Malay Kampungs Rediscovered
Release date: January 2006
The coffee-table book details the history and culture of Singapore’s Malay kampungs since its earliest known existence. Kilat Senja is a labour of love by A/P Hadijah Rahmat from NIE’s Asian Languages & Cultures Academic Group, who grew up in a kampung in Bedok.
Written in Malay, the book examines aspects of kampung life – including the religious, social, and political practices of its inhabitants – and also chronicles the impact of urbanisation on the kampung dwellers. Incidentally, A/P Hadijah started working on the book some 26 years ago as a graduate student supervised by her then NIE geography lecturer, A/P Yee Zee Onn.
Since then, the book has expanded into a 463-page volume with personal accounts from the author as well as close to 1,000 photographs and interesting documents acquired from numerous private collections.
Amazing labour of love
The book was launched by President S R Nathan on 3 December 2005 at an event organised by Jamiyah Singapore at Le Meridien Orchard Hotel.
The President, in a personal letter to Assoc Prof Hadijah, mentioned that he was impressed by the effort put into producing the book and hoped that it would be a valuable gift for all Singaporeans, especially the young.
"I am amazed at the amount of work that has gone into it, especially all the historical pictures of kampung life and people of the past and the sketches of old-time kampung houses. This is a commendable effort and I hope younger generations of Singaporeans will benefit from it," he wrote.
The book was partially sponsored by MUIS, Lee Foundation, Jamiyah Singapore, and the Malay Language Council, Singapore.
From NTU Staff Digest
Issue 175, January 2006
NTU Corporate Communications Office
Presidential recognition: A/P Hadijah (left) at the book launch with President S R Nathan (centre) and Mr Haji Abu Bakar Maidin, President of Jamiyah Singapore.
News
Singapore's President, Mr S R Nathan, has praised the publication of a coffee-table book on the history and culture of Singapore's Malay kampungs (villages). The book is a 26-year effort by an academic from the Asian Languages & Cultures Academic Group.
Readers of Kilat Senja - Sejarah Sosial dan Budaya Kampung-kampung di Singapura (Glimmering Sunset - Social and Cultural History of Kampungs in Singapore) can savour a fast-disappearing cultural heritage - that of Singapore's Malay kampungs.
