Gambier
and pepper are not an unfamiliar things for Johor Bahru people. When they are
driving along Johor roads would noice the tall lamposts decorated with designs
of pepper and gambier.
We
can also see street decorations and flowerpots in the public places bearing
pepper and gambier motifs. Invitation cards and souvenir programmes of official
functions in Johor often carry little sparys of borders of these 2 (two)
plants. These trailing vines can also be seen in the decorations of many public
buildings and indeed, have been incorporated into the design of Johor Bahru
City Council’s crest and State Regalia. Recently, the Chinese community of
Johor Bahru also used these motifs for the design of the archways of Tan Hiok
Nee Heritage Walk. They are a reminder of the importance of these 2 (two) crops
in the history of Johor.
150
years ago, gambier was widely used in leather tanning and cloth dyeing, and at
that time, gambier and pepper plantations were everywhere in Johor, like we see
oil palm plantations nowadays. But gambier and pepper were soon overtaken by
the pineapple and rubber plantation at the turn of the last century, and
gambier has since vanished and totally forgotten. There is hardly any gambier
plant left. Now, not many people know what gambier is and how it looks like.
Gambier Plantation
Gambier
(Uncaria gambier) is tropical shrub
which grows well in Malay Archipelago. It is believed that gambier plant is
originated in Sumatra and Borneo. Since then, Riau had been a gambier producing
and trading centre in Southeast Asia for over a hundred years. As demand
increased, new gambier plantations were opened through a mixture of Bugis and
Chinese enterprise in the Riau Islands in the 1740s. The cultivation of gambier
was later migrated from Riau to Singapore, and then from Singapore to Johor in
1844. In cultivation, the plants can grow to about 2 (two) metres high. The
leaves are oval or oblong in shape and measure 8 (eight) to 14 (fourteen) cm in
length.
Temenggung
Ibrahim of Johor encouraged the Chinese planters to cultivate the economic
crops in Johor. He introduced a unique Kangchu System for better administration
of the Chinese settlements in the plantation areas. A panel on the production
and distribution network of gambier and pepper is included to show the parties
concerned, namely the Maharajah Abu Bakar, gambier royalty farmer Tan Hiok Nee,
the towkays (gambier merchants) and planters who played their roles in this
business or industry in 1877.
The
production of gambier and pepper provided substantial revenue for the ruler and
was also the economic lifeline of the Chinese community in 19th
century. The plantation of these economic crops also contributed significantly
to the opening up and to the social and economic development of Johor. Thus it
helped transform Johor from a traditional maritime state to a modern kingdom
with crop farming as its economic lifeline.
