the Southern States. The following figure shows the relative locations of the 3 main groups.

Fig. 21 - Map of Malaysia showing the locations of individual Orang Asli tribes, with the table of individual tribes.

Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious peoples, Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 52.
48 52

Within the central Sengoi category, it is further divided into seven: Che Wong, Temiar, East Semai, West Semai, Jah Hut, Semaq Beri and Btsisi (Mah Meri). The largest group is the Semai people, numbering over 19,000 in 198649 and this forms the majority of Sengoi people in Kampar. The current president of the SWTC, Rev. Bah Uda Aman is of Semai descendant. Among the Semai tribe, there are about 40 variations for their dialects and customs, and this made communications among themselves difficult.50 This linguistic difference is largely due to their way of living, which encourages them to live in isolations, and in small clusters. The main activity for the Semais were slash-and-burn farming.

Between East and West Semai, the groups were separated by the main North-South mountain range of Banjaran Titiwangsa, and they are now located in the states of Perak and Pahang. According to Dentan, the Perak foothills called Semai in the Pahang mountains those Temiar; Pahang in Perak those Malays. These perceptions reflect the differences between east Semai in

Semai called those

Semai ways of life, based

on slash-and-burn farming, and west Semai ways, dependent on a mixture of subsistence farming and production of commodities.

Within every dispersed settlement, there were usually six to eight houses, a clearing for vegetable farms and sometimes a small rice field nearby. Building technology was primitive and simple: bamboo floors and walls, thatched roof, floor raised above the ground . with their slash-and-burn lifestyle, they move every few years in search for better land for agriculture. Before 1960s, slave raids were common in Semai villages, as the villages eventually made contact to nearby towns and rivers with the Malay farmers.51 Semai villagers were captured and brought back to sell or to use as domestic servants.

West Semai group, the main group for the Kampar Sengoi people had more contact with the urban people than the East Semai. They were slash-and-burn farmers as well, but they also traded with the cities and towns found at the foothills. This influenced them to adapt better to other forms of economy across time. Another reason for their better exposure to the urban lifestyle was this: Malaysia West coast developed faster than the East Coast, due to the abundance of trade and businesses and the speed of West coast development contributed to the loss of land for the West Semai group. The upward push of the urban activities increased contact with the West Semai, affecting their way of living.

49 50 51

Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious peoples, Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 30.
53

Ibid. Pg. 29. Ibid. Pg. 29.

In comparison with the East Semai, the West Semai settlements were usually larger and more compact: about 30-250 people living in a semi-permenant village. The villages were found nearer to the urban areas: intervals along the roads that climbed into the mountains, interspersed with Malay villages. Batu Berangkai in Kampar is a typical example of such settlements. This settlement pattern helped the trade for the Semais as they brought the food products from the hills and sell to the urban population. The two most popular food products were Durian and Petai. Other sources of income for the West Semai-ians were rubber plantations, wage labour, sales of exotic insects and hunting.52

The largest difference between the East and West Semai-ians stemed from the degree of urban influence each group had. Semai families near Tapah (a town near Kampar) bought 88 percent or more of their food and spend about three times as much time on money-earning work (commodity production and wage labour) as on subsistence.53 The desire to earn money transformed the way of living for the West Semai-ians: people were expected to be paid when helping neighbours to repair or build their houses; small kedai runcits (convenient stores) were set up within the villages; hunted animals, which used to be shared among the villages for the meat, were brought to the market to sell for better price.

Orang Asli and MPAJA

During WWII, the Japanese army took over the Malaya Peninsular and most of the Orang Asli (OA), including the Sengois, retreated to the jungle to protect themselves and avoid unnecessary contact with the Japanese. MPAJA were hiding in the highlands as well, and some of them nurtured friendship with the Orang Asli. In some cases, MPAJA went as far as to protect the jungle peoples from the attacks of bandits and Japanese troops.54 It was in this situation that these two groups of people: MPAJA communists and the Orang Aslis began to form a mutual supportive relationship.

After the war, the colonial government wanted to eradicate all communist movements. One of the strategy was to cut off support and supplies from the communist guerillas. Usually, MPAJA gathered supplies from Chinese families in the town area; but there were incidents that the OA were giving support (in the forms of forest guides, porters, food and shelter in the jungle etc.) as well.55 In return, MPAJA provided OA with something less tangible: respect. MPAJA included some of the OA in their military plans and assigned important roles to
Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious peoples, Massachusetts, 1997.pg. 43.
52 53 54 55 Alberto Gomes, Things Are Not What They Seem: Semai economy in the 1980s. Akademika 35, 1989. Pg. 47-54. Alun Jones, The Orang Asli: An outline of their progress in modern Malaya. Journal of Southeast Asian History 9(2), 1968, Iskandar Carey, Orang Asli: The Aboriginal Tribes of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. 1976, 54 Pg. 295. Pg. 311.

them, acting as advisors, headmen or chairmen. MPAJA also organised the military units, with OA members, into different committees and called them the Asal committees. According to Carey:

the choice of this word was clever (Asal is a variant of Asli, meaning original), for at that time both the government and the people were still referring to the OA as Sakai, a derogatory term slave.56 meaning

Therefore, the military authorities wanted to group all the OA and resettled them the way they resettled the Chinese people in new villages. However the process of resettlement was conducted very poorly and cruelly: they were brutally rounded up by police and put into trucks without any explanataion; prior to their departure, the OA watched the destruction of their houses and killing of their livestocks.57 The places where they were given to resettle were hastily put together and resembled miniature concentration camps58 The camps had poor health and sanitary facilities and malnutrition coupled with psychological stressed killed many people.59 The entire process was extremely disastrous, and it was recorded in 1951 that the death rate in a large camp was as high as 204 per thousand people.60

By the end of 1953, it was under such extreme unfortunate circumstances that the OA fled the urban areas and retreated further inward to the jungle. Any subsequent large scale national policies with an attempt to organise them would require to overcome the immense fear of being mistreated again.

56 57 58 59 60

Iskandar Carey, Orang Asli: The Aboriginal Tribes of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. 1976, . Pg. 310. Ibid. Pg. 307. Ibid. Pg. 307. Alun Jones, The Orang Asli: An outline of their progress in modern Malaya. Journal of Southeast Asian History 9(2), 1968, Pg. 297. Ibid. Pg. 297. 55

A2 - History of KWMC, KTMC and SWTC

I - KWMC, Kampar Wesley Methodist Church (1964 - )

KWMC was started by Mr. Yong Ngim Djin, the headmaster for ACS in 1933. It wasnt a church at the beginning, but a small English speaking service to cater to the ACS teachers and students. During this time, they were using the main sanctuary of KCMC, which was very near to ACS. In 1939, Mr. Yong Ngim Djin was transferred to another school, and Rev. Douglas P. Coole became the new headmaster of ACS. He also took over the evening service of the KWMC, and later successfully started a choir within the service. The English service continued until the World War II and it was revived a few years after the war.

In 1956, the official formation of the KWMC came when Mr. A.T. Ponniah, the headmaster of ACS managed to formally enlist the small group of English speaking Christians into TRAC. While waiting for TRAC to appoint a suitable pastor for the newly formed church, lay leaders such as Mr. Tan Beng Lee, Mr. B. Kandiah, Mr Teh Chuan Lin and Mr. Tai Swee Choon set up and managed various ministries in the church (The Sunday School, Youth Fellowship etc.).

All this while, the attendance for KWMC was around 30 people, a relatively small group compared to KCMC which had a congregation of 150. Without a pastor of their own, Pastors from KCMC, and the headmasters of ACS were invited to share and preach during some of their services. Finally in 1964, KWMC had their first resident pastor, Rev. Ho Chee Sin. Together with the Boys Brigade and the Girls Brigade (Both the 1st Kampar BB and GB Company were started by Principal Mr. Gong Ngie Kong in 1962), KWMC started to grow and slowly attracting more youths into the church. During this time, they were using the facilities of KCMC: Sunday worship services at the main sanctuary; bible studies and youth ministries in the kindergarten. KWMC hit the 100 membership mark in 1987, when the church was under the care of Rev. Daniel Lim.

The move to Sengoi Workers Training Centre (SWTC)

KWMC had always been a helpful community for the Sengoi Workers Training Centre (SWTC). In 1964, when KWMC was under the care of Rev. Samuel Chong, he worked well among the youths and the Sengoi
56

as well.61 This spirit of unity carried on from pastor to pastor, and Rev. Samuel Liew (1967-1968), who is an outdoor man, often organised hikes around Kampar with the Sengoi pastors. It is possible that during those hiking trips, the pastors made contact and perhaps evangelized to more Orang Asli62 in the area.

With the growing congregation, KWMC was looking for another building for their own programmes and services. By then, KWMC was caring for both the 1st and 2nd Company of the Kampar Boys Brigade and the 1st Company of the Kampar Girls Brigade. They needed more activity space as well as a place they could call their home church. The building fund was launched in July 1986 by Rev. Andrew Tan Kok Khoon. In 1990, the members at SWTC or KSM (Kumpulan Sengoi Methodist) formally made a generous offer to KW, allowing two classrooms of their training centre to be converted into a church sanctuary. KWMC could not wait to celebrate and had their first service on Christmas Day that year. More renovation works began in December 1991: new water pipes, electric points, some masonry and carpentry works for minor repairing, and painting works. New windows and doors were installed, a good sound system, a church signboard, and the chancel was constructed. A new chain-link fence was put up by a few church members, a symbolic act that signified that KWMC now has a compound of their own, a church of their own.

The renovation was completed before June 1992, and KWMC held the church dedication service on the 11th July 1992, at 5.30 pm. It was officiated by Bishop Denis C. Dutton, Rev. Ng Ee Lin (TRAC President), Rev. Daniel Lim Seng Peng, Miss Veronica Ting Ling Yin and Mr. Tham Leong, the lay leader. 63

Growing At the New Church

Soon after the renovation of the new sanctuary, KWMC started a kindergarten of their own, the Tadika Wesley. The kindergarten was also designed in a similar fashion: two science labs of the SWTC (formerly the Methodist School) were converted into classrooms for the nursery children. Later, two more rooms were converted to be used by the KWMC Youth and the Pastors Office. The assimilation of the KWMC into the SWTC illustrates how well these 2 groups of Christians were working together to serve the very different groups of people in Kampar: the English speaking Chinese people, the expatriates, teachers and students from ACS and the Sengoi people.

The number of people in KWMC slowly grew and in the year of 2004, the congregation grew to 441 people,
61 Tham, Leong, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctury and Dedication of Parsonage, June 1991. 62 Orang Asli, which translates directly to Original People, refers to the indigenous people in Malaysia. In Kampar, the Orang Asli mostly consists of the Sengoi Tribe. 63 Chye, Kooi Khean, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary and Dedication of Parsonage, June 1991. 57

including the Girls and Boys Brigade, the Tadika Wesley, and the regular members who attended the Sunday services. 64 By that time, KWMC had been occupying the classroom sanctuary for 13 years.

During this time, Kampar saw her construction of the first university, the University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Taman Bandar Bahru. The entire township was anticipating great physical and economical growth, as UTAR would attract approximately 13,000 university students from all over the country and some from abroad, sporting great business opportunities, academic ventures. For the church, it was a great opportunity to spread the gospel to the new comers in town. KWMC planned to expand their church and appealed to TRAC for the permission and support to build a new building. The new building was to serve the existing congregation with their increasing needs and the university students to come. The decision came back positive and KWMC constructed a multi-purpose centre with a building budget of RM850,000, at the former location of the missionary bungalow at 5, Kuala Dipang Road.65 The facility includes a main sanctuary with the capacity of 300 people, a number of meeting and reception rooms, a library, a wake area, classrooms and guest rooms etc. The church began using this facility in 2009.

II - KTMC, Kampar Tamil Methodist Church (1952 - )

The Kampar Tamil Methodist Church (KTMC) has a slightly different beginning from KCMC and KWMC, for it was the branch of the main Gopeng Tamil Methodist Church during the 1950s. The congregation usually gathered at the main church in Gopeng, and later set up a branch in Kampar, to serve the small group of Indian Christians in Kampar. The location of the first house-church is in the current Taman Pelangi, Kampar.

In 1952, Mr Kandiah, a teacher from ACS, took the lead in organising the church services in Kampar, with the help from Gopeng TMC. The group started to worship and run their Sunday services in KCMC. During that time, church members were not only from Kampar, as other members would travel from Tapah, Malim Nawar to Kampar for the Sunday service. The group began to grew, and it reached to a medium size of ten families.

The population of the Tamil-speaking Methodists in the surrounding area was not big enough to run their individual churches, so was KTMC. Thus, the name of KTMC was Kampar/Gopeng Tamil Methodist Church: the two churches shared a pastor, and had a common committee to make decisions about various church matters. Pastors who came to serve in this community would be required to preach in these two locations, in
64 65 Tham, Leong, WMC 50 Anniversary Booklet, April 2005. Tham, Leong, WMC 50 Anniversary Booklet, April 2005. 58

Tamil or English, sometimes both. The pastors and the lay leaders would go around Kampar to preach, especially to the Indian community. In an interview with Mr. M. Ganamuthu, a lay leader in the KTMC, he recalled his experiences of preaching the gospel in the rubber estates near Tapah, and managed to introduce quite a number of people to Christianity.66

The 3 Moves and the Purchase

KTMC moved to SWTC in 1981, before KWMC (they moved in 1990). They were using the classrooms with foldable walls in the training center for their Sunday services. For celebratory occasions such as weddings and Christmas celebrations, KTMC was using the main sanctuary in KCMC. After a few years of sharing SWTC with KWMC, KTMC moved out, because of the clash of the Sunday service schedule. KTMC had two more moves before they finally settled in the current Wisma Tamil Methodist.

With the (unfortunate) experience of several moves, KTMC wanted a permanent building to call it their own church. The building committee approached the Methodist Education for a place to build a new church and was given an option: the current site for the Wesley Methodist Centre at 13, Jalan Kuala Dipang. The committee did not think that the site was big enough for the project, so they looked for another place. Finally they found the current location; 3 shop lots belonging to the Eu Tong Sen Mining Company.67

The shoplots, according to Mr. Ganamuthu, were used as the office for the Eu Tong Sen Mining Company when the mining industry was booming.68 It was closed in the 1970s when the industry was diminishing and the office was relocated back to the head quarters in Kuala Lumpur. After it was closed, the shoplots were abandoned and left derelict: overgrown trees and grass inside the building, collapsed roof and upper floorboards, broken windows and doors etc.

The building committee (chaired by Mr. M. Ganamuthu) secured the funds to buy the shoplots but was unable to begin repairing and construction immediately due to insufficient funds. It was only the church paid back the initial loan (for the shoplots purchase) that the building committee proceed with engaging an architect to plan for the new church. KTMC engaged Architect Ding Poi Kooi for his service. He was the also same architect who designed the Wesley Methodist Center. The renovation and construction fee totaled at RM 350,000, excluding the initial cost of purchasing the shoplots.
66 67 68 Interview with KTMC Lay leader, Mr. M. Ganamuthu. Annex A2. Interview with KTMC Lay leader, Mr. M. Ganamuthu. Annex A2. Interview with Mr. M. Ganamuthu, 29 July 2010. 59

Because of its historical value and elaborated front facade, both the architect and the building committee wanted to preserve the front and side elevations. Repair work was carried out to remove overgrown trees from the faade, and a new coat of paint was given to the building. Signage was put up and it reads Wisma Tamil Methodist which translates to Tamil Methodist Building. No cross or crucifix was put up. The interior columns were all demolished and new foundations were driven to provide support for the new columns. At the upper level, there was no columns within the first two units, so that they could have a hall as their sanctuary. The remaining shoplot contained the other rooms: a tea room, toilets, a pantry and a small activity room. At the lower level, most of the spaces were kept to rent out for businesses, except a spacious stair well to allow the congregation to go up. The building committee was very safety conscious and had plans to install a hydraulic elevator in the future to facilitate the senior congregation members to go to the sanctuary upstairs.

In September 2007, the congregation held their first Sunday service in the new building. With the new building, KTMC has become the new center for the Kampar and Gopeng Tamil Methodist community. The new building now has dual uses: the bottom two lots are rented out for business to generate income for the church, and the rest of the building is used as a worship and activities.

III - SWTC, Sengoi Workers Training Center (1980-2010)

The formal beginning of the Sengoi Workers Training Center (SWTC) was the founding of the training school at the Methodist School facility in 1980. However, missionaries were working with the Sengoi people, or generally the Orang Asli began in the 1930s, under the Home Missionary Society of the Malaya Annual Conference.69 The beginning of Kampar Sengoi ministry could be directly linked to a letter from Rev. Waldo Reinoehl (dated January 6, 1961):

The most exciting development (for the Home Missionary Society) is that 26 Sengoi boys turned up at Kampar last week seeking admission to the afternoon school. At a meeting this week in Kampar, it was estimated that it will cost $5,500 a year, or $450 a month to provide for these students. These boys had been brought up by Bah Markus and Bah Lazarus, the spearhead being Bah Markus, who came frequently from Tapah to see how they were getting along. Some of the boys were fourteen to sixteen years of age, and they looked after the younger boys.70
69 70 Earnest Lau, From Mission to Church, The evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia:1885-1976, Pg. 44. Means, Paul and Nathalie, And the Seed Grew,1981, Kuala Lumpur, Council of Mission, Methodist Church in Malaysia. Pg. 62. 60

With this letter, which was circulated around the Malaysia Methodist community, help and finance was gathered to support this group of Sengoi youth. The Kampar Sengoi Mission was set up in Kampar, chaired by Rev. Chelliah, and Mr. Lionel Muthiah was appointed as the liaison officer with the Sengoi community.71 At the end of the same year, enrolment of the Sengoi students in the Methodist School increased to 35 students. During this time, there was no formal church service for the Sengoi students, but teachings from the bible were introduced during the classes as the school was a Christian school, privately funded by the MCMS.

In 1963, more students came to study at the Methodist School, and the Kampar Sengoi Missions committee planned for a new timber building to provide accommodations for the school boys. The Sengoi girls were staying at the missionarys bungalow at 13, Kuala Dipang at that time. When the building was completed in 1966, both male and female students moved in to stay at different levels: boys at the second level, and girls at the third level.72 Therefore, the school had became a boarding school, and church service was introduced to the school children. It was KWMC who welcomed the Sengoi children into their Sunday services. Rev. Samuel Liew, the pastor at the time, was very interested in the Sengoi missions. As part of the regular church service, he often included a Childrens story sermon to be given in Sengoi by Bah Rahu.73

Self Organisation

The Kampar Sengoi Missions committee, a group which mostly consisted of leaders and pastors from KWMC, was dissolved to allow the formations of two Sengoi led committees: The Student Consultative Committee (SCC), and the Sengoi Village Consultative Committee (SVCC).74 It was a transition for the church to allow the Sengoi Christian community to make mission and education decisions for themselves. Following this change of organisation, the Sengoi communities made the mission bungalow at 13, Kuala Dipang as their headquarters in 1970.75

The Sengoi Methodist community in Kampar slowly gained recognition from the rest of the Methodist community, and a big leap towards that direction happened when Bah Rahu was ordained as a pastor in 1974.76 By this time, there were a few village-churches being set up by the SVCC. Each of these village- churches
71 72 73 74 75 76 Means, Paul and Nathalie, And the Seed Grew,1981, Kuala Lumpur, Council of Mission, Methodist Church in Malaysia. Pg. 62. Ibid. Pg. 67. Ibid. Pg. 69. Ibid. Pg. 70. Ibid. Pg. 77. Ibid. Pg. 82. 61

consists of a group of members and led by a penghulu, whom had a role similar to the lay leaders of KWMC. SVCC and the penghulus of all the village churches came together and form the Kumpulan Sengoi Methodis (KSM), which translates to Sengoi Methodist Group.77

Finally in 1980, the Sengoi Workers Training Center was founded by KSM. Bah Rahu, among seven others Sengoi adults, were the first group to enroll into SWTC, to be trained as mission workers and pastors for the Sengoi community. The KSM formally became a official Mission Conference in 1990. The group is now capable of conducting their own training programme, and organised mission trips within Malaysia to reach out to the rest of the Sengoi and Orang Asli community around the country. Most of the Sengoi people still preferred to worship in their villages, in the individual chapels set up by the Sengoi Mission Conference. However there is a formal Sengoi Sunday Service organised within the compound of SWTC which began in July 2010.78

77 78

Means, Paul and Nathalie, And the Seed Grew,1981, Kuala Lumpur, Council of Mission, Methodist Church in Malaysia. Pg. 82.

Interview with SWTC President, Rev. Bah Uda Aman. Annex A4

62

A1 - Summary of Interview with Mr Chye Kooi Loong.

June 19 2008, Kampar

Mr Chyes Visit: It began with a brief chat about his later appointment of the day with a reporter regarding the ongoing renovation project at the Kampar Old Temple. He was very agitated about the fact that the temple committee is so ignorant about the old concrete slabs on the approach staircase and landings, which is about 100 years old, and slab on the new cement and floor tiles to cover all that is valuable. When asked, the chairman, the manager/owner of a insurance office (located near the Kampar Bus Station), replied that these things are old, and needed a change. Mr Chye was furious upon hearing this, and replied: your parents are old, your wife is old, your family is old, do you change them?

Later, I asked more about Kampar history during the 40s. regrettably, he didnt have any photographs about the old church. One interesting fact about Kampar burial ground history. The present Kampar Primary school is built on a old Kampar Chinese Burial Ground. There was a lateral shift towards Gopeng, when the town developed towards another major neighboring town of Gopeng. The old town of Mambang Diawan and S.E.K to the present old Kampar town, and the burial ground is shifted to the present Tai Bak Gong San.

Mr. Chye was also a teacher in ACS. I asked when was the time that he started to notice the decline in the school enrolment in ACS. He said that the change of the education policy, and the language has cause many students to stop coming to ACS, as it has lost its upper hand between the 2 major schools in Kampar its English education. Kampar, being a Chinese Dominated society, and mostly middle and lower middle class, eventually supported Pei Yuan more.

The first ACS was built in SEK, and it was used as day school and Sunday school. The students were mostly rich Chinese mine or estate owners sons. The Chinese population in the early 1900s were mainly single male migrant workers and they do not have the money nor the family, and thus there wasnt a need to start a Chinese School. Later in the mid 1900s, more migrant workers have set up their family here in Kampar. And there existed a precedent of a school in Kampar and education. Thus the starting of the second school, Pei Yuan School, largely dominated by Chinese of the Hokien, Cantonese dialect. 3rd schools was Chung Hua, and by then, all schools were only for boys. Then came the Kampar Girls School, which was also started by
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the Chinese Community.

Later in the interview, Mr. Chye mentioned that another important person during that time was Eu Tong Sen, son of Eu Gong, owner of the Eu Yan Sang enterprise. Golden Dragon Garden was known as Coronation Hill then, as it was named after King Edward V when Eu Tong Sen built one of his many Mansions around Chinese dominant towns. My Chye pointed out that Eu TS was a person who likes British Culture. (the link to Missionary Mansion that is next to Pei Yuan?)

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A4 - Transcription: Interview with Mr Mutu Ganamuthu in Kampar, Perak Date: 29 July 2010 Duration: Approximately 95 minutes M - Mr Mutu Ganamuthu T - The author, Wong Zi Tao T: Morning Mr Mutu, thanks for agreeing to meet me for this interview. So, mr mutu, you said 1952, when it all started M: we didn't have the church. we used the Chinese Methodist Church, as a church. we used that church to run our methodits Tamil Chuch. T: so, it was because of Mr Khandia's relation with ACS that you can used the Chinese Methodist Church M: yeah, because the church was in the compound of ACS. T: so, as a young boy, you were already attending the church? M: yeah, that time I was in form one. T: were you already a Christian at that time? M: yeah, all three generations, my grandfather, father and myself were christians. my father's father was a pastor in India. T: so, your father came to Kampar as a missionary? M: no, he came to Kampar as a regular worker, my grandfather is the pastor, in India. my father and mother came to work here (Kampar) and i was born here. T: were they Methodist also? M: they were Christians la. T: so, you are the second generation Indian settled here. M: yes. T: so, the Wesley Methodist Church also started around the same time. and the Tamil Methodist also used the Church. M: actually, the Chinese Church was the first one. Then we went to use their place as the church la. then the wesley came, also used their (Chinese Methodist Church) place. Then we shifted to, with all the things, to the Orang Asli there. Sengoi. Then when we moved there, they (Wesley Methodist Church) also moving there. T: do you remember when did you move to the Sengoi Center? M: that i can't remember. T: around 1960s?
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M: what year was that? the pastor (referring to his notes) i think maybe by 1981 we moved to Sengoi center. T: so, how did the Tamil church share with the Wesley and Sengoi church? M: different different la. service at sunday also. morning service also. so, we have a (time) gap la. and then Sengoi also share with the Wesley Methodist Church. T: so, for the Tamil Wisma Methodist, how did it came about? M: it is written there (referring to his notes). three were the pioneers who started the church. Gayamuthu, ll, John Mutu. the story starts like that. we wanted to build a church, and applied with the church name, they (Perak State Government) refuse to let us. so, we three people, use our names to buy this building. you see? so, under three names, the building was bought, then we started the church. T: three names because there are 3 lots is it? M: yes. T: how come you choose that shop lots? M: because that building was there, for the last 15 years, abandoned place la. one of the richest mining company old office. trees growing inside, and grass. then, we thought we would use the buidling. because the building frontage was very beautiful. so, after deciding, we went to KL to find out who's this place belongs to. then we went to KL to buy. they said 500 thousand, for the whole thing. then we said it is for a church, then they reduced it to 350 thousand (smile) T: so, there must be discussion about the expansion when you were in the Sengoi Methodist Church, right? so, when did the idea came about to expand the church? M: the Sengoi church was small, that's why we were thinking of expand. T: do you remember the name of the mining company? M: Eu Tong Sen. T: oh! i see. do you remember what was the building used before? before it was abandoned? M: it was used by the company as an office. so, when they came out, then it was abandoned. T: so, it is around the time when the tin mining industry closed down, then they move out. M: yes. and they (Eu Tong Sen Mining Company) were in Singapore, another office in KL. i heard one of his son is a Christian, that's why he supports us. and we said we want to build a church, they gave us a discount. T: is his son still alive? M: not anymore. T: so, you have been with TMC since the beginning. M: and after that, we started the church, and organising everything, and handed over to the church. T: so, it started from ten families. about these ten families, were they all from ACS? M: no, from all over the town. but from different background, and they were christians la.
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T: one more thing: when i visited the sacred heart catholic church, and i saw many Indians went to the Catholic church. i had no idea about this. M: those days there were alot of Catholic. they were the original people la. (referring to Christians). then only the protestant, then only you have Christian churches, Methodist la, this la, that la, all types of churches. T: before the Tamil Methodist Church started, where (in Kampar) you go for worship? M: when we came into Kampar, we went straight here. my father worked in Kampar, the mines. so, we went to the Methodist Church. T: so, i remembered that sometimes the Tamil Methodist Church people used the Chinese Church for weddings. so, you only used the church for special occasions? M: yes. T: how many people are there in the church now? M: now? about 70 families, around 200 people. from 10 to 70 families. T: does the church used the new facility very often now? M: everything. because i planned the church for different things. 1 conference room, classrooms for sunday school, pantry for sunday breakfast. T: for everyone? M: for everyone on sunday breakfast. and we have other activities like MYF, Methodist Women, MSF, Evangelical Group, and sunday school and all that. MSF is Methodist Senior Fellowship. T: so, the congregation now mostly consist of senior members? or mixed? M: we have about 20 to 25 people who are the seniors. then we have the young MYF, the young adults, the teenagers, from primary 5 and above. 2 types of MYF. T: do you like the new place? M: yes, very beautiful building. we planned the whole thing. it was done by us you see, and without the help from TAC, the Tamil Annual Conference. T: without help meaning? money wise? M: money wise, and without asking them. all done by the three of us. T: so, did you engage any architect? M: yeah, we had a consultant. i had an architect. T: do you remember the name of the architect? was he from Kampar, or Ipoh? M: all Ipoh. the famous one. he's the architect who helped with the Wesley Methodist Building also. Consultant is Mr Krishnan. Architect is ... (trying to remember the name) Architect Ding Pooi. He was the one who designed Wesley (Methodist Center) also.
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T: So, did the Wesley started engaging the architect first? or ? M: we started first. actually, the current Wesley Methodist Center, i was suppose to take over the place. T: how come? M: Because that was offered to me first, by the Methodist Christian Organisation, in KL. so, they offered to sell us with 80,000. But i saw the place was too small, not enough parking space, so i didn't want it. then i found out this place (the current Wisma Tamil Methodist), and then i have another alternative. i was looking at this site... what is the name of the school? the one after the graveyard? T: after the graveyard? oh, the SMK Kampar. M: yes. from there, at the top of the hill behind the school, there's an office, Easton Smelting Office. there's a bungalow there. I was supposed to take over that place. I went over there, approached the office and told them I want to buy the property. They also say somewhere around 350 (thousand). So, I went to negotiate with them further. but then they say they are not selling. T: that's a very nice place. M: Beautiful place! High on the hill, and the area is big, carpark no problem. so, that didn't work out, we came into town. T: so, when TMC decided to use the three names, it was just a matter of choosing the right location, right environment, and so on? M: yes. T: so, previously when TMC started, the church members were people from ACS, and other parts of Kampar. Now, are they mostly from ACS too? M: No, we are from all over the town. Now, our members consist of people from Tapah, Malim Nawar, Gopeng, and Kampar. 4 areas. All now come here. T: is there no Tamil Methodist Church at those places? M: nope. this is Central. Earlier, before we used the Wisma Tamil Center, we used a small place in Malim Nawar. during this time, we used one of the place from Gospel Hall. after that, another place in Gopeng. There also we used one of the Orang AslI church. T: were they Sengoi people also? M: Sengoi. so, we used these 2 places for a while, and finally we had Wisma TMC, everyone comes here la. T: when the church was in Kampar, the congregation also consists of people from Tapah, Gopeng etc? M: all over. you see, when we were using the Chinese Methodist Church, we also had a small place in Malim Nawar, as well as Gopeng. At that time, we didn't want to give them the problem of coming down to Kampar every Sunday. This started later. In the beginning, there was only one (church) in Kampar. And when we developed more people, they began to split, something like cell group. here you have ten families, you all stay here. there another ten families, stay there. T: and finally now... M: now, when I put up the new church, all come here. And now we still have another group in Gopeng. This
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group of people are very fussy, don't want to come down to Kampar. so, i say, pastor finish here (Kampar), 830 to 1050am, after that he goes to Gopeng to run the service. T: so, the current pastor is from where? M: He's from KL. T: so, all these years, did any of the members became pastors? M: Ah! actually, I have produced 2 pastors. who are now serving as pastors. and then now 2 already training. and I myself had produced 2 more pastors, from the estate, Tapah Estate. Rubber estate. that time I was going around to preach at the estate. then that family became Christians. That fella is now one of the famous pastors in Ipoh. T: do you remember their names? M: I can't. but one... erm... Muthu? ah, one is Ganaputhi. T: what do you do before you retire? M: I was the Consultant for Jabatan Bekalan Air. i was incharged of the water supply of 9 districts. Super Scale water technician. I even went to train the Selangor water supply. i was a trainer. T: when TMC used the Sengoi facility, did you have any joint activities? M: no, we run our own programmes. T: how come no? M: when festival comes, they(Wesley Methodist Church) invited us la. But we were not very close. T: because of language barrier? M: yeah, language barrier. T: I see. well, during all this time, did you remember whether there's a time with greatest growth in congregation? M: one pastor, (referring to his notes) Yesupathan. Reverant Yesupathan. this time was very good. 1981. so, it is also around this time you moved to Sengoi. actually, we moved into the new church, somewhere 2005. he was a very active pastor, and I was the LCEC (Local Church Executive Committee) chairman. T: you are a very active member. M: yes. the new building i bought, I brought life to it. it costs me about 1 million. so, we took a loan from the bank, 350 thousand, build the church. then dedication service. And then I set up the trustee. And handed over everything to the trustee, send the documents to KL. T: for the three of you, are they also as senior as you, or younger? M: one was senior to me, another younger to me. Yesunathan was the most senior, I was the second, Mutu is the third. T: So, what time does the church start the service now?
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M: 830 am. 830 to 1100 am. T: Everyone goes there for breakfast at 830? M: no, the breakfast is only once a month, holy communion service. And some occasion, special occasion also have breakfast, or tea. T: If there are any visitors from Tamil Annual Conference, do they stay in the Wisma Tamil Methodist? M: They stay outside. Because Wisma has no facilities. Now everyone wants facilities. T: I realise that there is a furniture shop downstairs. M: All three (shoplots) I give it to rental, and we collect 2800 ringgit per month. T: Is it rented to church members? Or outsiders? M: No, it is a church friend. So, each month we get 2800 from the rent, and 1400 from the church, and each month we pay 4200 to the bank. For upstairs, 2 shops for the main sanctuary, 1 shop for the Sunday school, and the pantry and all that. T: So, you have the stage also? M: Everything inside. T: Personally, I think there should be more interaction among the churches. But somehow it didn't happen. Do you know why? M: I think it is because of all that dialect and all. You see, our own Indian people can't even speak proper Malay. So, Indians use Tamil only. So, to react with the Chinese people, they cannot communicate. And I think also, both side pastors didn't take the initiative to come together. T: Would you prefer to have more activities together? M: They should be. Because we are all Christians, they should have more interaction among all 3 churches. More fellowship and stuff. But all this depends on pastors. T: Now we have UTAR (University Tunku Abdul Rahman) in Kampar. Does the Tamil Methodist Church actively reach out to the university students? M: We are now helping the Sengoi Sunday School, somewhere in Tapah. And some of our members go into the village and help and that T: But not specific to UTAR? M: No. T: Why not? M: With UTAR and all that, I am the president of the Gideon Society. We gave bibles, the New Testament Bible to the UTAR Students, and to the Hotel, the Grand Kampar Hotel. That I have done my best already. T: So, usually when you are in church, do you only speak Tamil? Or with English also? M: Tamil and English. The pastor preach in both English and Tamil.
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T: Does he use an interpreter? M: No, he preaches in both languages. T: So, two services? M: No, same time. He speaks in English and then Tamil. He is very good la. T: So, the Tamil Methodist Church is recognised as a Formal Church right at the beginning in the 1950s? M: Yes. And our membership went up. We saved about 150 thousand Ringgit, with about 40 families. But we were still short for the purchase of the shop house. So, we took the A.E.C. Loan of 150,000 Ringgit. Then, after that, we need to save money some more. T: I am not following. M: You see, we bought the building with 350,000. we got the loan of 150,000. We have to pay the monthly for that. Until that is settled, we can't do any building. So, when we finally settled that loan, we apply another loan from the bank, 350,000 Ringgit to renovate the whole building. So, the total cost is about a million. T: There are 200 people now. Is there any future plan for more expansion? M: Our building now can cope with 700 people. No problem for another 10 to 15 years. So, when I was planning for the building, I included a hall. Now, I am proposing to have a elevator installed, for the senior members. T: So, for the Perak Tamil Methodist Church, which is the biggest? M: Buntong. Followed by us. T: What about the Ipoh Tamil Church? M: The Ipoh Tamil Church is inside the ACS compound. Smaller than the Kampar one. T: For the Indian peopke in Perak M: We got 8 churches. T: Most people are still Hindus? M: ya. T: My supervisor is very interested in the Tamil Methodist Church, because of the building. Is there any special reason that you picked this place? M: Historical. T: Do you know more about this building, besides it being the office for Eu Tong Sen Mining Office? M: Yes, it was an office for them. There was a tunnel connecting from the office to the ACS playground. Underground tunnel. T: All the way? M: Yes, all the way.
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T: Why is it built, do you know? M: I don't know la, don't want to say. But I think in those days, communism was very powerful, understand? These miners can't go against the communist. So, they (miners) used to supply the communists with food and things. During that time, the hill behind ACS was a garden, and a jungle. This is my thinking. T: Have you seen the tunnel? M: Yeah. It looks like a well. It is at the back of the shop. T: Do you remember how big was the well? M: 8 feet in diameter, and about 2.5 meters deep. And there was another story that a miner's wife lost a diamond ring there, too bad we didn't find the ring. (laugh) T: Back to the shop, what kind of renovation work was done? M: We keep the front and the side wall, because it is very beautiful. We we cleared the columns and beams inside. We did new piling, and kept the 2 shops for the sanctuary free from columns. There's amain staircase to go up, and it has 3 landings, and about 4 person's width. It is important to do that so that people can evacuate from that place easily. T: about the roof? M: We built a new roof. The old one was in a terrible shape. T: Was there any consideration about landscaping? M: No place in this area, because it is in the town. T: So, thank you so much for your time to do this interview, Mr Mutu.

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A5 - Summary: Group interview with: 1. Thiagarajan a/l Viran 2. Alvin Roy 3. Alexsander 4. Thamil Chelvan Date: 3 August 2010 Venue: Bandar Bahru, Kampar, Perak Duration: Approximately 45 minutes The group of interviewees were members from the Kampar Tamil Methodist Church, and Mr Thiagarajan is the leader for the Mission Ministry for the church. He, and his friends started attending the TMC approximately 15 years ago, when TMC was still operating within the SWTC (Sengoi Worker Training Center). They recall worshiping in the classroom-converted sanctuary, and showed me photographs of them using the facility. Mr. Thiagarajan mentioned that before the start of the formal Tamil Methodist Church, the small group of Indian Methodist Christians would gather in different houses, which belonged to different 'church' members. They would gather at different houses each time they get together, as there was no fix place available. Later, the church purchased a house in Taman Timur, Kampar and was used as the parsonage, and as a chapel on Sundays. When asked about the current Wisma Tamil Methodist, they were very glad to have a place to call it their own, and the congregation began to show some growth because of the building. When asked about the Kampar Sacred Heart Catholic Church (KSHCC), Mr Alvin Roy, who was previously a member (now a member in the Kampar Tamil Methodist Church), mentioned that the size of the 2 churches are comparable. However, the KSHCC has a congregation which consists of Indian, Chinese people and Orang Asli. They have their weekly mass together and conducted in several languages (Tamil, Bahasa Melayu, English and Mandarin). He gave illustration of how the congregation accommodated each others' languages: week 1 mass is conducted in English; week 2 mass is conducted in Tamil; week 3 mass is conducted in Chinese; and week 4 mass is conducted in Bahasa Melayu. The Chinese members would attend the Tamil service, even though they may not understand the language, and vice versa. The interview then went on to confirm the history of the Tamil Methodist Church as spoken by Mr M. Gnanamuthu, and there were no major discrepancies. The inverview ended with an invitation to visit the church service on Sunday.

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A6 - Interview with Sengoi Mission Conference President, Pastor Bah Uda Aman in Sengoi Workers Training Center, Kampar Date: 4th August 2010 Duration: Approximately 60 minutes T - Wong Zi Tao, the author U - Pastor Bah Uda Aman, President of the Sengoi Mission Conference 2010. Interview conducted in Bahasa Melayu. Transcript is translated into English, T: Let me introduce myself and explain the nature of the research dissertation. I am researching about the all the Methodist Church in Kampar, including the Sengoi Methodist Mission. The study is to investigate how different congregation/groups use the church, and built the church differently when they branch off from the main Kampar Chinese Methodist Church. So, please tell me when did the Sengoi Workers Training Center begin? U: We began our SWTC in this place (referring to the Methodist School) as a workers training center, around 1980. T: Are you from Kampar? U: I am from Gopeng. So, at that time, there were 8 penuntut (person in charge) at this place, 4 men and 4 women. T: So, have you already joint SWTC during that time? U: At that time, not yet. After the first batch of people, I came and joint the second batch. T: During that time, are you already a Christian? U: Yes, my family and I were all Christians. For me, I think I became a Christian around 1960. T: You attended a Methodist church in the beginning? U: Yes. T: Who brought you to church, i.e. who introduced you to Chrisitianity? U: Well, at that time, when I was still in schoo, before this SWTC; there was these youth camps every year. T: They meaning? U: The Sengoi Youth. The Sengoi Youth held youth camps in Penang, Pork Dickson, etc. The first camp was held in Penang, and when I attended the camps, I enjoyed working with the youth very much. And I decided to get involve with the church, especially with the Sengoi people. I really enjoy watching and organising the different events for the Sengoi people. There's where my heart is. T: Where was the Sengoi Headquarters then? In Penang? U: No. They were located at the current new Wesley Methodist Center, in Kampar. T: I see, they were at the old bungalow in that location. U: Yes, they were using that bungalow. So, the Sengoi people used that place for practises, bible courses, gatherings and so forth.
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T: The site was empty when I went to school next to it (referring to Pei Yuan school in the 1990s) U: Yes, the bungalow was demolished in the 1970s or 1980s. About 30 years ago. That piece of land belongs to the Methodist Education. I was there at that place for a while 30 years ago, and then I came to this place. (referring to SWTC). T: So, the Sengoi Mission shifted from that house to this Methodist School. U: Yes. T: Why is this place available during 1980s? Wasn't this place in use? U: Well, this building is used as a school before. But for some reason, I am not sure, the school was stopped operation and the building was left empty. So, the Sengoi Mission moved here and took over the place. T: Was it a decision from the Methodist Education? U: Yes. In the 1980s. T: Isn't that the same time Kampar Wesley Church moved into this place? U: No, not yet. There were using the main sanctuary in Kampar Chinese Methodist Church. So, Wesley Church moved here with us first, then Tamil Methodist Church joint later. And now, Sengoi Church is held here. T: I see. The Sengoi Church just started to use this place as a church? So, where did the people worshipped before? U: Us? We worshipped in the villages. We don't use this place for worship. We used this place as a training center. T: Villages in which area? Just Batu Berangkai? U: Batu Berangkai, Gopeng, Kampar, and so forth. We use our chapel in different villages. T: As a pastor, how does it work? You visit the chapels at different villages at different times? U: Yes, I go to different chapels every month, in Kampar, Parit, Tanjung Malim. T: Do you still do this now? U: Yes. Sometimes I go to different places, sometimes as far as Kuantan. T: So, for the Sengoi Christians in Kampar, they are now gathered at this SWTC for Sunday Services? U: Yes, every Sunday, and they have only just began such arrangements, 1 month ago. T: Oh, that is very recent! U: Yes. Because now many people are working in Kampar, so we invited them to come and join us for Sunday Church. Some of them, we invite them to come from the villages nearby. So yes, we only just began this Sunday service arrangement in SWTC. T: I see. So, for the Sengoi people, are they mostly living in Perak, or all around Malaysia? U: All around Malaysia, and mainly in Pahang, Selangor and Perak.
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T: So, is it true that more Sengoi people moved to Kampar for work? U: Well, not just moving to Kampar per se, but they are moving out of their villages to the towns and cities to find work. T: Normally, what types of occupation or jobs the Sengoi people are involved in? U: For the Sengoi people in the villages, they usually work in the fields, agriculture, rubber estates, fruit orchards. T: Are there still a lot of these people working these types of jobs? U: Yes. And for those who moved out to the towns and cities, they usually work in factories. T: So, is it fair to say that they are now mostly in Kuala Lumpur? Since there are a lot of factories there. U: Well, yes, but there are factories in Penang, Pahang, and even Perak now. And now, many are degree holders. T: Back to the questions about this building (referring to the Methodist School). In what year is this building constructed? U: I am not entirely sure, but it could be 1963. T: For such a small town like Kampar, how did it became the place for the Sengoi Mission Headquarters? Why not in Pahang or Kuala Lumpur? U: One of the reason is related to the background of Sengoi Kampar. Back in 1960s, the Sengoi Mission was focusing in the area of Pahang. There was no Orang Asli ministry in Kampar. One of the leaders from the Pahang mission team branched off and started to spread Christianity in Kampar. He brached off as an independent body, and his name was Napitupulu. He is from Batak and worked as a personal ministry to Sengoi people in areas like Simpang Pulai, Gopeng, and in villages around the Kinta Valley. T: So, all these is happening in the 1960s. U: Yes. Around that time. And later he move to Kampar, because there was the Methdodist Church here in Kampar. If there wasn't a church here, he would have moved to Pahang, or somewhere else. (Pastor Uda's assistant came in and brought some photos with him, and one of them showed a picture of the typical chapel the Sengoi Christians used in their respective villages. ) T: This (referring to photo) is a very new chapel! U: Yes. This was recently completed in one of the villages. This is an example of the chapels we use in the villages. We usually follow the building style, construction technique in the different villages. If they use stone, brick or whatever, we would follow their way of building. T: I see. I suppose the contractors/builders are from the same village as well? U: Yes. So, at some villages, the houses are built with bamboo, we would follow the same: construct the chapel with bamboo as well. T: For the chapels in the villages, can you put a cross on the outside?
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U: We usually put the cross/crucifix on the inside of the chapel. Because it is a rather sensitive situation. T: So, when you are not there, personally, who takes care of the place? U: We usually have a lay leader, and maybe his family, who lives there and takes care of the place. T: So, when it comes to the organisation, you are the president, and below you there are many lay leaders in all the villages? Within this kind of organisation, do you encounter any problems? U: Yes. About the problems, we do have some, especially when it comes to standardizing things, and it is rather difficult to monitor the different pastors in all these different places. And we have to be sensitive and careful about it, as each of them have different way of doing things, and culture. T: For the chapels, do you start building a chapel building at the very beginning, or do you usually wait until the church reach a certain critical mass? U: It depends. For this places, there were only 17 people, we started to build. And for this other place, we started building when the church was 50 people. It varies. T: For the SWTC, how many people are enrolled in the training? U: We have 7 people undergoing the training. And we have 3 families staying here in this building. Students usually do not stay here. T: Is it difficult to recruit people for the training programme nowadays? U: Yes, and it is getting harder. First of all, the young people now are anxious to work and earn money. They want to have a more comfortable lifestyle, as compared to the lifestyle back in the villages. Therefore, to encourage them to come to bible school, it is rather difficult (chuckles) When they have graduated from Secondary school, they began to see the attractions of modern lifestyles in cities. T: So, during the time when the Tamil Methodist Church and the Wesley Methodist Church gathered here, did everyone mix around much? Do you do any activities together? U: The youth from Wesley Methodist did mix around with our youths quite often. They had music classes, and outdoor activities, even visits to their villages. Many times. They (Wesley Methodist youth) helped a lot. T: So, would you say that those were good times? U: Yes! (laughs) T: So, now they have moved to their new place, is there still joint activities? U: Not anymore. No joint activities, but they always invite our church members to attend their church service at their new building. And more people are going over to the English service, as they now realise the importance of the English language. T: The current uses for this building now are training center, hostel, and a kindergarten? U: Yes, the Wesley Kindergarten, run by the Wesley Methodist Church. T: What about the kindergarten by the Sengoi people? U: Not yet in this building. We do have our own kindergarten in the villages. And we use the chapel as the kindergarten.
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T: For the Sengoi youth, in Kampar, which schools do they usually attend? Is there a majority that comes from a single church, for example, Anglo Chinese School Kampar? U: No, they come from different schools. T: What I am trying to ask is because for Kampar Chinese Methodist Church, most of the youth are from Pei Yuan School; whereas the youth in Kampar Wesley Methodist Church are from ACS. Sometimes this causes friction. So, there is no such problem for the Sengoi Methodist Youth community? U: No, because they all come from different schools. T: Can you tell me more about the Methodist School, when it was still in used? U: It was built as a Mission School, or Christian School. It was not just for the Sengoi people but for all, just like the ACS Kampar. The difference is that the curriculum here has an element of Christianity included. Of course, it was a private school. So, the students here study about the regular subjects, and also learn about Jesus Christ. T: So, why was the school closed? U: That I am not sure also. I was not an active church member at that time, could not give you more information about this. T: How long have you been involved with the Sengoi Mission? U: About 16 years, and 5 years as the president. T: When did the Sengoi Mission Conference formally established? U: 1991. Before that we were under the umbrella of the TRAC, Trinity Annual Conference Malaysia, and known as the Kumpulan Sengoi Methodist (Sengoi Methodist Group). T: Why the separation from the TRAC? U: Well, we would like the Sengoi people to be independent, bear our own responsibilities. T: According to my recent search on the internet about the Sengoi Mission Conference, I've managed to find an article about a joint mission trip with the Penan people in Sabah. Does this type of joint activities? U: Well, we have more joint activities within Peninsular Malaysia. We join with other tribes. We are mostly Semai, and we join with other tribes. T: I'm not following. Orang Asli has 18 tribes, yes? Can you tell me more about the relationship among Sengoi, Semai and other tribes? U: We have three main groups in Peninsular Malaysia: Sengoi, Protobli, Negritu. Negritu is located on the north; Sengoi in the middle; and Protobli at the south. And within Sengoi, we have tribes like Semai, Temiar, Menriq etc. Each has different language and culture. T: Are there clashes among the tribes? U: Not that I know of. Maybe they used to have some clashes, but not anymore. T: Within the big category of Sengoi, which of the tribes is the biggest, and has most Christian?
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U: Semai. My tribe, this is the biggest and largest Christian community. T: Is there any specific reason for this? U: Perhaps this is due to the location of the Semai villages. They are usually very deep in the forest, or hills. Therefore it is very hard to reach to them, and them to the developments of the surrounding towns. This is very different from other tribes, for example some tribes are found nearer to the Malay community; and this has caused them to have a more similar lifestyle, including taking up the religion. So, there was no mixing of race, religion and culture for the Semai inward villages. Another illustration of this non-mixing situation is that generally the Semai people do not speak Bahasa Melayu very well, comparing to the other tribes. T: Thank you so much Pastor Bah Uda for helping me in this research. U: You're welcome.

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A7 - News article from Malaysian Bar (Badan Peguam Malysia)

Online source: http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/shop_house_churches_must_get_permits.html
The Malaysian Bar

Shop-house churches must get permits

Monday, 18 February 2008 06:21PM

The Sun (Used by permission) by Maria J.Dass

PETALING JAYA (Feb 18, 2008): Churches in Subang Jaya which have been operating out of shop and factory lots have not been asked to close down, said incumbent Subang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng.

We have not asked them to close down, but to submit their application for permits, said Lee, adding that such churches have to get a permit to operate from business premises. He said many of the churches which are not on religious land have not applied for these annual permits costing RM1,000.

Lee was responding to a statement by incumbent Seputeh MP Teresa Kok that churches in MPSJ need to show concern about the municipalitys draft local plan.

According to her, only one church (First Baptist in SS17) is deemed to be legally on religious land in Subang Jaya, and that all others are officially illegal.

Kok said most of the churches were unaware of the draft local plan and it was now too late to submit their objection as the objection period was over.

She had however filed an objection on the issue, and called for more religious land to be allotted for non-Muslim places of worship.

Lee, when contacted, said the opposition was twisting the issue as the council had not asked the churches to close down but asked them to apply for permits.

Asked if this was the same requirement imposed on mosques, suraus and temples, Lee said: "If they are on their own land then there is no need for them to apply for the permits for their religious houses, but in the cases of the churches, they need to apply for the permits because they are operating from out of the shoplots in business centres and factory lots in industrial areas."

http://www.malaysianbar.org.my

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A8 - The Srigala Incident Reproduced from Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenous peoples. Massachusetts, 1997. Pg. 68-69.

At the urging of a Christian missionary and using funds he supplied, the thirty Christians in the forty-person Semai settlement of Teiw Srigala' (Malay Sungai Srigala) in Selangor began in August, 1990, to build a RM 10,000 church, which was also to serve as a kindergarten. On orders from the Malay District Officer, they applied for a building permit on September 2nd. On September 14th the D.O. denied their application on grounds that "certain" relevant laws forbade it. The D.O. circulated several copies of this letter, including one to the Selangor Department of Religious Affairs. The Semai unsuccessfully appealed the decision. The D.O. ordered them to destroy the building and accused the Christians, particularly their leader Bah Supeh, of illegally occupying government land. But Bah Supeh remained defiant: Why do we need to ask permission for? This is our land. Our people were here even before Tanjung Malim was opened. Horse-carts were still being used then. We've built our houses here, and cultivated rubber for generations. It makes no sense now telling us that we are occupying the land illegally. (Quoted in LKW/CN 1990:9) Five days later the Semai dedicated their church. On November 27th, officials from the Distrit Office, armed policemen, and Federal Reservists armed with batons, machetes, and M-16s invaded Teiw Srigala'. With the help of two bulldozers from the Public Works Department (JKR), they leveled the church. Everyone was taken aback. A Malay neighbour said, "This is a house of God. Why did they do this?" (LKW/CN 1990:10). JHEOA headquarters, recognizing the move as an overreaction on the D.O.'s part, moved swiftly to placate the people of Srigala. By January 1992 the settlement had a permanent kindergarten building, ten small windowless houses, and seven standpipes to supply clean water. But the Department did not replace the church. The government clamped a news blackout on the story. Reporters from Asiaweek, a Hong Kong-based newsmagazine, visited Teiw Srigala' and did a photo-essay (Chan Looi Tat 1991). In the story Jimin Idris, then Director-General of the JHEOA, maintained carefully that the destruction of the church "was not legally wrong," because the law forbade erecting permanent buildings on "land which belongs to the state," as all Orang Asli land legally does. That issue of Asiaweek did not appear in Malaysia. Without breaking the news blackout, the Orang Asli Association (POASM) took the JHEOA to court on the grounds that, if the JHEOA could erect a permanent community center and kindergarten on the land, then Semai could erect any sort of permanent building they chose. The JHEOA made two attempts to settle out of court that year. No one mentioned Section 295 of the penal Code, which provides that anyone who "destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both." This incident illustrates some of the serious legal and practical problems facing Orang Asli today. This include violations of their constitutionally guaranteed personal rights by government agencies, lack of rights over the land they live on, and weak support from the agency charged with protecting their rights, the JHEOA.

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A9 - Power Point Slides from KCMC 100th Anniversary Celebration. (Source: KCMC)

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Bibliography & references

Books Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar, Perkembangan Pendudukan Melayu di Daerah Kinta (Perak), 1880-1930an, Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya, 1976/1977. Alun Jones, The Orang Asli: An outline of their progress in modern Malaya. Journal of Southeast Asian History 9(2), 1968 Dolbey, George W., The Architectural Expression of Methodism: The First Hundred Years. 1964, London, Epworth Press. Drummond, A.L., The Church Architecture of Protestantism, 1934 Earnest Lau, From Mission to Church, The evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia:1885-1976 Gordon P. Means, Public Policy Toward Religion in Malaysia. Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vol. 51, No. 3. Hicks, E.C., History Of English Schools in Perak. 1958, Published by The Perak Library, Ipoh. Iskandar Carey, Orang Asli: The Aboriginal Tribes of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. 1976, Khoo, Salma Nasution, Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysias Modern Development. Perak, 2005 Means, Paul and Nathalie, And the Seed Grew,1981, Kuala Lumpur, Council of Mission, Methodist Church in Malaysia. Robert Knox Dentan et al., Malaysia and the Original People, A case study of the impact of development on indigenious peoples. Massachusetts, 1997. Shih, Toong Siong, The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective. 2004, Persatuan Kutien Daerah Manjung (Sitiawan, Perak) White, James F., Church Architecture: Building and renovation for Christian worship. 1998, Akron, Ohio. Journals and Yearbooks Chan, Gin Lee, , Dec 1957, Published by. Chan Siew Wah, Probe on Missionary Activities. The Star, 1987, Oct 10. Chen, Andre K.T., History Malaysia Methodism 75 Year Anniversary, 1885-1960. November 1968. Chye, Kooi Kean, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary & Dedication of Parsonage, Wesley Methodist Church Kampar. May 1992.
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Gomes, Things Are Not What They Seem: Semai economy in the 1980s. Akademika 35, 1989. Halinah Todd, Stolen Birthright: Orang Asli Rapidly Losing Land. Utusan Konsumer 206. Kinta Land Office, The Perak Secretariat. Letter to British Resident from Rev. D.W. Cooper. September 15 1905. Tham Leong, 1st Anniversary of New Church Sanctuary and Dedication of Parsonage, June 1991. Tham Leong, WMC 50 Anniversary Booklet, April 2005. , Dec 1957, Published by. , 1960. Other References http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/7/17/north/6651734&sec=north (accessed on 29 August 2010) Ministry of the Interior, State of Policy regarding the administration of the Aborigine Peoples of the Federatin of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Interior, 1961. KCMC, 100th Anniversary Powerpoint Presentation Slides: , 2003. KCMC LCEC Meeting minutes: May, 2001.

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