KUALA LUMPUR: Yap Ah Loy, who helped turn Kuala Lumpur from a small tin-mining town to a booming commercial centre, has gotten his own set of commemorative stamps to mark his 180th birthday earlier this year.
Pos Malaysia, working together with several Chinese associations, today launched the commemorative stamps, of which there will be 2,000 sets.
The set of five stamps which feature Ah Loy’s portraits, come with a special envelope and a brochure which details his history. Priced at RM20 per set, they can be purchased at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.
Speaking at the launch of the stamp set, organising committee chairman Datuk Kevin Lai Tak Kuan said the purpose of issuing the stamps was to protect the legacy of Ah Loy’s contributions to Malaysia.
“Our objective is to promote his name internationally and local. People have stopped to look back at the history of how Kuala Lumpur was developed. Without Yap Ah Loy, there would not be a Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
The third Kapitan Cina’s great-great grandson, Yap Wai Ming, said he and the other descendants were pleased that Pos Malaysia and the associations had decided to launch the commemorative stamps.
Ah Loy was born on March 14, 1837, in Huizhou in China. In 1854, he left China for Malaya, arriving initially in Melaka before eventually making his way to Kuala Lumpur, then part of Selangor.
He became Kapitan Cina in 1868.
Five years later, Ah Loy helped Tengku Kudin end the Selangor Civil War and became a powerful figure in the state, especially Kuala Lumpur. He played an important role in developing Kuala Lumpur, restructuring the layout of the town, especially in Brickfields in the 1880s.
He also built the city’s first school and a tapioca mill in Petaling Street. He died in April 1885, at the age of 48.