“Villagers like Pak Abdul and other descendants of the orang laut reacted to the news more badly than we did because their people had lived on the coast for generations. They were the indigenous people of Temasek, long before it became Singapura, and the sea had always been a major part of their lives. Their babies grew up with sea-legs, and to force them to become landlubbers was akin to clipping the wings of birds of flight. But now we had all been informed that our seaside homes were to be destroyed, the kampongs to be totally wiped out so that the valuable land our villages sat on would be put to more lucrative use, like creating the new Changi Airport, whilst new land was to be dredged from the sea. The die had been cast. Change was inevitable. Irrevocable.
Do we really have to leave our homes? some of the villagers had asked Pak Abdul, who had once been our village headman or penghulu.
“The naivety of some of the villagers was heart-rending. These were the unworldly-wise country folks who were going to be flung out into the big world outside the kampongs. How were they going to survive? The mood was sombre.
Apa nak buat? What can we do? We have no choice, said Pak Abdul, opening his palms in a gesture of hopelessness. See, I told you change was coming.
“In 1953, during our outing for the British Queen’s coronation celebrations, Pak Abdul had said to your grandfather, George, he had a prescient feeling that change was in the air. When we merged with Malaysia in 1963, Pak Abdul thought that his premonition had come true, and was rudely shocked when a couple of years later we broke off from Malaysia to become independent. And now this. He was not sure if his old bones and constitution could withstand further trauma. It was rumoured that he must have been about a hundred years old by then, though nothing could be proven. People didn’t have birth certificates in the old days.
We have no choice, Pak Abdul reiterated, keeping his voice cool so that it wouldn’t fuel more dissension. The government we elected to replace the British needs to expand our small island. They have a vision to take our country out of poverty and third world status, create more jobs through manufacturing plants… Remember what Tuan Lee Kuan Yew said when he came here in 1959? He said he needed to provide us with better housing, jobs and food. How can he achieve all these if he does not expand our economy? Building a world-class airport where our homes lie is necessary to bring in foreign investors and tourists. Tuan Lee is caring for the environment by locating the airport by the sea to reduce noise pollution in the city.
“Pak Abdul was right. The intention was admirable and made absolute sense. No one could fault the government’s reasoning. But what was right for the greater good was not painless for the individual and his family. Hence, Pak Abdul’s voice lacked conviction. The trouble was that the government’s edict was not just about the demolition of some tourist-attracting type of ethnic housing. It was going to spell the destruction of a total way of life and manner of community living that was absent in the city. Something precious was about to disintegrate.
If only the government can preserve this way of living, this sense of community, Pak Abdul said sadly. Once this is gone, it can never be recreated artificially.
“But still the death knell rang.
“Every household in the eastern and south-western coastal villages, including Changi, Bedok, Siglap, Tanjong Katong, Tanjong Rhu, Kallang, Telok Blangah and Pasir Panjang had been given notice. Some of the outlying islands were also affected, the ones immediately by the coast south of the harbour and near Jurong. Do you know that Singapore had over seventy islands? Yes we did. Many people are not aware of this. Some of the islands were not habitable but many had small kampongs on them, and a coterie of villagers. Some of these were requisitioned and fused with larger islands, either through land reclamation or via bridges built from the mainland, to create a bigger port and storage facilities for petroleum and oil refineries, as well as modern fisheries. The Port of Singapore Authority was expanding and improving the harbour, to turn Singapore into a world-class shipping port. Who could oppose a move that would bring in more jobs and thereby more food and wealth for everyone?
What will we do lah? the fishermen lamented, their livelihood, their whole world on the verge of disappearing. How can we live after this? We have no education and no other skills. Are we to become wastrels or toilet cleaners and rubbish collectors?
Join the big corporations lor! They have fleets of sturdier boats, advised one government officer. Work for them and you can continue to fish…
Bloody pen-pusher! Obviously he doesn’t understand… someone muttered.
Kepala kelapa! Coconut head! another said. It’s like telling a cook who runs his own food stall to go work for at someone else’s restaurant! The motivation will not be the same.
“For the fisherfolk, the future was very bleak indeed. If my father, your Kong Cho, had been alive, he too would have had to face this dilemma. In some ways, I was glad that he was no longer around and had been spared this. He would have been humiliated to have to give up his independence and work for some big organisation.
“Officers with unctuous smiles and self-deprecating bows had handed out the leaflets and explained their contents to the uneducated and illiterate. HDB flats were allocated
