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Old 25-01-2016, 07:39 AM
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Re: Batam Info / Interest / Help Thread

History:

The original batam consist of 100,000 local inhabitants and 10,000 Chinese. The people were fishermen. In the 60s, they were hopeful with the prospect of being part of Sinkiepore when elder Lee first mooted the idea. At the start of the 70s, migrants from all of Indo came as job seekers. Once the game plan to convert the island to an industrial park was inked, the oversea investors came in droves, turning a sleepy fishing village into what Batam is today. First the Flores came, then the bataks. (they settled down in mainly Batu Aji). Others came along and eventually a marine industry was also Developed.

From batam to galang Bahru, a new road was slated to be built. There are six bridges connecting batam to what is known to be barelang today. Before the 70km road was constructed. Most villages were located by the sea leaving the inland relatively untouched. The people from those islands commute by unmoterised sampans. Fishermen will travel by sea to Tanjong Pagar. And even without passport a bounded area was allocated for them to sell they seafood mainly fishes to the Singapore middlemen. No matter the dialects, the language of trade, Teochew was spoken by all. Non Chinese speakers were disadvantaged and have to rely on their Chinese 'neighbors' to be their own middlemen. When we travel to these islands, usually the Traders are the Chinese. They will for example buy fuel, solar and benzin from places like Tanjong Pinang and mark them up for a profit at the advent of motorised transport.

Back to barelang. The word comes from the 3 main island groups, batam,rempang and galang. Ba(Tam)re(Pang)(ga)lang. Before the land bridges were made, galang became a UN refugee came for the boat people, right up to the early 90s when the last of the Vietnamese were repatriated. The luckier ones were sent to USA and other countries but most of them have to go back to VN. Every so often, the returnees will come by the the defunct camp which was turned into a museum. As the batam population swelled to over one million to feed into the industrial Parks, the Javanese came to barelang and converted Jungles into farms. Lately, chicken farms pop up along the highway as the population income grew. Fishermen turn to aquaculture too. It is not uncommon for boats to turn up at these farms and take all, lot, stock and barrel, just before the CNY when prices of seafood is at the highest. Oh forgot to tell you, two wave of rabbits fishes will turn up at these islands in barelang. There is a hive of activities as the fishermen stop going to sea now because the sea is rough. So they turn from hunter to gatherer, building fish traps. The Pek Tor stop eating and they bodies swell with roes turn the fishes into prize catch. During other Seasons, the fish has an aweful taste of rotten seaweed but during this period, it is turned into a most tasty fish. The fishes turn up here like clock work every year to spores. That is the reason why we called it the new year fish.

Part one of history and going for breakfast now.