Some 20 or so years ago, many people I knew tended to be rather anti-establishment and cynically critical of life in Singapore in general. I must confess that I shared many of their views. Today, in my older age, I must say that I am a lot more appreciative of the way we live life here, and, undoubtedly, I do consider Singapore my 'best home'. It is, of course, not the best place on earth but it is the best for me.
I have lived through most of the 40 years of independence and I can only say that those 40 years have, as history would have it, left great imprints on my life. Life, though, has really moved on and just thinking of 10 things about Singapore that have made me who I am brings to mind the speed with which change has whizzed in and out of our lives.
I suppose it would be fashionable to come up with a list of 40 things about these 40 years, but I really don't have the time to sit here and type 40 things, so here is my list of 10 momentous things from the last 40 years or so that are indelible parts of my being.
1. Thrift -- Almost everything was 'expensive' to my parents. We were constantly encouraged, and made, I should say, to save as much as possible and to spend as little as possible. I remember we bought stamps regularly in school as part of the POSB savings programme for children. Today, it is such a challenge making the notion of thrift acceptable to the son.
2. Local politics -- Today's 'election fever' is nothing like the election fevers of the past. Although I was probably too young to really understand what was going on, I remember the excitement of electoral campaigning. It was everywhere -- on TV, the radio, on the streets. Those were the real days of campaigning, when practially all wards were contested. I remember also how odd it was to me that the candidates' O level and other examination results were splashed in the newspapers. Today, we wonder whether Mr Andrew Kuan stepped down or was asked to leave his condo management committee. How odd we still are, when you consider how, in other countries, it is issues like candidates' military records or views about 'hot' issues that are the material issues. Anyway, I think we cannot really blame people if they have become politically apathetic because there isn't much for them to identify with, if they don't even get to vote. So I do hope there will be a contest for the presidential election. I have been eligible to vote for nearly 20 years but I have only voted once, in the presidential election.
3. Non-working women -- I don't know the statistics but when I was growing up, the mothers of many friends did not work. Neither did my mum.
4. Proper use of English -- I am thankful I went through all 13 (including kindergarten) years of formal schooling during the era when teachers spoke and used English properly. The standard of English here has sadly not been maintained. While proper usage is generally adhered to in the media, the use of English is sometimes rather appalling in many other aspects of life, e.g. in signboards, everyday speech and even formal speeches and presentations.
5. School life -- Two things strike me at this point. Those were the days when some teachers taught by underlining. That is, we would spend practically the whole lesson underlining parts of the text as instructed by the teacher. There were teachers who were fixated on the idea of the underlining being done grammatically, so there were underlining sessions which went, 'Underline "This was", skip 3 lines and underline the 4th word from the margin "the", go to the next line and underline "first time he cried"'. Hilarious. An alternative to underlining might be copying notes from the board (in those days, photocopying was not even done, I believe). I don't know which was worse, but the strange thing was no one seemed to act up and no parents complained about lessons not stimulating the students. On top of that, I think we did 'absorb' a lot of what we were supposed to be learning.
The other thing was the emphasis on the humanities, in my school at least. Underlining and copying notes notwithstanding, the teachers, as pointed out earlier, were masters of the language and some teachers really made the humanities alive and meaningful for me. Literature was exciting and also compulsory, which is unfortunately no longer the case now (the compulsory part), with schools under pressure to produce results. History was truly history. How many students now, even university undergraduates, or graduates for that matter, know about the Indus Valley civilisation, ancient Greece and Rome, the Rennaisance, or even the Stone Age?
6. Reading material -- My childhood repertoire was largely Enid Blyton, followed in later years by Alfred Hitchcock, and the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books (forgot the authors). There was also this magazine called Fanfare which was the only 'entertainment' magazine I was aware of at that time. I was also a great fan of Brit comics, Misty and Beano. Haven't seen Misty for years. I think Readers' Digest was also fairly widely read. It makes great reading and I wish it could be priced more reasonably.
7. Health concerns -- One of the biggest health threats was TB. I thought that it has become a thing of the past but apparently not as it surfaced again in Singapore last year...
8. Going out -- Family outings meant Botanic Gardens or Van Kleef Aquarium. Sentosa and the Chinese Garden also happened but only rarely. Having tea out meant ice cream at Mont D'or (spelling?) which used to be where Ngee Ann City or Wisma Atria is today, chocolate milk at the corner coffee shop or curry puffs and sausage rolls from Red House. I hope to keep my family life similarly simple. And happy enough.
9. Home entertainment -- I think many of us grew up on a diet of fairly wholesome cartoons, shows which you never missed but will probably just make you laugh today (e.g. Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman etc), TVB drama serials and then 'Flying Fish', 'The Awakening' and others. Hurray for Channels 48 and 55 today, for I have become an even bigger TVB fan. A listen to Gold 90.5 represents the music of the time fairly well. It's strange, I used to like Class 95 but today, I'd much rather listen to Gold 90.5. I think the Class deejays have become younger and the Gold ones older. Ah, and we were regularly glued to the radio for live commentaries of Malaysia Cup matches. Very exciting times indeed.
10. Songs -- We sang 'community songs', rather than 'national songs'. I'm sure most of us went through Planting Rice, Geylang Sipaku Geylang, Muneeru Valiba, etc. 'Planting rice is no fun, bent from morn till set of sun, Cannot stand, cannot sit, cannot rest a little bit!' I still remember!! On that lovely Filipino note, it might be a good idea to bring back those songs, now that they are talking of how young ASEAN people should know more about each other. Our children could learn about the hard agricultural life of our neighbours, for example, through that song. They could also learn songs like Bengawan Solo and the like. So they know what Bengawan Solo really is.
So, on the eve of our 40th National Day, my sincere wish is for this to be a reality in Singapore, especially in today's world where the opposite is very often the case:
'Every creed and every race has its role and has its place
One people, one nation, one Singapore!'
Indeed, majullah, Singapura!
I have lived through most of the 40 years of independence and I can only say that those 40 years have, as history would have it, left great imprints on my life. Life, though, has really moved on and just thinking of 10 things about Singapore that have made me who I am brings to mind the speed with which change has whizzed in and out of our lives.
I suppose it would be fashionable to come up with a list of 40 things about these 40 years, but I really don't have the time to sit here and type 40 things, so here is my list of 10 momentous things from the last 40 years or so that are indelible parts of my being.
1. Thrift -- Almost everything was 'expensive' to my parents. We were constantly encouraged, and made, I should say, to save as much as possible and to spend as little as possible. I remember we bought stamps regularly in school as part of the POSB savings programme for children. Today, it is such a challenge making the notion of thrift acceptable to the son.
2. Local politics -- Today's 'election fever' is nothing like the election fevers of the past. Although I was probably too young to really understand what was going on, I remember the excitement of electoral campaigning. It was everywhere -- on TV, the radio, on the streets. Those were the real days of campaigning, when practially all wards were contested. I remember also how odd it was to me that the candidates' O level and other examination results were splashed in the newspapers. Today, we wonder whether Mr Andrew Kuan stepped down or was asked to leave his condo management committee. How odd we still are, when you consider how, in other countries, it is issues like candidates' military records or views about 'hot' issues that are the material issues. Anyway, I think we cannot really blame people if they have become politically apathetic because there isn't much for them to identify with, if they don't even get to vote. So I do hope there will be a contest for the presidential election. I have been eligible to vote for nearly 20 years but I have only voted once, in the presidential election.
3. Non-working women -- I don't know the statistics but when I was growing up, the mothers of many friends did not work. Neither did my mum.
4. Proper use of English -- I am thankful I went through all 13 (including kindergarten) years of formal schooling during the era when teachers spoke and used English properly. The standard of English here has sadly not been maintained. While proper usage is generally adhered to in the media, the use of English is sometimes rather appalling in many other aspects of life, e.g. in signboards, everyday speech and even formal speeches and presentations.
5. School life -- Two things strike me at this point. Those were the days when some teachers taught by underlining. That is, we would spend practically the whole lesson underlining parts of the text as instructed by the teacher. There were teachers who were fixated on the idea of the underlining being done grammatically, so there were underlining sessions which went, 'Underline "This was", skip 3 lines and underline the 4th word from the margin "the", go to the next line and underline "first time he cried"'. Hilarious. An alternative to underlining might be copying notes from the board (in those days, photocopying was not even done, I believe). I don't know which was worse, but the strange thing was no one seemed to act up and no parents complained about lessons not stimulating the students. On top of that, I think we did 'absorb' a lot of what we were supposed to be learning.
The other thing was the emphasis on the humanities, in my school at least. Underlining and copying notes notwithstanding, the teachers, as pointed out earlier, were masters of the language and some teachers really made the humanities alive and meaningful for me. Literature was exciting and also compulsory, which is unfortunately no longer the case now (the compulsory part), with schools under pressure to produce results. History was truly history. How many students now, even university undergraduates, or graduates for that matter, know about the Indus Valley civilisation, ancient Greece and Rome, the Rennaisance, or even the Stone Age?
6. Reading material -- My childhood repertoire was largely Enid Blyton, followed in later years by Alfred Hitchcock, and the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books (forgot the authors). There was also this magazine called Fanfare which was the only 'entertainment' magazine I was aware of at that time. I was also a great fan of Brit comics, Misty and Beano. Haven't seen Misty for years. I think Readers' Digest was also fairly widely read. It makes great reading and I wish it could be priced more reasonably.
7. Health concerns -- One of the biggest health threats was TB. I thought that it has become a thing of the past but apparently not as it surfaced again in Singapore last year...
8. Going out -- Family outings meant Botanic Gardens or Van Kleef Aquarium. Sentosa and the Chinese Garden also happened but only rarely. Having tea out meant ice cream at Mont D'or (spelling?) which used to be where Ngee Ann City or Wisma Atria is today, chocolate milk at the corner coffee shop or curry puffs and sausage rolls from Red House. I hope to keep my family life similarly simple. And happy enough.
9. Home entertainment -- I think many of us grew up on a diet of fairly wholesome cartoons, shows which you never missed but will probably just make you laugh today (e.g. Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman etc), TVB drama serials and then 'Flying Fish', 'The Awakening' and others. Hurray for Channels 48 and 55 today, for I have become an even bigger TVB fan. A listen to Gold 90.5 represents the music of the time fairly well. It's strange, I used to like Class 95 but today, I'd much rather listen to Gold 90.5. I think the Class deejays have become younger and the Gold ones older. Ah, and we were regularly glued to the radio for live commentaries of Malaysia Cup matches. Very exciting times indeed.
10. Songs -- We sang 'community songs', rather than 'national songs'. I'm sure most of us went through Planting Rice, Geylang Sipaku Geylang, Muneeru Valiba, etc. 'Planting rice is no fun, bent from morn till set of sun, Cannot stand, cannot sit, cannot rest a little bit!' I still remember!! On that lovely Filipino note, it might be a good idea to bring back those songs, now that they are talking of how young ASEAN people should know more about each other. Our children could learn about the hard agricultural life of our neighbours, for example, through that song. They could also learn songs like Bengawan Solo and the like. So they know what Bengawan Solo really is.
So, on the eve of our 40th National Day, my sincere wish is for this to be a reality in Singapore, especially in today's world where the opposite is very often the case:
'Every creed and every race has its role and has its place
One people, one nation, one Singapore!'
Indeed, majullah, Singapura!
Comments
I totally agree about the bad use of English language. I just hope it does not affect their school work. Especially my own girls.
A friend of mine is seriously considering home-schooling and I wonder if this is good in the long run given the bad behaviour kid's have today.