Romancing the Stone Island by Lea Wee(excerpts), The Straits Times June 19 2000
[Interviewed during the preparation of coffee-table book on Pulau Ubin]
Pulau Ubin -a gem for nature lovers and adventure seekers- is being immortalised in a coffee-table book
PULAU UBIN may be tiny, but it sure packs a punch, according to nature photographer Chua Ee Kiam. "It holds so many diverse habitats within a small area," he says. Scattered throughout the island are mangroves and secondary forests, rubber and coconut plantations, fish and prawn arms, orchards and disused quarries. For Chua, who is in his 40s, Ubin brings back nostalgic memories of his idyllic childhood in a kampung. The first-ever coffeetable book on the island
is scheduled to be out by the end of the year.
The initial aim was to record the wildlife in Ubin. For Chua, the book's main photographer and author, and a dental surgeon by profession, describes every trip as a unique experience. His most memorable was when seven Southern Pied hornbills flew over him. "My jaw nearly dropped! To see one is already rare, but to get seven, that is out of the world," he says. He was so stunned that he forgot to pull out his camera.
But as the project progressed, the photographers realized that Ubin's nature cannot be divorced from its people, history, culture and religion. He photographed and interviewed residents, experiencing first hand the much talked about "Ubin hospitality". The island's oldest resident, Mr Lim Chye Joo, 94, who is also the headman of the village, served them Chinese tea in dainty cups. He also recorded the island's cultural heritage Malay houses built on raised platforms and attap, roofs, Chinese houses with corrugated zinc roofs, and the English Cottage at No. I Pulau Ubin.
He hopes the book will let Singaporeans see for themselves what Ubin has to offer, before much of it is gone. He says: "It is inevitable that housing needs will spill over to Ubin, but I hope this will be deferred until all other options are explored." For him, the plight that Ubin may soon find itself in is symbolized in a granite rock at the entrance of the island. It bears an uncanny resemblance to a rhinoceros - an endangered species.
Wild, wild Ubin by Ian De Cotta (excerpts) Today, 28 Apr 2001
[Interviewed during the launch of the Green Hub at Pulau Ubin]
....Dr Chua Ee Kiam, author of the book "Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure", later told Today that nine hornbill have been spotted on the island. He said that spotting one is a treat because you can't even spot them easily in Malaysia. According to him, the island is also a favourite haunt for other species. "We went on a nature trail today and spotted a pair of woodpeckers and dollar birds," he said. "We even saw the green-crested lizards, the changeable lizards, animals people thought never existed on the island." But the highlight of the morning for him was hearing the calls of the straw-headed bulbul. Dr Chua said the bird is an endangered species worldwide and is no longer found on the mainland.
Other wildlife spotted on Pulau Ubin includes the long-tailed parakeet, wild boars and the civet cat, which is now used as a mascot on brochures promoting the island. But the reappearance of the leopard cat, a diminutive and attractive animal, must be the most encouraging sign of the rich wildlife on the island. Dr Chua said: "A resident once trapped the mammal, which has not been seen in Singapore for years. Fortunately, he released it after the intervention of the Nature
Society."
But Dr Chua hopes that Pulau Ubin would somehow be preserved. He said that the government is coming out with a concept plan at the end of the year and hopes everything possible would be done to preserve the place.
