There was a time – Jean Yeo

This is a six part series produced by Jean and Pedro and shown on Channel 5 at 9 pm every Monday. Tonight was the first half of the 1964 racial riot in Singapore. The next half will be shown on ncxt Monday. I am not sure how many of you have seen this episode and the other episodes of early Singapore.

I was in Secondary Two then. Still a bit young to really understand what was going on but could not miss the fear and tension of those days. My memory was still vivid on that night, in a coolie keng in Borneo Road. This was a row of double storey prewar houses with 9 units attached together and an open verandah on the upper floor. One unit was occupied by a lone Malay family, two by Indians, one of which was an Indian coolie keng. The rest were Chinese families. Though only nine units, there were many Chinese families as each family occupied just one room with the exception of three units. There were several rows of shophouses along the adjacent Nelson Road. The nearest cluster of Malay residents was in a govt quarters at Miri Road about 50 metres away. It was a mixture of Malays, Indians and a few Chinese families.

I was sitting there with more than ten Chinese coolies, all male singles from China in their 40s and 50s. Remembered them looking at me, an excited little boy in their midst. They did not say anything to me. They were very calm and did not seem to want to do anything or were bothered by the news of the racial riots in Geylang. No weapons were prepared, but as coolies there were many wooden poles under the long beds if needed. There were no talks of going after the nearest Malay kampong in Radin Mas a km away.

Outside there were movements of people. The gangsters had a job cut out for them. They became the much needed guardians of the neighbourhood. Over the few days of curfew, nothing really happened in the neighbourhood. Not a single incident. The Malay family were not disturbed at all. But one could imagine their fear living in a Chinese neighbourhood.

I think this was the normal state of affairs in many areas when the non Malays were the majority. The clashes were in Malay majority areas in Kampong Glam, Geylang and Eunos areas. This could explain that the riots were likely to be incited by foreigners.

The only event that came pretty close was the death of a woman that I happened to know. I used to call on them to collect night soil removal fees, the bucket system that we provided as a side income to some of the households in kampong Radin Mas. It was weeks later that news of her killing reached us. That dreadful night her family members heard her scream just a little distance from their attap hut. It was not the right thing to be brave to rush out. They collected her body the next morning on a path leading to their home. By then we had stopped providing the service and I no longer run all over the kampong to collect the monthly fees.

The tragic event of 1964 was called a racial riot in Singapore. The non Malays clashed with the rioters and fought for their lives. And there were the presence of impartial law enforcers to keep everything in control. Though we were in Malaysia, the patrols were conducted by teams of mixed racial origins officers to ensure that every incident was evenly handled. Within the local communities there were really no bad blood or deep rooted baggages to allow the riots to be blown out of proportion.

The riots in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia were misnomers. They were killing the Chinese in those days, with the partial law on the side of the killers. Many Chinese were brutally killed in both countries that the Chinese media termed the events as ‘pai hua’ or killing of Chinese. They were not racial riots but highly racist mobs out to kill the Chinese.

This dark part of our history came and gone and hopefully would not be repeated again. The HDB policy of allocating flats to different ethnic groups to prevent any concentration of a particular race had its origin from this tragic past. We must not take the small discomfort and inconvenience of such policies lightly and think it is ok to remove them without taking heed to our history. What happened in 1964 was nothing compares to the events in Malaysia and Indonesia that were best not spoken. The wounds have healed but the ugly scars are still there.

It is worth watching the second part of the 1964 riots next Monday and to hear the personal encounters of the people who are still living with us. We must learn from our past, our history and our mistakes and not to let it ever be repeated. We must not be complacent to what can go wrong once again. Never take racial harmony for granted.

Daft Sinkies will lose their country

The Malays in Malaysia will never lose their country. They are fully conscious and politically aware that they are the owners of their land. The daft Chinese almost lost China when the country was ruled by a minority tribe, the Manchus, who cared more of their tribe’s interest than the interest of the bigger country China, chose to protect their own interest. As long as they could preserve their dynasty, even just the forbidden city, the rest of China can go to the foreigners. When the Chinese people did not believe in themselves, lost confidence and faith, did not believe that they own the country, they just give up. Foreigners were everywhere in China, with more rights than the citizens.
China was lucky that a new elite emerged to gather the lost Chinese together, to politicize them again, to renew their faith and patriotic love in their country, to take back their country. The rest is history.
 
Singapore is at a juncture when the lost sheep is led by blind shepherds that only believe in selling the wool to make more money. They would sell the sheep and the pen if the money is good. No one cares about the country and the people. It is laissez faire, and money can buy anything. The rich are intoxicated with the money they have made, and everyone is trying to make more money, selling land and properties and whatever they have, for more money.
 
Sinkies no longer think about country. Sinkies no longer believe that they own this country. Sinkies were told to share this country with any Tom, Dick and Harry. It is like lelong, come all and take all, come and feast. Whoever can and willing, can take and have everything. There is no ownership, no country, just a hotel.
 
While the rich Sinkies are merrymaking and laughing to the banks, the average Sinkies are lost, without a leader to lead. They simply give up, not fighting anymore. Don’t know how to fight or what to fight for. If Sinkies do not think they own this piece of land and allow others to take it away from them by default, they deserve to lose their country.
 
While they remain apathetic and disinterested, others are not. There are many waiting and scheming to take this island from the daft and pathetic Sinkies. And the good part, the daft Sinkies don’t even know that it is happening. The world is so innocent and beautiful to the daft Sinkies. They could not see the sinister hand of the real world at work. Their island home is slowly slipping away from their limp fingers. Their country is being taken away right before their eyes, wide shut.
 
Sinkies better wake up before it is too late. This is their only home, their country. Lose it and you will become boat people. The rich will fly away to be rich in other countries. Those left behind will not go on to live a life like what they have today, if they lose their country. And they will lose it, under a rogue govt of bad leaders that think of nothing but their self interest.

Do not adopt a tiada apa attitude and let this country become a hotel.

The insanity of the rich Singaporeans

Yes, Sinkies are rich, high income and high spending. Many are worth half a million or more just be housing alone. But one thing the Sinkies did not bargain for or fail to realise, the money in their pockets, savings and bank accounts flies away faster than the money of their peers in the neighbouring countries. Our money cannot be kept for too long and keep flowing out and many would have serious problems on retirements, selling houses and flats to get by.

Our neighbours may not have big incomes, but the money they have somehow stay with them much longer. And when they look forward to retirement, they have no fear of losing their homes, the homes they bought and lived for their whole lives, just to have some money to get by.

Be careful with your money. They are here today, gone today. One can have hundreds of thousands wiped out without knowing what is happening. This is going to be the shocking reality that rich Sinkies would have to come to terms with. The bulk of the ‘rich’ sinkies, notably the average living in public housing, will realise that the equation will come to nought when they reach the end of their life journey. In a way it is a zero sum game, every cent planned to be used for just this life time. Nothing left in their CPF or savings, not even their HDB flat when it is game over.

The ability to plan to such details to perfection is really an amazing art of ‘gum gum ho’. The precision is an engineering feat unmatched anywhere in the world.

The New Heroes – A New Chapter

The most unlikely new hero in this queer little city state is an anonymous masked man infamously called The Messiah. He hacked into the websites of public institutions, including the PMO and the Istana. And some people clapped and called him the Robin Hood of the oppressed. He has been unmasked as James Raj, a drug addict on the run, and the hacker that threatened the govt. This revelation still did not arouse a barrage of attacks and criticisms for what he had done which everyone would admit was not a proper thing to do.

The myth and mystery of the mask have been removed. In the eyes of the law, he is a criminal waiting trial and may serve terms behind bars. He is on the wrong side of the law. Then out of the blue came this ‘Support James Raj, victim of the Singapore Govt’. This is an article appearing in TRS and authored by Andy Xian Wong. Wow! This is another challenge to the govt, no longer anonymous. This is a very brave act indeed, literally condoning a wrongful act.

Nevermind, my discourse is about the making of New Heroes in this uncertain time. A hacker attacking and threatening the govt is received by quite a number of people as a hero. And he is not the only one. Many that were tarred and feathered are now seen as heroes in the eyes of some quarters of the population.

M Ravi, the famous and one and only human rights lawyer in this city is also worshipped as another new hero. He has taken up many high profile and politically tainted cases for the underdogs, motivated not by money but by a sense of justice and fair play. He has been victorious so far. Despite the saga when he was almost bundled into the Institute of Mental Health and not seeing daylight. Some learned people had claimed that he was mad or suffering from mental illness that made him unfit to be a lawyer, he is now standing taller than before. He is definitely not mad and every inch a lawyer, and a righteous one.

The victims of the Marxist Conspiracy and Operation Cold Store have written their stories and are seen with a different light. Dr Poh Soo Kai is quietly acknowledged as another hero in the hearts of many Singaporeans, and so were his comrades.

And there is Chee Soon Juan and his SDP. Charged in court several times, faced bankruptcy, branded, dishonest for claiming a few dollars more on taxi fares and using university postage instead of paying for himself, he is being revived, and gaining more popularity and support from the people. His party is growing and he is becoming more credible and a political force to be reckoned with in the next GE.

And of course there was the famous JBJ. His name will be forever etched in the history books of this city as the most tenacious politician that would not fall. He took all the body blows and stood up again and again. He fought a political career and lost everything, but gained everything in respect from the people. He is an icon of sort.

A new chapter is being written with New Heroes in the making. Salted fish resurrected. Many salted fish will be resurrected as the new heros of this queer city. They need not be scholars or eminent doctors or lawyers with a string of degrees. They are the ordinary citizens, the ordinary Singaporeans who care for this country and its citizens, the Singaporeans. They are standing up to take on an onerous and arduous task of reclaiming and reconstructing the country and the lives of its citizens, to write a new chapter of its history.

Fantasies Series

One of my latest creation under the Fantasies Series.