Politics and the Jade Emperor
The Jade Emperor’s birthday on the ninth day of the Chinese New Year is always marked in grand style by the unique Chew Jetty community in Penang but the celebration this year is in danger of being overshadowed by petty politics.
Joceline Tan, The Star
IT is still more than a month before the Jade Emperor’s birthday but the fireworks or rather, fireworks of the political sort, have started going off around Penang’s famous Chew Jetty.
A massive row has broken out between the Chew Jetty residents and the DAP-led state government over the celebration of the deity’s birthday next month.
It is a raging topic in Penang’s Chinese kopitiams and the Chinese vernacular media have given it maximum coverage because nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the Chew Jetty.
The deity’s birthday is an important day of worship for the Hokkiens who refer to it as Thni Kong Seh.
The Hokkiens dominate the Chinese cultural landscape in Penang and the event is celebrated on the ninth day of the Chinese New Year or, to be more precise, the moment the clock ticks past midnight of the eighth day.
Celebrating the deity’s birthday has become synonymous with the Chew Jetty which is one of several clan communities living in quaint homes built on stilts over the sea along the Weld Quay stretch.
The event has grown more over-the-top each year and is now a major Penang tourist attraction. It has evolved from offering prayers and food to the deity to include an elaborate cultural show replete with fireworks and lion dances, drawing thousands of tourists and onlookers.
The dispute erupted when Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik of the DAP, from out of the blue, announced that he and Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Lau Keng Ee would be organising the cultural show this year. They had also booked the only open space in the area for the show.
Ng used to be Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s political secretary and his announcement was widely seen as having the blessings of his boss.
Ng stressed that he was only taking over the cultural show segment of the festivities. He said the religious part, that is, the offering of prayers and food to the Jade Emperor would remain with the Chew Jetty.
The cultural show also happens to be the more exciting part of the evening and Ng has promised a lively programme with fireworks, traditional music, lion dances and maybe even some acrobatics.
“We won’t interfere with the prayers. That will be organised by the residents,” he said.
The move shocked many in the local Chinese community because everyone knows that the Chew Jetty have been doing it for decades and it is strictly their show.
In the business world, it would be seen as a hostile take-over but as far as the Chew Jetty folk were concerned, the state had trespassed into their tradition and celebration.
On Jan 1, the residents committee met, there was a heated discussion over what had happened and they issued a statement asking the state government to cancel its plan to organise the culture show.
To drum home the message, they staged a protest with a long banner that read: “Defend dignity of Chew Jetty. Do not belittle Jade Emperor celebration. Where is justice when our venue is forcibly taken by authorities?”
“You can guess how we felt. This has always been our event, people come from all over to join and celebrate. It is not right, having dual events. Why didn’t they ask to co-organise with us?” said Chew Teng Hooi, the adviser to the Chew Jetty committee.
The two sides have been arguing through the media, a sign that communications have broken down between them.
The DAP leaders in the state government were unapologetic and are said to be furious over the protest which was splashed all over the front pages of the northern editions of the Chinese newspapers.
The irony is that the jetty community, including the Chew Jetty, has been a bedrock of support for the DAP. So what has gone wrong?
Up till the 1980s, the jetties, which include a string of other clan names, were a largely working-class enclave with a reputation for underworld activities. Education and economic opportunities enabled the younger generation to move out and go on to a more comfortable life.
But the opposition has continued to hold sway over the area and it has only been once in a blue moon that the Barisan Nasional came close to getting 50% of their support.
The Chew Jetty, said social historian Dr Neil Khor, is the biggest and most commercial minded of all the jetties and has embraced the tourism boom that took off in the 1990s. There are homestays, cafes and souvenir shops and the jetty is a must-stop on the tourist map.
Although the other jetties also have their own guardian temples, the Chew Jetty reinvented theirs into a tourist event.
The deity’s birthday last year featured a super-long banquet table laden with all kinds of food from cakes and tangerines to suckling pigs. The table was decorated with flickering lanterns, fake cherry blossoms and figurines.
Men dressed as the God of Prosperity moved among the crowd giving away candy. Over at the open space, a pink lion pranced around on stilts before clambering up a 15m-high structure to collect the angpow. It was a spectacular night.
But it was also the events at last year’s extravaganza that caused relations between the DAP leaders and the Chew Jetty to turn sour.
The Chew Jetty committee had invited MCA leader Datuk Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Penang Barisan chairman Teng Chang Yeow as their guests of honour.
But it was who they did not invite that became the hot political issue – not a single DAP leader was invited.
Actually, relations between the DAP-led state government and the Chew Jetty were already rocky by then because of a local construction issue. One of the committee members had reclaimed some land to build a carpark for the jetty without approval from the local authority.
When it was ordered to be demolished in 2014, they sought help from the Chief Minister but it was an illegal structure and it had to come down. The Chew Jetty committee was angry because they had spent some RM400,000 on the construction.
In retaliation, they did not ask the DAP politicians for funds to organise the celebration and instead approached the Barisan side which was more than willing to chip in. And, of course, they did not invite any DAP leaders.
The DAP side was stung by the snub. It also did not go down well with some people in the community and the Chew Jetty leaders were criticised for being petty, playing politics and not showing respect for the Chief Minister.
The Chew Jetty chairman Chew Hock Eam, a mild-mannered Chinese sinseh, could not take the pressure and resigned. His replacement is a timid-looking businessman named Chew Choon Seng.
DAP leaders had the inkling that they were about to be snubbed again this year because the Chew Jetty people had, until, now, not approached the state government to help fund the event.
Ng’s bid to take over the organising of the cultural show was one of those classic preemptive strikes.
It was the DAP’s way of telling the group: Okay, you don’t invite us, we take over your show.
He was effectively blocking the Chew Jetty people from the only open space available in the vicinity.
It would enable the state government to have a role in this special night of the Hokkien religious calendar and send a message to the Chew Jetty leaders on who the boss is.
However, this is the 109th year that the Chew Jetty is celebrating the Jade Emperor’s birthday and the state government has been cast as trying to steal the thunder from the community.
The state leaders are seen as playing tit-for-tat. The DAP is in danger of coming across as a bully against a neighbourhood group.
It did not help that when asked about the dispute over the use of the open space, the Chief Minister had replied that “this is state government land, not your father’s land” and the remark has gone viral.
DAP leaders think the Chew Jetty side should make the first move in seeking a compromise. The DAP is at the height of its power, the leaders enjoy overwhelming support from the Chinese including those residing in the jetties and they feel they need not kowtow to anyone.
“Our door is always open. If they want to work with us, we are okay with that,” said Ng.
As of now, the Chew Jetty side is not budging. Their sentiment is that the DAP side has hijacked their show and intruded into their tradition. As far as they are concerned, it is a declaration of war, an attempt to bring them to their knees.
“They have been doing this for more than 100 years. We should respect them,” said Barisan’s Teng.
It is understood that the man calling the shots on the Chew Jetty side is their adviser Teng Hooi whom DAP’s Lim had slammed as an “opposition supporter”.
Teng Hooi is not exactly an “opposition supporter” but his role in clan activities has brought him close to many politicians especially Gerakan leaders who once ruled the roost in Penang.
He is a big man and he is no pushover. The wealthy businessman is what they call a tai kor (big brother) in these parts. He is also chairman of the Penang Chew Clan Association and vice-president of the World Chew Clan Association. His hobby is gardening and he has won prizes for his plants.
But Chew Jetty’s tai kor should remember he is taking on a very powerful political party whose leader’s Tokong nickname is no longer a joke but all too real.
Some community figures are apparently trying to forge a compromise between the two sides. Even if a compromise fails, the show will go on, fireworks will light up the night sky and the tourists will be out in full force.
But it is will not be the happiest of birthdays for the Jade Emperor.
