Reflections of my Life as a Singaporean

I am a retired baby-boomer, born in 1953, who is fortunate enough to live and survive through the LKY years. My birth certificate stated that I was a British Subject but my pink IC certified me as a Singaporean who had to serve 21/2 years of National Service in the Army. I have my family and kids who are doing reasonably well. For all these, I  am eternally grateful to this great man, Mr LKY. Since his passing, there were so many tributes, reflections, comments, write-ups, etc about him and how he effectively touched our life that nothing has been left unturned/unchurned. We looked back at the past videos which portrayed him as a man who would fight for his rights and the rights of his people to the last.

To this I would like to add on with my reflections on how it was like to be brought up as a fortunate son of Singapore.

Welfare :

My mother was forced to go out and work when my father passed away suddenly in 1963. She knew she had to work hard to feed a brood of four sons, eldest ie me, aged 11. She had to give away the fifth son to a wealthy couple so that the rest could survive. Botanic Gardens offered her a gardening job and she worked there for 25 years before retiring. During these hard times, we have to depend on Social Welfare from the Government, which also granted us free text books and exemption from paying school fees. Though poor, we somehow managed to survive. Two of us managed to complete our Poly diploma course, which was paid through a PSC bursary. We were bonded to serve the Government after our graduation. Getting the bursary was one of the best things that came my way as my mother avoided borrowing from other family members to fund our education. Also, we were guaranteed a 'Government' job upon graduation, something which many families, at that time, had wished and hoped for.

Housing :

When my father died we had to downgrade from a large 3-room SIT rental flat at Margaret Drive to a one-room flat, with shared toilets, at Bukit Ho Swee. The filth and smell from the shared toilets at the end of the common corridor was overwhelming at times. We avoided the toilets as much as we could. The poverty of those living there was depressing. Gangsters and unemployed people were around though they did not harm or harass us, the residents. However we could be easily influenced to join them if our will was weak. Anyway, we still had a roof over our heads and a little food in our stomach. Living conditions improved a little when we were forced to move to another one-room flat nearby This time, we had our our little toilet. When HDB decided to demolish all the one-room flats at Bukit Ho Swee, we were allocated another rental flat, a 3-room, at Alexandra Road at low cost. This was surely a progression.

Later in our lives, me and my brother managed to buy our own subsidised HDB houses, using the money from our forced savings, CPF. Nowadays, Bukit Ho Swee is reinventing itself into a 'atas' estate. 

                                 My family and I stayed on the 5th storey of this common toilet block
                                          Circa: @1963
                                          Source: National Archives

Block 3 Jln Bukit Ho Swee before it was demolished. Block 5 was on the right

Source : National Archives

I  moved to Block 13, left with bamboo poles, to a 6th storey one room flat with toilet.

The flat on the right were the Beo Crescent flats, still around today.

Source : National Archives

View of the big globe playground as viewed from the Bukit Ho Swee flat.

Far view shows the Havelock Road area.

Source: National Archives

Meritocracy:

This was one enduring policy which ensured me, my brothers and so many others to move up the social ladder. Our progression to further education was based purely on the merits achieved through our hard work on schools, not on factors like social status, race or religion. If you are able, help is always around to see that you are not hampered. Promotions in our job was also based on meritocracy, not on the schools or university you have attended, or who or what your father's standing in society. Of course, we heard of 'white knights' who have their golden spoons because of their parents or riches.....why businessmen like to send their children to ACS, a rich premier school? Money for nothing?? Who knows.

Social :

National Service was a great leveler for many in their social status. No matter who you are, you are not exempted. The medically unfit are given desk jobs. You would meet all sorts of people in the camps, lived and struggled through the 2/2 1/2 years with them. Usually, you would come out of the experience, a more matured, confident and sensible person.

There were also a number of 'safety nets' for the disadvantaged to land softly. Social welfare or nowadays PA is one of those. Nowadays, there are so many social organisations reaching out to the poor and disadvantaged that they are spoilt for choice. Thus, there are not too many 'economically poor' people around nowadays. As long as you are willing to work, there is job for you around. The present 'poor' estate, Bukit Merah or Redhill is comparatively richer than the old Bukit Ho Swee!!!! 

Policies I dislike:

I did not like some of the policies that were rammed down on us, then and now. We were made to believe that a person with long hair was usually associated with drugs, drug addicts. Avoid having long hair or you would be served last. Maybe at that time, it was a subtle campaign against Drug Abuse but painting all the long hair men with a single brush was unsettling. Thus I kept my hair as 'long' as possible.

The well-known poster discouraging long hair

 The 'Boy or Girl, Two is enough' , 'Stop at Two' campaign engineered us socially to have less children. The rationale then was to prevent the island from being overpopulated. Measures like imposing a fine for those having the third child,  mothers were 'financially coerced' to have ligation in hospital after the second child and monetary incentive for father to have vasectomy!! Nearly had that after my second but thought 'better not for the sake of my libido'!!  Much much later, the tune was changed, 'If you can afford, have more', to halt the dwindling population. The underlying message was that if you have the means (meaning graduate mothers and faters earning quite a bit), then have more.  Incentives were given to those with three children eg priority in the queue for HDB flats and registration for primary school for the siblings, tax incentives, baby bonus, etc. What a great turnaround!!! My third child was born before all the incentives were dished out.

How unlucky!!!

Another hated policy was in the 80s when it was decided to give 'graduate women' incentives to marry and produce. They were encouraged to marry someone of the same education level, the 'Nurture vs Nature' debate. The Social Development Unit (SDU) was set up to match graduate singles for matrimony. Not surprisingly, it was grounded because of the vile ground sentiments, before more of the ladies took the incentives. The policies were decidedly 'elitist'. However, the message is still subtlely put out.

Another was the "Speak Mandarin, Less dialects" campaign. Though it was to speak 'less dialects', overnight, all dialect programme were expunged from television and radio never to be heard again. In entertainment, the elderly were left hanging.

Some of the policies like banning chewing gum, mandatory death sentence for drug traffickers, ban smoking in public places, etc did receive support from the majority of the people.

Source : BBC in 2000

One of the dreaded thing perceived in the past was the presence or 'imagined presence' of the ISD. There was this fear that their personnels were all round us, listening to our conversations and nabbing us in the dead of the night if we said or do something wrong, or not following government laws. I believed that this 'fear' was inbuilt in many of the older generation's mind that made us 'law abiding' people. I remembered having to apply for a 'Suitability Certificate' before entry into Polytechnic. Guess the authority would have check and screen me and my 'past deeds' before allowing me to further my study. That was in the 70s.

There were many such policies which strait-jacketed us and developed 'government dependent' tendencies. Jack Neo's spoof, 'Just Follow Law' encompassed nearly everything Singaporean: Law abiding to a fault, waiting for someone's initiatives, wait for help instead of helping oneself, etc

Where in the world would you find another country which takes care of you from cradle grave? Which country would bother to look into nearly every facet of your life and try to make it better and takes action if you complain? Yes, some Western countries have beautiful social programme. However, they funded them through hard taxation of the working population. There are no 'real poor people', only the disadvantaged. When one is down and out, 'gah-ment' will surely help. Go see the MP of your ward to grumble about every little thing, he/she will solve your problem. When you cashed out your flat and spent it all for frivolous reasons, 'gah-ment' will help you find a rental flat. These types of 'dependent mentality' is quite prevalent in our society nowadays that I feared for the future. Imagine putting a new Singaporean and someone from Hong Kong or China in a wilderness. Who will survive? I bet the latter would find his/her way and survive or even thrive. Meanwhile, the Singaporean would be waiting and hoping that the 'gah-ment' would come and rescue him.

To their credit, Mr LKY and his team did tweak or change some of the policies which they later realised were poorly conceived or when the context changed. These changes to rectify the situations were usually made without a murmur or an apology to those adversely affected.

However, I believed that he did it all because he cared too much for the people even though they were unpopular or harsh. He was not one to implement 'populist policies'. He was like a loving 'father', who always wanted the best for his 'children' all the time so much so that people found it intrusive.

Now, our 'father' is gone. Can we stand up on our own? Can we think less of what the 'gah-ment' can do for us but what we can do for our country and ourselves?

I really wonder and is worried.

31 March 2015 (one week after Mr LKY's demise)