Research Scope

1.3.1 Geographical scope

The study area is set at Kukup Laut Fishing Village and Ayer Masin Fishing Village in Kukup Town, Pontian District, Johor State, Malaysia. Kukup Laut and Ayer Masin Fishing Village are parallelly built on the shallow water of the Strait of Kukup, Peninsular Malaysia. It is geographically sheltered by an uninhabited mangrove island, Pulau Kukup the RAMSAR site and hence is protected from strong waves and winds.

There is around one kilometer distance between the settlement and the island. Floating fish farms were built and operated by the villagers on the Strait of Kukup as one of their major economic activities.

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Figure 1.1 Pontian District and Location of Study Area Source: Wikipedia (left); Google Maps (right)

According to inhabitants, the villages were formed by the foreign immigrants from China around 150 years ago. The inhabitants had been conducting fishery activities since the villages were formed and started to operate fish farming from 1970s and tourism from 1990s.

Kukup Laut Fishing Village built by immigrants from Kinmen County of Fujian Province, China (now is named Kinmen County of Fujian Province, R.O.C.) consists of around 170 units of buildings and 1000 inhabitants (around 120 families), 5 temples and 1 primary school. Ayer Masin inhabited by immigrants from Tong’an County of Fujian Province, China (now is named Tong’an District of Xiamen City, Fujian Province, P.R.C.) consists of around 120 units of buildings and 700 inhabitants (around 80 families), 6 temples and 1 primary school. There are over 90% of inhabitants in these villages remain as descendants of the immigrants¹ and speak Min Nan dialect. Both villages are included in the study because of their adjacent geographical location (which the villages are separated only by a town road), similar forming background and lifestyles. However, these two

1 The villages were considered illegal and had been obtained Temporary Occupation License (TOL) from land use authority before they granted land ownership on year 2012. To limit the expansion of settlement, TOL application restricted the applicants of land use provide identity to prove as the descendants of original immigrants. It unintentionally led to the result of maintenance of villages’ ethnic.

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villages do not recognize each other as same living community due to their strong ethnic consciousness.

Figure 1.2 Photos of Kukup water villages Source: photographed by the study

It has considered in several factors when setting these fishing villages as study case:

1) Relatively simple cultural factor control

As a result of strong identity consciousness, the villages remain to inhabit only descendants from original immigrants and the historical record has been generally inherited to existing generations. It assists the research to observe in depth the context of development under condition of a relatively simple culture structure.

2) Availability of data and figures

While most of the water settlements have not yet obtained legal position, these villages were the first that officially granted land ownership rights from the state government² and hence make official statistics available. Furthermore, the location adjacent to an international renowned national park provides comparatively diverse research perspectives to a less attention study object.

2 The Chief Minister of Johor State Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman explained at the land grant ceremony, that the land on shore of the Straits of Kukup is owned by the state government and thus held the rights to grant the ownership. The Kukup traditional water villages’ case is the first and only legal water settlement by now.

The 99-years land ownership, which the local called “on-water ownership”, was granted on March 2012.

Previously, the residents, just as in other states, often faced difficulty in receiving land ownership and the risk of eviction. Most of the residents had been only given Temporary Occupation License (TOL) for the past decades.

6 1.3.2 Time scope

This research examines local perception reflected on spatial pattern development.

Therefore, time scope is designed based on the stages when the spatial development was apparent and supported by available graphics and maps. Furthermore, a time sequence helps the study clarify the cause of spatial development by spotting the significant change at specific period. A summary of the village’s development is produced according to interviews with inhabitants, news and written records.

Table 1.1 Summary to Kukup Laut and Ayer Masin Fishing Village’s Development Year

1860s Kukup Laut Village was formed, followed by Ayer Masin. Fishing and pig farming were the main economic activities.

1878

A Singapore-Arab businessman Syed Muhammad bin Ahmad Alsagoff set up Constantinople Estate to plant cash crops at Southwest Coast of Johor.

The estate had rapidly promoted the development of Kukub3 (now named Kukup). Kukub District was then formed.

1900 Road construction from Pontian to Johor Bahru.

1921

Road construction from Pontian to Kukup completed. The District administration office moved to Pontian. Kukup District was renamed to Pontian District.

- 1923 Primary School was established using a village’s house 1926 - Ken Boon Primary School was established.

1932 - According to an immigrant arrived at the year, the jetty was a little stilt house with concrete structure.

3 The authority and prosperity of the development project owned the rights to issue private currency (see appendix (3)), which clearly shown the name of “Kukub” and its function to make payment for coolies.

“Coolies” was the word used in the early 1800s for Chinese laborers. The currency, hence, provides official document to support the oral history of settlement formation time.

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According to an immigrant arrived at the year, the villages had no electric and running water service. There were only a few stilt houses with roof of sago palm’s leaves (attap in Malay). Kukup road was paved with stone and red soil. Ayer Masin had no path connected to Kukup road and the villagers rode wooden boat (sampan) to land.

1938 - Relocation of primary school to Kukup road.

- 1940 Construction of primary school.

- 1950s Construction of wooden path (commonly apply as “qiao-lu” in Chinese) to connect the village with Kukup road under the pressure of post-War government.

- 1960 School decoration to concrete structure.

1970s Infrastructure of lights, running water on Kukup road 1970s On stilt fishing facility (Kelong) gradually be abandoned.

1970 Broaden Kukup road and asphalt paved.

- 1977 Part of village path was destroyed by waves.

1979 Sea pollution on the Straits of Malacca brought impact to fisheries.

Developed floating fish farms.

1981 - Houses collapsed due to mudslide.

1984 - Set up Kukup fish farming trade union. 8 operating fish farms.

1990s - Landfills beside Kukup road. Construction to 55 units of 3-storey commercial shops and a bus terminal on land.

1990s Village house decoration to concrete structure. Developed home stay tourism.

1990 Infrastructure of lights on the path and in-house electric.

1991 - Houses collapsed due to mudslide.

- 1991 Decoration to school and expanded to 2-storey 1992 - Village Fire, 4 houses were destroyed.

1993 Decoration to village path to concrete structure. New jetty with concrete structure be built.

- 2006 Village Fire.

2012 Received ownership of land.

Source: summarized by the study

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It can be found that most of the infrastructure and facilities were completed by 1970s, although precise year of some constructions are hard to verify. After 1970s, there were structure improvement and alteration in an effort to deal with the impact of waves, pollution, fire disaster, that apparently caused changes to its spatial pattern. In addition, the earliest panoramic image in the settlement was at 1970. So the study period is designed to be two temporal phases⁴: a) Phase before 1970; and b) Phase after 1970.