Temple with great feng shui

Chor: Millionaire who spends his time in the temple.

IN Langkawi, it is hard to tell the millionaires from the ordinary folk because the moneyed class goes around dressed no differently from the average person.

But many of them live in deluxe homes on the fringe of Kuah town and the Mercedes Benz is still their hearts’ desire – in fact, there is an enormous Mercedes Benz showroom along the highway to the airport.

Benny Chor was waiting for me at the fabulous Thean Hou Temple, looking anything but the multi-millionaire that he is. The land on which the temple stands used to belong to his family, and his company had developed the up-scale housing scheme across the road.

Chor is a naturally pleasant gentleman who is spending his golden years at the temple built in tribute to Ma Zu, the Goddess of the Sea.

It was completed last year and officially opened with a grand ceremony of cultural activity during which a medium from Thailand, who speaks Hainanese when he goes into a trance, had walked across hot coals before predicting that Langkawi would move ahead now that the temple was up.

The medium was probably not into politics because he had not foreseen the ominous political showdown which could decide the future of Langkawi.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was visiting Langkawi then, had dropped by at the event. It was quite shrewd of him because giving face is a big deal for the Chinese.

He was already eyeing Langkawi as a seat by then and it probably earned him a few more Chinese votes.

The Thean Hou Temple, said Chor, has fantastic fengshui. It sits on elevated grounds, surrounded by a range of hills that gives it protection.

It looks out to the east, where the sun rises from a perfect V-shape in the hilly range. There is also a stream that flows from the hills towards the temple before it empties into the bay to the far right of the temple.

And if you peer hard enough into the distance, you can see the famous eagle statue that has come to symbolise the spirit of Langkawi.

Strength from the hills and luck from the water – it is little wonder that Chor spends most his days there. The temple committee had spent years trying to get approval for the temple and had almost given up until several months before the 2008 general election.

During a celebration for the deity, they had asked the deity whether there was any hope for the temple.

The deity through the medium had advised: “Wait till the tua tau (big head or leader) changes.”

A few months later, the Barisan Nasional state government fell and Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak took over as mentri besar.

The committee petitioned Azizan on his first visit to Langkawi. That very night, Azizan telephoned one of the committee members to give a verbal okay and told them to go through the proper process.

He later sent word to ask them to build a beautiful temple bigger than the Nine Emperor God temple in Alor Setar. The rest is history and the irony is that PAS is credited for helping to give birth to the temple.

The temple is often said to be a Hainanese temple, but Chor stressed that it is for anyone who believes and wishes to pray. Its grandeur is a metaphor of how far the Chinese in Langkawi have come.

Many Chinese on the island started out as rubber tappers, pig farmers and sundry shop owners. Chor’s father went around on a bicycle selling Chinese medicine before going on to set up a proper shop.

But Langkawi’s duty-free status changed everything and today the new rich own shopping complexes, hotels and travel agencies.

The biggest ferry company belongs to the man who is said to be the richest Chinese in Langkawi. When friends tease him about the big bucks he is making, he would claim that he is losing money every year, but they joke that he is buying a new ferry every year.

The second generation of wealth is now running the business and their no-frills habits are still going strong.

For instance, do not be surprised to attend a wedding dinner at the ultra-posh Westin Hotel and find a few guests turning up in T-shirts, shorts and sandals.

Langkawi has about 38,000 voters, of which only 6% are Chinese. They are no different from their counterparts elsewhere in terms of political sentiment. The wealthier they are, the more complaints they have about everything.

Asked about how the Chinese will move in the general election, one of them said: “We are not the deciding vote. Even if we raised our arms and legs, we can’t make a difference”.

Not any more though. A close fight is looming between Umno and Dr Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi, and a few extra arms and legs will be crucial. – Joceline Tan