UTAR NEW VILLAGE COMMUNITY PROJECT REPORT NAME OF ...

AbstractBuntung, Perak is located in the south of Jelapang and the north ofMenglembu along the Ipoh Lumut Expressway. It is located at4°60'209"N 101°3'834"E.Currently, the village is under the charge of Toon Yew Pooi ( ). He hasbeen holding the position as head villager for more than 3 years. Generally, thevillage head is elected once every 2 years. Besides that, he also holds thechairmanship of SJK (C) Guntong.培 耀 段The population of Buntung is around 3,000 to 4,000 people with more than1,000 houses located in the Buntung area. Most of the residents in Buntung areIndians (about 50% of the population), followed by the Chinese (around 40%) andthe Malays.It is predicted that the Indians will continue to grow in numbers. They areusually at the market to buy things or vegetables during weekends. The specialtyproduct of Buntung area is “Kacang Putih” made by the Indians.In general, Buntung is a small place that is quite peaceful. Today, Buntung stillhas the traditional outlook of a typical old town. Many local residents are facingunsolved scarce land, as well as financial and man power problems in cultivatingtheir products.

HistoryBuntung was formed in the 1950s. It used to be Sewage disposal groundbefore it is developed to become a village. Almost every day there would be somelorries to collect the dung from house to house. However, the place is nowdeveloped to become a residential area. There is also a place that was usedpreviously to burn rubbish. This place still exists but it is no longer in used.In the past, cows were used as a means of transporting goods from one partof the village to another. The cows were also used to mill sesame seeds to producesesame oil for consumption. They also had to wash their clothes in a particular pool.It is truly surprising that the present Indians still do this.Economy ActivitiesFarming and being quarry workers in the mining area were the maineconomic activity at one time. Today, mining and agriculture are no longerprominent economic activities. However, many of the Chinese become hawkers tosell vegetables and food in the market. The market is one of the favourite hang-outplaces in the village. In time, some of these Chinese open up shops to sell a variety ofitems. There are also pharmacy shops that double up as grocery stores. Many of theIndians, however, work in the city council as administrators, office assistants orcouncil workers.

Another prominent economy activity in Buntung is bean sprout production.The daily production of bean sprout is almost 10 barrels per day. The bean sprouttakes 6 days to grow before it can be supplied to the customers. During these 6 days,the bean sprout cannot be exposed to the sun and needs to be watered every 4hours, approximately 5 times per day. The bean sprouts are supplied to other placessuch as Ipoh, and Taiping in addition for local consumption. Due to hightransportation costs, the bean sprouts are not sent to faraway places for sale.

EducationThe government kindergarten in Buntung opened about five years ago. Thechildren here are given free education. Currently, there are only 2 classes openedThere is also a private kindergarten where fees are charged.15 years ago, there were only 7 students at SJK (C) Guntong, Ipoh. This schoolis fully subsidized by the government. The number of students is slowly increasing,but it still has less than 150 students per year. This is because many of the parentssend their children to more popular schools outside of Buntung.

SMK Buntung was opened in 2002 in the Rishah village .The first principal of SMK Buntung was Mr Lau Swee Mun. Under hisleadership, he has built various facilities in the school area such as a hut, a smallpavilion, Foot Reflexology Sites, Science park, and a Fruit Garden. He has alsoupgraded the office and started a mural painting.Now, SMK Buntung is under the leadership of Mrs. Nalini a / p Achuthan Nair.She has successfully led the school to achieve greater heights of excellence. This wasevident when the number of vocational students increased up to 1048 Buntungpeople. Now, SMK Buntung has 2 sessions—one in the morning and one in theafternoon. Mr. Chan Huan Hen is the current afternoon session Supervisor.Social, Cultural and Religious PracticesThe main religion for Chinese villagers of Buntung is Buddhism. There arenumerous Chinese temples that can be seen at the roadside of the village. The main皇Chinese temple is a Nine Emperor God temple ( 九) situated at the border of the 爷village. During the first day of the nine-day celebrations of the Nine Emperor Gods大 皇[ ] Festival, the followers of Kew Ong Tai Tay society would invite all non-Muslims to join in the celebrations at the Kew Ong Tai-Tay Temple located at thefollowing address: No. 85,Laluan Buntung Jaya 11, Buntong 4, 30100 Ipoh, Perak.帝 九

Nine Emperor God temple ( 皇 九) 爷Sedan ChairSo far, this is the only temple where you can see the lighting of a giant dragonjoss-stick with an astonishing height of 23ft 8in. There will also be variousceremonies, festivities, celebrations, charitable activities and prayers throughoutthese nine days. Free vegetarian food is served throughout the Nine Emperor GodsFestival. For more information, visit this Nine Emperor Gods at:http://www.nine-emperorgods.org九website 帝 大 皇

giant dragon joss-sticksApart from that, Christian churches and Hindu temples can also be seen. Forexample, there is a Christian church just beside the Buntung morning market. ManyHindu temples are built on the same row just along the road that leads out ofBuntung.Christian church

Hindu templesInfrastructureThe villagers of Buntung host their events at a place called Buntung Hall.Every year, the government would spend some money to host events like singingcompetition in order to increase interaction between villagers. The Buntung hall isalso used for many other purposes like karaoke, dance class, singing class andbadminton practice. Just outside the hall, there is also a basketball court that is useddaily. The Buntung village youths would normally hang out in the basketball court orfriends’ houses as there are no leisure complexes located in Buntung. For the oldergeneration, however, they would normally hang out at the mamak stalls to socialisewith the people of the same age or they would normally play chess to pass their time.This type of activities has built a very good relationship between the elderly villagers.

As for health facilities, there is a moving clinic in Buntung that would seepatients with minor injuries. The fee for the treatment is low and affordable. Thereason for this is that as the traffic flow in Buntung is slow, there is little or almost noaccidents. Thus, the government has yet to see a need to build a hospital in such arural area. The village head himself also commented that specialist doctors wouldhave a hard time earning a living in Buntung due to the low population and lowpollution rate. Even specialist doctors that live in Buntong would work in other moredeveloped areas. However, the government hospital is situated not far from Buntungand is reachable by car.

The courier service at Buntung is privatised but it still works hand in handwith the government courier service. In Buntung, the police would patrol the areaoften. However, there is no fire fighting service in Buntung. The reason for thefrequent patrol is because there are a lot of petty thieves in Buntung. The villagehead complains about the number of break in cases in Buntung. There are a lot ofthieves in Buntung. The thieves would normally steal steel material as steel fetches agood price in the market.The village’s main water supply comes from Sungai Parit ( )which has been flowing through the village for a very long time. According to thevillage head, it is the life source for many farmers as the area’s main activity is morefocused on agriculture. The river’s water flows downstream from the hill side until河 里 巴 溪 双Anson road ( 安). 顺

FoodThis wanton noodle stall has been existing for more than 20 years in Buntung,Ipoh. The noodle is not the ordinary noodle that one gets in any shop as it is homemade wanton noodle. Not only that, the dry wanton noodle is nicely mixed with adelicious sauce and sprinkled with Ipoh’s famous bean sprouts. In addition, the greenchillies are superbly fresh. The noodles come in three portions—single, onehalf/mediumand double. Extra order of wanton is possible.

Cheong Kee Wanton Noodle542, Jalan Sekolah, Buntung, 30100 Ipoh.Bean sprout chicken is definitely one of the most famous dishes in Ipoh. Thedish is also popular within Malaysia or even Asian countries. Among all the bean芽 菜 黄sprout chicken stalls in Ipoh, Restaurant Lou Wong Tauge Ayam Kuetiau (鸡 沙 河 老) is the most famous one. But little people know that there is another stall 粉in Buntung Ipoh that serves comparable quality of food.The stall is located within Ipoh Buntung village, not far away from Buntungmorning wet market. Although the stall has a big yellow signboard it is notimpressive. The stall’s name is just “Restaurant Ayam Tauke”, which means“Restaurant bean sprout chicken”. Due to this, many locals call it “Buntung beansprout chicken stall”. Although the restaurant is not located in the center of Ipoh,many people are willing to drive from far just to taste the heavenly bean sproutchicken. Overall, Buntung’s bean sprout chicken is highly recommended as it is lesscrowded than similar shops in Ipoh.

TransportationThe traffic condition in Buntung is usually smooth flowing. Generally, eachhouse in Buntung has 1 or 2 vehicles for the whole family. The residents in Buntungwould normally travel by motorcycle as the travel distance between destinations isshort and easily accessible. Thus, the normal problem is usually the lack of space topark motorcycles. In Buntung, the worst time to travel is during 8am and 5pm whichis the time that people start and end their work. There will be a slight traffic jamduring this period but the road condition will slowly get better after this period.

Tourism ValueThis beautiful waterfall is at the foothills of Kledang Range beside Ipoh-LumutExpressway., a walking distance from Buntong Jaya/ Taman Buntong Ria. It is one ofthe most popular waterfalls in Perak. Many local folks and tourists patronize thiswaterfall to enjoy the fresh air and water ice cool mountain water. Adventurersused to follow the track on the left of the waterfall, trekking thought the jungles insearch of beautiful birds and butterflies.Problems and RecommendationsThe main problem in Buntung is the migration of teenagers to moredeveloped cities such as Kuala Lumpur or even the nearest place, Ipoh. They preferthose areas because they can easily get higher paid jobs, and more entertainment ascompared to Buntung area.Hence, it is advisable that the government should offer highly paid jobs inorder to attract the teenagers to stay over in Buntung. In addition, the governmentalso needs to set up more factories in Buntung as it provides more opportunity forteenagers to work in.Apart from that, the issue of fertility becomes a concern that it drops to acritical stage in which less and less infant is born over the period. It is due to mostadults or teenagers move out to other places to work and start over their new lifeover there.Therefore, it is suggested that the government might subsidize those whogive birth as an incentive for mothers to give birth. Consequently, it might increasethe number of infants born in each family.Lastly, motorcycle accidents usually happen and this may cause some frictionamong some of the villagers here. The government should conduct seminars and

organize campaigns to increase the public awareness on road safety. In addition, it isrecommended that the traffic police should always patrol the roads in order toreduce conflict between the residents due to accidents.EntrepreneurshipIt is suggested that the residents in Buntung organize a home stay for thosetourists who visit their place. Thus, the residents could introduce and promote theirinteresting places. In addition, it builds up a good relationship between the residentsin Buntung and foreigners who come from other places.It is also recommended that the government should build a chalet for touriststo stay in order to boost up the economy of Buntung. Hence, it is suggested that avariety of tourism packages should be offered in order to attract more and moretourists visit this interesting place.DISCLAIMER:Information contained in this report was compiled by the University’s students on voluntary basis. Although everyeffort has been made to check the accuracy of the report, the University accepts no responsibility whatsoever forany errors or omissions, if any, the University reserves the right to make changes on the information at any timewithout prior notice.Should there be any queries regarding contents of the report, please contact:Department of Soft Skills CompetencyTel: 03-79582628 ext 8274 (Klang Valley Campus)05- 4688888 ext 2297/2299 (Perak Campus)