MyStory

Mr Pua Leong Hock
Civil Servant

Do you know that you share a very important birthday with our country? 3rd December is the date when Singapore’s National Anthem, the new flag and Coat of Arms (State Crest) were first unveiled to the newly-self-governing state. How do you feel about that?

I don’t know. I think it’s something to be proud of, I can connect with.

Do you think it’s important for Singapore to be independent? Why?

I believe, yes. We should not have interference. I think basically we are Singaporeans so we would like to see our own people governing our own country. I think, as long as the government is competent to lead the nation, and we have a team of very enthusiastic and very capable ministers, I think we should be doing well and we should not have worry.

We have six national symbols - the Flag, National Anthem, Pledge, State Crest, the Lion Head and the National Flower. Which of these symbols mean the most to you? In what way, and why?

The Anthem and the Pledge. Whenever the National Anthem is being played, I have this emotional feeling. I appreciate how lucky we are that we are Singaporeans, that we are staying in Singapore.

Although not every Singaporean may really, really understand each and every word of the Pledge, but by just going through the Pledge, you can see it has very deep meaning. I think it is well crafted. I recall that the moment I was in school, one important thing we needed to do was to recite the Pledge everyday during assembly time. But back then, we were just being forced to recite the Pledge. It was just like a routine thing you know.

Basically, the phrase is ‘one united people.’ I believed Singapore will be able go through any disasters if we stand united. In my line of work, sometimes we still find people who disregard measures that have been enforced. But I think in the midst of danger, most people will stand up. I will safeguard my country because my life and my family are here.

I last recited the Pledge during the National Day. I was watching the repeat broadcast of the Parade at home with my family. So I said to my kids, ‘Hey, there is the Pledge here, we need to also recite together, do it together.’ So I went along with the broadcast. But my children said, ‘Father, you trying to act again.’ But honestly, I don’t think they really understand the whole content. At this age, Singaporeans will never understand, truly understand, unless we have encounter mishaps. Honestly, we understand only when we’ve fully undergone certain setbacks.

When the Anthem plays, I don’t know how to describe it, it’s very touching. I can’t cry in front of my children, but, you know your eyes naturally well up. So I suppressed. But I can’t suppress much, people will still see some reddish tinge in the eyes. It actually comes very naturally every year, when I sit down at the TV and watch. But just suppress it. At home, it’s ok. My children would be watching the TV, so they won’t look at me. So I just step back and walk away.

What were your growing-up years like?

We did not have a lot of luxuries. For example, we did not have computer games. The only luxury we had was to gather with people outside kicking football. And then I think the other luxury was watching black and white TV.

In those times, we did not own a TV. We had to gather outside people’s flats to watch our favourite programmes. Those neighbours that were not so forthcoming would allow you to keep a distance, view from outside. But those closer neighbours that we had, we managed to have a chance to sit inside the living room with our parents. And that was only when my parents visited them. And they brought us along and at the same time we watched TV. That was when I was staying in Queen’s Crescent.

Later, we had our own black and white TV, which we bought on hire-purchase. We were proud to own a TV at home It was a Sharp TV, I remember. At last, we had TV we called our own, instead of going over to a neighbour’s house to watch. Rediffusion was another pastime of my parents.

Besides that, we would kick football, play badminton, marbles, catch spiders near the railway track. There was a canal nearby and we went there to catch fish. Boys being boys!

At that time, my father was working part-time as a taxi-driver. My mum was working as a nanny for someone and she was also washing clothes for some families. The pay was very meagre, but it was sufficient for us to cover day to day. My mum was telling me the other day, sometimes, we could hardly find a $5 in the house.

We did not need to borrow, or go hungry, but we were also not rich. Every meal, we had food, simple porridge or rice with one or two dishes like eggs, vegetables. Fish and meat we hardly had, only for festivals.

And being young boys, we would sleep anywhere, so we slept in the living room. We did not have the luxury of sleeping in the bedroom because my younger siblings slept with my parents. So we slept in the living room, and left the door open. No one would come in to steal a thing. The neighbours, we knew each other, so most of us did not really lock up the door. That’s the difference between then and now. I think that time we enjoyed a very close relationship with our neighbours. Practically I think most of the day, if my mum was not busy working, she would go to a neighbour’s house or the neighbours would come to my house to chit chat. Unlike currently, neighbours normally keep to themselves. Unless you are not working and you happen to meet outside, then you have very informal chit chat. But not the kind of visiting your house, and spending one, two hours. Just an acknowledgement ‘Hi, you are not working today.’

Actually, growing up, we didn’t worry whether we had any food to eat or not. We just basically know that every time we had meals. We didn’t worry about whether we had enough money for our pocket money, for our food when we were in school or whether we had any money to buy shoes. I only worried about studies, when my parents looked at the report book. But I do know that during growing up years, my parents made a lot of sacrifices, because they were taking extra jobs. When we were young, we collected those incense papers to put the stickers on. We chipped in to help, by a thousand pieces a stack, and helped to paste the luminous white paper. So once a week, the people would come and collect from us. For a thousand pieces, not even one dollar. Maybe fifty cents. Small meagre sum, but I think at the end of the day, we found that the money did help. My mother was also a seasoned baby sitter. People came to her and then let her baby sit the children.

Oh that time, I cannot recall. I think she did but I can’t recall. Maybe fifty to one hundred dollars. It’s only when you are in our twenty-plus then I find that the amount completely under hundred and fifty, maybe best about five hundred dollars. I think that was the maximum I can heard of a month that she can, she can earn five hundred dollars. But I think the current rate is now like … thousand plus already. Times changed.

So actually I was just telling my mum, whatever hardship that she has gone through, at the end of day you really sit down to enjoy because most of us are all grown up. Monthly we still contribute pocket money. And on top of that, we will visit and then buy food. Although none of us went through the university, but I think, with my parents’ little income, they are able to provide for us. And I think the education we received actually gave us opportunities to work in the society.

I joined the Police Force straight away after O-levels, to grow, to explore challenges; there are opportunities given to me. I look at my parents. In their time, they didn’t have much education. And they were not educated in English. So the only thing they could do were all these odd jobs. My father could only be a bus inspector or bus conductor. In fact, my father did not even have a license to drive the bus. Over the years, the income was very, very tight, so he decided to change vocation to become a taxi-driver. I would say that the upbringing of the children throughout these years, until when we reached our age to work, my father played his role enough. Being a taxi-driver, he had plenty of time. He forbade us to work part-time, drove us to school and back. So that’s why we say we were saved the trouble of waking up early to chase after bus. And then I think we were picked up on rainy days. And I think if I still recall, at that time when my classmates were given twenty cents, fifty cents for pocket money, my father tried giving one dollar plus during our primary school and secondary school.

What are some of the biggest changes between the Singapore of your childhood and now? Could you share more about them?

I think in terms of infrastructure, communication, IT and all this technology. And also education and our health. And most of all, government stability in the country. We are very lucky to be in Singapore. That I can safely say that.

For education, I know Singapore is striving very hard. You can see a lot of changes in the quality of education. I like to compare during my time and current times. During my time, my parents just nagged at me to study hard, but they could not provide anything. Now, children have many projects. They stay back late. Even holidays, they have to go back to school. And previously, we didn’t have the opportunity to consult teachers. And now they have these online services for students, meet-the-parents session. Teachers will update you on children’s progress and performance. In our time, I hardly see this unless we made a very serious mistake and the principal wanted to see the parents. Other than that, no. There was no communication between the parents and the teachers on the students or the progress.

And if you look at our current infrastructure, even your health check is there at your doorstep. You need not to travel far. And now I think even they provide for hospital shuttle service, to bring you to the doorstep. The service standards, the medical facilities, are getting better than in our time. Doctors are attentive, the services are very prompt and I think most of the nurses are knowledgeable. I think our cost is also very reasonable.

Is there anything you miss about Singapore from the past?

In the past, we could play fire crackers like nobody’s business. And you really felt the festival. But currently because of the restrictions on fire crackers, you hardly find the mood there. You only can see people dressing up nicely, going around.

There was the thrill, and the fear that you might be hurt. So there were cases of people being hurt formerly. But definitely the thrill overcame the fear. I think I also remember, we collected all the crackers into one ball and we threw it like a bomb. Although crackers were fired off mainly at New Year, but I think they also had on Deepavali and Hari Raya.

I remember my parents used to bring me, just across the road only, sitting there, openly and watching the wayang (Malay: opera). I still remember vividly that there were stalls selling those goodies, like cuttlefish with gravy. And sometimes I still remember, a lot of children, they liked the gravy. They would lick out all the gravy and they dipped the food in again. So it was very unhygienic. But those were the days, nobody talked about hygiene. We were always looking forward to festive seasons, those deity celebrations because you had wayang to watch for free. And when we were young, we enjoyed watching wayang, all those costumes. And they have those, especially in the nights, those glittering lights. And you would have people flying here and there, hanging up on the ropes.

Would you see Singapore as your home? Why is that so?

Home means to me a place where you can come back and rest. A place where you can see your loved ones. A place where everybody can live in harmony. Without Singapore I won’t have a home. I would be like a gypsy travelling on one end.

When you think about Singapore, what are the first things that come to mind?

Think of Singapore. I think, basically, the first thing of all is national security. Yes. We have heard over the years, some countries, a bit of problem only, they start to riot. So I think as long as Singapore stands alone, by itself under self-governance, they have the capability to show the world that, you know ‘I may be a red dot but don’t belittle me.’

If you have a foreign friend coming to Singapore, what are the top three things that you would introduce your friend to?

I think being a Singaporean, if you want to host to a friend who is overseas, you only can recommend to them how safe the country is. First of all, I will ask them to obey the law. And you can walk any of the roads in the middle of the night, any call for help would be within reach. You need any assistance, you just call. And I’m sure along the way, you will not feel so insecure, although I cannot guarantee that there won’t be any crime.

And if you look at the food, I think Singapore has quite a number of interesting food, like chicken rice, ba kut teh (Hokkien: pork ribs soup)

And I think we also need to recommend some places of interest. See over the years, Mandai Zoo, Singapore has actually changed. The Mandai Zoo of today is not the Mandai ten years or five ago that I visited. And I think Sentosa is ever-changing.