Chapter 25: The Case of Being Called "Immigrants"

It is sad that after 62 years of Malaya's independence and 56 years of the formation of Malaysia, there are still people (sadly purportedly educated people) still clinging on to the idea that Malaysia belongs to a particular race and the minority who migrated from China and India years ago prior to independence are deemed foreigners. The saddest part is that even the prime minister of the day considered such extreme view as "balanced"! (Read here).

When Sabah (North Borneo then) was under the British colonial rule in late 19th century, they needed a sizable number of labourers, agriculturists, timber cutters etc to help develop the lands. I believe my paternal great grandfather came to Sabah in response to this invitation and opportunity.

My grandfather was a teenager when he left China for Sabah with his father in early 1900's. I have no knowledge of my great grandfather, Lee Kon Hee because he died long before I was born. I was told that he is buried in Basel Church Cemetery in Beaufort. However, I have yet to locate his graveyard.

My great grandfather, my grandfather Lee Thau Lim with his wife Chu En Lan and two children (a boy and a girl) and other clan members first settled down in Beaufort. He was probably involved in opening up land for rubber trees plantation and rubber tapping. Unfortunately, his wife died at a fairly young age in 1937 when my dad was only 10 years old. It was said that she died of an accident when a tree fell onto her possibly during a tree felling operation. My grandfather never talked about the incident and it must have been a very traumatic experience for him. Whether it was his deep love for his wife or other reasons, he remained single for the next 31 years until his death in 1968.

I located my grandmother's graveyard when I visited the Basel Church Cemetery in Beaufort on 23 March 2016. The refurbished tombstone was erected by my dad in 1994.

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It was possible that as the aftermath of the accident, my grandfather decided to move his family to Sapong in the interior of then North Borneo. Sapong is well known for coffee plantation and his employment in the coffee plantation was what sustained his family livelihood until he and his son moved to KK (Jesselton then) around 1947/1948.

After moving to KK, they immediately rented a small piece of land in a small rubber plantation from the Voo family at a valley not far from Harrintgon Road (now Jalan Istana). They built a simple timber house with attap roof in preparation for their new lives in KK. A separate annex single room unit was built next to the house for the sole occupation of my grandfather (Read here). Soon after, my dad married my mom through an arranged marriage, he started working as a trainee tailor in a tailor shop in Gaya Street.

To earn some extra pocket money, my grandfather also started ice cream peddling around the little town of KK and its neighbourhood. With carrying pole balanced on the shoulder, one end was hung a cylindrical tank filled with ice cream while the other end was hung the ice cream cones and a small stool. As he walked, he would ring his small bell to attract customers especially boys and girls. The high demand areas were usually outside the school gates. By nightfall, he would head for home after the ice cream was sold. Sometimes. there could be a little bit of unsold ice cream. The grandchildren would have a fun filled evening savoring the little bit of ice cream scrapped from the bottom of the tank.

Typical peddler in the 1950's.

Family photo taken probably in 1967 with my grandfather 

seated at front row. Mom and dad are at the back row 

2nd and 3rd from right.

After more than 110 years and the birth of the 6th generation since the arrival of the first immigrants in the case of my family, the continued labeling of the new generations of Malaysians of Chinese descent as "immigrants" is truly absurd and outright derogatory. This is particularly so for Chinese who have inter-married with the local indigenous people.