Sungai Pelek

Sungai Pelek is a village in the district of Sepang in Selangor, Malaysia. This town is about 20 minutes from the Sepang International Circuit, which is currently on the 2008 Formula One calendar and about 25 minutes from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The town is near Bagan Lalang beach and Golden Coast Sepang. Port Dickson is about 30 minutes south of the town by road. Tanjung Sepat is about 25 minutes north by road. It has numerous mangrove forests and the local clay supports a thriving brick-making industry.

Etymology

Local legend has it that Sungai Pelek got its name from the temporary river formed by the overflow of the Sungai Sepang and Sungai Sepang Kecil during high tide. In the local Malay dialect, "sungai" meant "river, and "pelek" meant "strange" or "unusual".

This "strange/unusual" river lasted only for as long as the high tide, as most of the water would have drained out to sea by low tide.

History

During the Second World War, Sungai Pelek was under the control of the Japanese. There was active local resistance to the Japanese occupation. Some British military personnel were trapped in Sungai Pelek by the advancing Japanese forces. These British soldiers were aided in their escape by Mr Lim Yee Ko and his friends.

The Communist insurgency during the 1950s, also known colloquially as "The Emergency", saw the building of a chain-link fence around the village. Up until the 1970s, remnants of the fence could still be seen around the village but these are now largely overgrown or have been torn down to make way for the burgeoning population growth.

Demographics

The population of the village are predominantly ethnic Chinese from the Fujian Province of China. There are also Malays, who are mainly of Javanese/Sumatran descent, and Indians, who are a mixture of Tamils, Singhalese, Bengalis, etc in this small town.

Around the village are some smaller settlements like Bukit Bangkong, Batu Empat, Batu Dua and Teluk Merbau.

Bukit Bangkong was a small aboriginal settlement, which now houses a predominantly Malay population.

Batu Empat and Batu Dua are small Malay settlements on the road to Sepang town fom Sungai Pelek.

Teluk Merbau is a small Indian settlement built by the local palm oil company, originally owned by ICI. The settlement consisted of dwellings occupied by labourers brought in from southern India who mainly speak Tamil.

Religion

The main religious groups in Sungai Pelek are split between Buddhists, Hindus, Methodist Christians and Muslims. There are also a small number of Catholic Christians, Taoists and Sikhs.

Places of worship in Sungai Pelek consist of a small Methodist church preaching in Chinese, a mosque for the local Muslims and several small Buddhists and Taoist temples. The Indian temple is located approximately 3 kilometers outside of Sungai Pelek and was probably constructed there to be closer to the larger Indian population at the Teluk Merbau palm oil estate.

Education

Sungai Pelek has several schools which serve the local community. These schools provide educational instruction in Chinese, Indian, Malay and English. The educational level of these schools range from primary education to secondary education.

The schools which served the local Indian population were privately set up by the local palm oil factory for its Indian labourers. These schools were located in the Indian settlements around Sungai Pelek.

Economy

Besides its thriving brick-making and clay products industry, Sungai Pelek has numerous small plantations of rubber trees, coffee and palm oil.