Was Singapore a fishing village in 1965? Part 2

OK in part two of our Singapore history season, I interviewed Mrs AMK - she preferred to remain anonymous so let's call her Mrs AMK since she currently lives in Ang Mo Kio. Mrs AMK is a retired teacher and she was born in 1943. She grew up in pre-independence Singapore and by the time Singapore gained full independence, she was already a working adult at the ripe old age of 22. Here's a transcript of our interview.

Limpeh: May I begin by asking you a very silly question please, was Singapore a small fishing village in 1965?

A small fishing village 

Mrs AMK: (Laughs) No lah it wasn't lah! Alamak! You are joking or what? What kind of stupid question is that?! Aiyoh. It was a big city with 1.89 million people then! If Singapore was such an insignificant little fishing village, why did the Japanese fight so hard to conquer Singapore? Do you remember the sacrifices made by those who died to defend Singapore? If there was nothing worth defending, nothing worth fighting for - then why did thousands die for Singapore in WW2? Didn't you study WW2 in your history lessons?

Limpeh: Sure I did but it seems some Singaporeans are under the impression that Singapore was no more than a tiny kampong with very little people and only a small fishing village at the mouth of the Singapore river...

Mrs AMK: Are they confusing 1819 with 1965? That was when Raffles founded Singapore. Even I studied about that when I was a student. Good grief. How can Singaporeans not know this?!

Limpeh:  Let's talk about your childhood then please - tell me what you remember about going to school in the late 40s and early 50s in Singapore.

Mrs AMK: Primary school education was somewhat different in those days, we had more subjects that today: there was English, maths, science, history and geography. You could do a second language, they called it the vernacular language, though Chinese was not compulsory, everything else was in English. I also sat for my PSLE, then I went to secondary school for 4 years. It's called Form 2, 3, 4 and 5. We didn't get to choose schools then, so the whole lot of us from my primary school went to Bukit Panjang High School. But it was a brand high school then which wasn't ready - so we spent one year in Whitley primary school, then one year at Monkshill school before we could move into Bukit Panjang High School. I remember the excited I felt as I walked into the school for the first time, smelling the fresh paint in the classrooms - we had waited such a long time for that moment.

Limpeh: Did you have to pay school fees in those days?

Mrs AMK: Primary school education was free back then. We had to buy the textbooks, pencils, things like that... Though for hardship cases, the school always found money to help such students who couldn't pay for even the most basic things. I can't remember where that money came from but I imagine it was the government who provided such money. For secondary school as well, hardship cases enjoyed free education, but for the others it was only $2.50 a term... or was it a month? Sorry, I cannot remember exactly..

We had a simple childhood then - we didn't have all the facilities back then, but we had plenty of books in our school. Our principal believed in reading, she made us read and we could borrow as many books as wanted and it was great! It was a free private library courtesy of her private collection. We were very lucky to have someone like her as our principal, she did great things for the students, especially those from poor families.

When we finished our secondary school, we sat for our O levels, then most of the kids who were poor like my family, then we had to find work after that. I went to train as a teacher after that, I trained for 3 years at the TTC (Teacher's Training College) in Bukit Timah. It was part time training, I taught in the morning and trained in the afternoon, I had to do English and a main subject on top of that on top of all the teaching related curriculum. Then I was effectively a part of the working force by then. It was hard work, balancing the work from the school, the work from TTC as well as having to help out at home. It was the British system then, we were civil servants with pensions then. It wasn't bad indeed. Certainly, new teachers today do not get as generous a package when it comes to pensions. When I started teaching in 1961, the textbooks and textbooks became uniformed, it was standardized common syllabus. O levels were set in England, so all the same topics were covered in the syllabus - so the training at the TTC was very much geared towards this standardization, to make sure that all the teachers were working towards the same goal.

Limpeh: What was the attitude towards education in those days?

Mrs AMK: In those days education was considered important but it was not compulsory - a lot of people weren't educated and ended up illiterate. Some dropped out after a few years of primary school if their families were just too poor to pay for the school fees. The PAP government only made education compulsory later on, after independence. Before independence, boys had the priority of going to school over girls, but after independence, this gender bias gradually disappeared. But Singapore is an Asian society lah, this kind of gender bias has a lot to do with being Asian.

I was lucky as a girl in those days to get a good education which led to a respectable job as a teacher. I got a lot of respect from my parents and students as a teacher - it was a big deal for me then to be a teacher. People are not impressed with teachers now, nowadays it's such hard work. I am glad I retired when I did. Back then, people really respected then - it was easier as a teacher then!

Limpeh: Let's talk about housing. Tell me about the house you lived in when you grew up please.

My parents had a farm in Bukit Panjang which was possessed by the government after WW2 for redevelopment. In exchange, the government gave my father a tidy sum of money with which he bought an old house not far from old the farm. It was a good investment, but rather than living like rich people in that big house, it was subdivided into ten separate units and there were in fact ten families living in that house! It was incredibly crowded, we had no peace, no privacy and it was incredible how we were just so used to it. You know, the concept of having your own bedroom was just unthinkable in those days, but none of us knew anything different. I shared a small bed with my sister and I remember being woken up in the middle of the night when the couple on the other side of the thin wooden wall would argue and fight - I just learnt to ignore them and somehow went back to sleep. That woman would scream at her husband in Hokkien at the top of her voice, even in the middle of the night... Toilet and bathing facilities were horrible.

Limpeh: What other kind of houses were there in Singapore in those days?

Mrs AMK: There were squatters, those very simple makeshift houses made of flammable materials like wood and attap leaves Do you remember the terrible Bukit Ho Swee fire of 1961?

Limpeh: Of course, I do. I learnt about it in my history lessons as a student.

Mrs AMK: That was because there was little or no government regulation over that kind of squatter settlements in those days. Before the war, people turned up in Singapore, simply found a piece of land to build a house and just built what they wanted. People just anyhow build these squatters - so it was a fire risk. That's why people were grateful for the PAP's HDB flats. Sure there were the Chinatown type brick shop houses - those were very crowded too. They had this distinctive gor ka kee ("5 foot way") sheltered walkway in front of it - you can still see such gor ka kee type buildings in Singapore today. They are pretty common actually. (See photo below.)

There were Chinese and Malay kampongs in those days - like the kinds you would see on Pulau Ubin or Malaysia. In the kampongs, Chinese have their houses more spread out, it's not like squatters but more spread out. But in the Malay kampongs, the houses were often built on stilts - some are farmers, others did other kinds of jobs in the kampong. My father once had his own farm - he had goats, chickens, ducks, fruit trees, grew vegetables. He sold eggs as well. In the squatters, the people had no space for any animals.

Some 'gor ka kee" type shop houses in Singapore today. 

Of course, plenty of rich people in big bungalows, on Kings Road I remember, in Bukit Timah, rich people with big houses with nice cars. Many of those beautiful big houses are still standing today. Those were for the rich Angmors as well as for the rich locals. Cars were somewhat rare then, they were only for the very rich.

Limpeh: Did most houses have running water? Electricity

Mrs AMK: As far back as I can remember, I had water and electricity in the house as well as the farm. Not by modern standards, but there was always a tap that worked and we had electricity even in that crowded house. In the kampongs and squatters, sometimes people managed to get piped water in their homes, other times they had to share a public stand pipe, like a big communal tap. But for most of us, we always had electricity but that came with frequent black outs. All this was controlled by government then - they ran public utilities then and you paid your bills for your water, electricity... just like you do today. It wasn't that different.

I remember that drainage was very poor, that big canal in front of the hosue overflowed a lot. Bukit Timah flooded a lot then, the floods would recede with the tide going out. Things improved a lot under the PAP late 70s and flooding became less of a serious problem then. But hey, did you hear about the floods in Orchard Road in recent years? Looks like flooding is making a come back, I hope the government will deal with that problem.

Limpeh: They are calling it ponding, not flooding.

Mrs AMK: Alamak. Ponding?!

Limpeh: Let's talk about transport in those days - how did you get around Singapore?

Mrs AMK: I used the public bus, you paid 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents... It was according to how many bus stops you travelled. The bus conductor would issue you a ticket and then there were the bus inspectors who check you have paid appropriately. Those buses were terrible, very bad quality buses. I remember the STC buses - Singapore Transport Company, I think that's what it stood for, you need to check lah.

Limpeh: Apart from public buses, what other modes of transport were there?

Mrs AMK: Well, there were trams in Singapore until 1927 - there are still trams in other cities but the trams in Singapore were phased out in 1927 and replaced with trolley buses. Those were run by the government, until 1962 when they were eventually done away with and replaced by motor buses. I remember the bus companies... there was the Green bus. And "Tay Koh Yat Bus", those were two major private bus companies I used. Then there was also Hock Lee Bus, but I didn't use them much. There were also Bawang Chia ("unlicensed taxis") - but I couldn't afford those.

Limpeh: Let's talk about the time you were looking for a job in the late 1950s - what was it like for young people then entering the work force? Was there a lot of optimism? Were people ambitious?

Mrs AMK: In the 1950s, clerks were pretty liao bu qi leh, it was enviable as you could work in an office! It meant you were tak li - literate! Most people were hawkers, zuo xiao sheng yi, odd job labourers or worked for other businesses. I remember a neighbour who worked at the local fruit and vegetable shop - you would go there and buy all kinds of things. He was mostly responsible for carrying in the boxes of goods and stocking the shelves, making deliveries... He never handled money, only the boss or the lao ban niang could accept your payment. A lot went into manual labour like that, using their muscles rather than their brains. If you were not too choosy, you could find work - but the pay was low of course for that kind of work lah.. Those days people were easily pleased, easily satisfied back then, far fewer aspirations, poorer people didn't care - those with money could go for further education, otherwise they just did what their parents did. People's attitude, mindsets, were so different then.

Limpeh: Were people generally quite poor in those days then? What about say, buying new clothes for Chinese new year? Where did you go shopping for new clothes back in those days?

Mrs AMK: It was just after the war and Singapore had a lot to rebuild after Japanese occupation in the war. So of course, people were very poor lah.  In the 1950s, my mother sewn all the new year clothes every year, the same style cut from the same cloth, all the siblings, like wearing uniform. We had no money to buy new clothes, it was cheaper to sew! It was a skill that my mother had. It was only when I started working then I had a bit of spare money to buy my own clothes.  My pay wasn't great but things were very cheap then. Think about the young people who go to Orchard Road these days and they just shop shop shop, it's a far cry from when I was their age.

In those days, High Street was the most glamorous place to go. It was so high class, very atas back then. There was also Beauty World, Gay World, Great World, Chinatown.... I went there to window shop with my friends as it was fun. Oh they had those cabaret shows back then, I loved those but we didn't have enough money to see many of them. We may go to Botanic Gardens, that was free! Orchard Road wasn't  where people went back then - but we went to other places during Chinese New Year, we went to cinemas to see a film when we wanted a treat. Esplanade was a hang out for couples - it was known as gor tsang qiu ka ("at the foot of the 5 trees"), satay club existed even back then. Satay then was very cheap and very good there.

Limpeh: Oh I'm hungry for satay now! Let's talk about your peers. How did their experiences compare to yours?

Mrs AMK: Very few of my peers went for further education, they mostly ended up as nurses, teachers, secretaries. We kept in touch, we always went for outings - we still do today!! For what it was worth, it was comfortable enough lah, but those who had higher education obviously did better with a degree as graduates were so rare back then. Those who joined the civil service tended to do pretty well, the government was better in those good old days. I even had a friend who joined the police service.

Limpeh: Let's talk about the police please, how do you remember the police service in the pre-independence days?

Mrs AMK: Police wore shorts then! They had this khaki coloured uniform.  After the war, there were plenty of gangsters and gang violence then, loads of gang fights - those were scary. People got killed, we were afraid of the gangs. The police began to deal with gang violence in the 1950s and yeah eventually they drove the gangsters underground. This was around the early 60s - you can never totally eradicate gangs from a city like that, but the police did a remarkably good job then. We trusted and respected the police then.

The Singapore police uniform from 1945 - 1971 

The gangsters were there before WW2, they have always existed in Singapore - those immigrants from China arrived in Singapore as total stranger. So they went to the Huay Kwan and there would be those who recruited new migrants into gangs, inducting them into gangs early on so it was various dialect clans versus each others. During the 1960s, the government managed to control them - well, drive them underground at least and keep them in check. Gangsters were very serious, scary back then. The gang went by numbers and areas - the gangs were numbered for some reason, not strictly according to dialect lines but dominated by one.

Limpeh: Do you think Singapore is safer today?

Mrs AMK: You know... felt safer then, compared to today. Sorry, but we have so many foreigners in Singapore now, it's just not the same any more. There were many Malays in the police force earlier on I remember, but more Chinese policemen were recruited later. That's why we called theme mata-mata. because that came from the word for eyes in Malay. We would say mata in Hokkien, as in the famous phrase mata lai loh ("The police are coming!"). We never used the modern Malay word polis, it was always mata or mata-mata. People really respected the police then, you know, just like the way people respected teachers back then. How things have changed.

Limpeh: What happened when you fell ill? What were clinics and hospitals like back then?

Mrs AMK: There were fewer clinics in those days, you know, like private clinics. You had to pay but it was cheap. It was the same for hospital. At the clinic, they would dispense medicines for you ... if you were very sick, then you had to go to the hospital.  Private clinics provided a reasonably good service really, no long waits. Hospitals you may have to wait a bit, as they catered for everybody. You paid a little but it was mostly subsidized by the government. Those considered 'hardship cases' didn't have to pay anything.

The government was good then, in those pre-independence British days. We were given cod liver oil from the school and free milk - they singled me out as I was skinny and deemed to be malnourished. They sent medical teams to the primary school at my primary school, examined the kids and the undernourished kids had free milk. The milk was powdered milk and the school jaga ("janitor") would make the milk for the kids ... some of us poured the milk away in the drain. I hated the taste of the cod liver oil, it was terrible. We didn't understand the value of it, our parents were ignorant, we threw most of it away! What a waste! That shows how concerned the government was then as all this was for free. Do students get anything for free these days? Free milk? Dream on, nothing is for free these days.

Mrs AMK received free milk and cod liver oil at school.

As Singaporean parents got richer over the decades, they were able to do more for their children and whilst that's a good thing, I miss the old days when there was a lot of generosity and kindness for those who were less fortunate, otherwise known as 'hardship cases'. There were so many people people back in those days before independence, people were poor but the society then was different. Like after the Bukit Ho Swee fire in 1961, I remember how everyone, no matter how poor, chipped in to help those who had lost everything in the fire and had no more than the clothes they were standing in left. People are just not kind and charitable like that these days, they are suspicious of others, they are reluctant to help or give to charity. Singaporeans have a lot more money now, but I really believe people were happier back then even if we were poorer then.

Limpeh: Ironic isn't it? As so many Singaporeans think that becoming rich, being able to make more money, providing more for their families, being able to buy nicer things - they believe all that would make them happier but it isn't always the case. Gosh, where do I begin - there are so many issues they are unhappy with.

Are Singaporeans happier today? Evidently not. 

Mrs AMK: I remember when I was a little girl, maybe it was like 1949 or 1950. My uncle bought me a small bunch of grapes for my birthday and it was the first time I had grapes, I know you're going to laugh, right? Imagine being so thrilled with grapes but I had never tasted grapes before and I had to share them with my brothers and sisters - I barely had two or three grapes but that made me so happy that I didn't mind sharing with my siblings. I was happy to share with my siblings this generous gift from my uncle, I wanted them to taste this new fruit too. Grapes were expensive then, any kind of imported food was very rare in those days but I would never forget those grapes and my uncle's gift.

Now I look at my grandson and he has so many toys. We keep buying him more because we can, we have money now and I think, when I was young I had no toys - now I can buy my grandson all the toys I never had. Maybe it makes me happy to be able to do so, but I don't know if he really appreciates all these wonderful things he has. He grew up in a family where he has always had everything, anything he wanted, so he just takes things for granted and doesn't really understand where all these things in the house have come from. He will never understand how I was so thrilled over a birthday gift of grapes as a young child. Can you imagine that? The mindset of these children these days.

"Happy birthday"

I remember there was a sense of optimism in 1963 when the British finally left and again in 1965, when we gained full independence as a nation, when we separated from Malaysia. We were full of hope then for ourselves, our future and our children. Now, people are so much more pessimistic, they worry about the population situation, they worry that their children cannot find work, they worry that there are too many foreigners making Singapore too crowded - it's a pretty sad situation, when you think how hard our generation worked to make Singapore as successful as it is today and people now think it's going to go downhill from here. What a shame... it's sad.

Limpeh: Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. This is a wonderful piece of history our Singapore and I love the way you have shared with us such personal stories, it really does give us a great insight into that period of pre-independence Singapore. I am sure my readers will enjoy reading this article.

Mrs AMK: You're welcome! Also, tell your readers to speak to their parents and grandparents about what it was like growing up in Singapore! It is unforgivable that some of your readers know so very little about the history of Singapore. How can they call themselves Singaporeans when they don't even know the basics of our history!

Limpeh: I know! That's why I was hoping that by sharing your stories, I can address that situation as your story is a lot more interesting to read than a history textbook. Thank you very much, kum siah.

So there you go readers, you heard Mrs AMK, your homework now is to interview your parents and grandparents, get some interesting stories from them about pre-independence Singapore and share those stories as a comment below. Thank you in advance, kum siah, terima kasih.