ALMOST everyone equates the town of Tanjung Rambutan to a prominent landmark here, the 102-year-old psychiatric institution named Hospital Bahagia.
Such is the fixed mindset of a large number of Malaysians that anyone who introduces himself as having come from Tanjung Rambutan could immediately observe either a raised eyebrow, a sheepish smile, a chuckle, a tightening of the lips, widening eyes, a frown, or a simple, irritating "Oh, you are from that tempat orang gila (literally, madman's place)".
But the truth is, without Hospital Bahagia, Ulu Kinta, there probably would have been no Tanjung Rambutan to talk about.
To a large extent, generations of townspeople depended on Hospital Bahagia for their livelihood working as doctors, nurses, attendants, public health assistants, hospital assistants, drivers, X-ray film developers, and other positions since it was set up in 1911.
Things have changed today. The people here have gained employment in other fields and places. But they continue to call Tanjung Rambutan home.
To them, no other place in or around Ipoh provides the same serenity, beauty and peace.
Perhaps they like the slow pace of small town living.
But Tanjung Rambutan has certainly changed in the last one decade.
With Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah leading the charge to bring development to the Tambun parliamentary area, Tanjung Rambutan has been receiving his attention, especially since his appointment as the Second Finance Minister.
The setting up of the RM380 million Sultan Azlan Shah Allied Health and Sciences College next to Hospital Bahagia, which opened officially last year, has heralded a new passage in the town's socioeconomic development.
Housing demand which was relatively low, increased when the college opened its doors to thousands of students in the last three years.
More housing projects began to be developed. People began to renovate their houses by erecting additional wings to be rented out.
The downside was that this led to an unhealthy rise in rental charges.
If a family could rent a single-storey house with three rooms for RM150 to RM200 a month in the early 1990s, the rent is between RM350 and RM500 now.
The arrival of the students, however, proved a boon for the town's survival.
Tanjung Rambutan began to see the mushrooming of restaurants, food stalls, clothing outlets, private clinics, and even car washes.
And where one could not find a sundry shop open beyond 8pm, several grocery shops now operate until late at night. And these do not include two convenience stores, including a 7-Eleven outlet.
There's even a new market and food court in town, the brainchild of Ahmad Husni who wanted to give the town a makeover.
And the five-term MP is now looking at setting up a public library and a large modern town hall building.
There's still much that is old about the town.
The road that cuts through it is still a two-lane street and the evergreen public field in the middle of the town.
But Tanjung Rambutan is still the envy of many people.
It has a commanding beauty and majesty of the Korbu range which forms a nice long backdrop that some say became the very reason the town was chosen to house the country's first psychiatric institution.
It is here, too, that one can find the rarest testimony of religious tolerance where a mosque, a kuil, a gurdwara sahib and a Taoist temple co-exist next to each other on one side of the street.
So, the next time you meet someone from Tanjung Rambutan, don't snigger at that person.
Just say: "Hello, it is nice to meet you. I heard Tanjung Rambutan is a beautiful place".
Or at least tell yourself that 31250 Tanjung Rambutan is the place where for more than 100 years sick people have been visiting to heal themselves.
The Korbu range seen from the bridge across the Kinta river in Tanjung Rambutan. On the right is the town’s oldest mosque. Pix by Supian Ahmad
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
New Sraits Times - Streets Northern Your News Page 3
