MyStory

Mr Neo Kwee Leng

Businessman, Leong Huat n Company@2005

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?

No, I didn’t know, not at all. Now that I know I’m quite excited. Very happy. I only found out in the Straits Times last week. It’s the date of our self-governance, so I was born as the same date as the nation! It is such a coincidence!

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

There are two parts to this. In terms of politics, we must be independent, to have our own framework for progress and survival. But in terms of economy, we cannot be independent. We need our neighbouring countries to grow together. Like New York in United States, Singapore should play a similar role, that is the long term strategy. The pace may not be the same though. But in politics, we must be independent to have our own identity. Yet, we cannot seal ourselves off.

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 Pledge. I recited it for ten years in school. This Pledge is a declaration of decisions in your life, how you decide to build this country. I feel that it lays down the requirements for citizens. No discriminations. That’s the first point. We should move in this direction. I experienced a lot of discrimination when I was a child, so I feel Singapore should move in that direction. I agree with it, and I hope that we will continue to focus in this direction.

What were your growing-up years like?

I grew up in Lim Chu Kang, along Neo Tiew Road, about 20km away from the town area. Transport was really inconvenient then. So our family rarely ventured out. Making a trip to town was something new. If we got out of home, it was during Chinese New Year, visiting my maternal grandmother’s home in Pasir Ris. That was when we had the chance to go out. My father had an old beat-up vehicle, an Austin. The glass windows had to be rolled up manually. I remember that when we made U-turns, the glass would even fall out! And we would squeeze behind, at the end of the boot, and a wooden beam would be put across … because my family is large. There are 14 children. I’m number 9 in the family. So the older ones would seat in the back row, and we, the younger ones would sit in the front row. And my mother would sit in the front seat, holding my younger sister. That was so long ago.

I went to Lim Chu Kang Integrated Primary School Guang Yuan Primary. It was demolished later. I would walk to school, or take a bus. From my home to the school, I would need to walk 35 to 45 minutes, braving rain and sunshine. But it was still all right, because I was walking in rubber plantations. If it rained, my shoes would no longer be white! They would be red and yellow! And my white uniform would turn to another colour in shiny day! But it was not really something remarkable then. In those times, owning a bicycle is just like owning a car now! Our pocket money was only 10 cents per day! 10 cents was enough to buy a bowl of noodles with a little bit of something, or a bottle of good soft drink.

My father was providing feed, distributing and helping people to buy and sell piglets and pigs, chickens and ducks. We provided the feed and took the chickens, ducks to sell in the town. My eldest sister had already moved out to look for work in a textile factory. My eldest brother went to Jurong to work in a provision store as an assistant and my second brother went to work in a Japanese factory. Three of the brothers and all my other sisters were also studying. The economic burden for my father was rather heavy.

Then, my mother passed away in her forties, when I was nine years old. She had difficulties in labour, and she was suffering from fatigue. Then, getting to the hospital was difficult, it was quite far. She passed away in the hospital while giving birth to the last child.

Life became harder after that. I remember my eldest sister left her job and came back home to help take care of us. So we had problems with income. We had to depend on our eldest brother and my father. I remember that each one of us was only given a little bit of rice, once a day, at noon. One meal a day. Business was not good too. We had to give credit to others, and others would not take credit from us, because we were such a large family. So we grew our own vegetables and made our own rice noodles. Only on festive occasions then we had the chance to eat meat.

In the past, when we went to school, all of us had to wake up one and a half hours beforehand. Class started at 7am, so we had to wake up by 5.30am, to prepare and to allow for time to walk to school. I remember my mother waking me up at 4am, when she was still alive. Because my elder sister had to go to secondary school, she had to walk about half an hour to take a bus. The bus journey take about 45 minute to an hour fifteen minute to reach school, for common bus we had to walk 15 minute to school, and we didn’t have money to buy an alarm clock, so my mother slept very little in order to wake all of us up in time.  So we would just wait for the time to pass while my mother washed clothes and cooked. I remember that I would just sit by the side and I hit upon the idea of using a crate for a stool. So I would sleep on it while waiting for my time to prepare for school. When it was the time for me to go to school, change into uniform, my mother would wake me up. She would not let me sleep on the bed. This was during primary school. So this went on until I was in Primary Three. Later, when my eldest sister went out to work, she bought an alarm clock.

When my mother was alive, there was this time, we did not even have the means to buy matches. Matches were very, very expensive. So, using pork lard, duck fats, we distilled and made our own oil, and we had a small oil lamp, filled with this oil, and it was always lit. We were worried that this flame might extinguish - we would use this flame to light the firewood for cooking.

We kept it burning, using those hessian bits - because we were distributing feed - and we took those hessian sacks and cut them into strips, and put them into the oil to act as wicks. And we would make these little strips and wait for them to slowly catch alight. Then, we really didn’t have matches. These matches were really much more expensive than gold! More expensive than gold. If we wanted to cook, we would take a wood chip to the flame and set it alight. My grandfather planted some coconut trees in the past. And we would chop some of these branches, and leaves of the trees to use as fuel. If you talk about gas, we didn’t have it. We didn’t even know what it was!

After coming back from school, around 12pm or 11am, I would hurriedly eat a little lunch and go pick those coconut leaves. My grandfather, who migrated from China to Singapore, planted coconut trees, and we depended on them for a living. And my sister and mother would cut them fruit (coconut) and sort them. In the past, we could sell the stalks of the leaves. These stalks are now used to burn fallen leaves. The stalks of the leaves, and we would cut them and sell them in stacks to supplement the household income. They were used to make brooms. I remember that those which were broken, the shorter stalks, about one foot long, we would keep them. My mother would tie them together and scrub the floor or clean the wok while cooking. 

During night time, around 7pm, there was private electricity, powering a small light tube, and around 7pm it would be switched off. That had to be paid for. As there were many of us, we didn’t have a bed each, it was a big bed and we would all sleep together, all squeezed together. So the light, I remember it would be switched off by around 7pm, and we had to depend on the oil lamp. When it was time to sleep, my mother would take the lamp and put it on the altar, and the moment she woke up, she would move it to the stove, the cooking area. There was no electricity. So, homework then, whatever we could do during the afternoon, we would do. During the night, there was no way. I was lucky because I had a good memory. So during lessons I would pay attention, and homework could be completed in an hour.

But we were also mischievous, and we played around too! During secondary school, I had to wake up by 5.30am, and cycle out by 5.45am to take the bus. I would reach school at about 6.50 or 6.45am. School would last till about 12pm, and I would rush back, because I had to help out in the family. My father was very busy because we do not earn well to employ labourers. My father would wait for me to finish my homework, at about 2pm, he would wait for me and we would go and look for business and do work. So during that time, I was compelled to finish my homework within an hour. And during the evening, I must finish the unfinished homework by 8pm.

My father was distributing feed and selling chicks and piglets. He would use his network, and arrange for piglets to be sold in town and we would send them in those small goods vehicle. Then, my elder brother, and I would help him catch and send the piglets. Each piglet was about 10 to 20 kg. We would send them to Hougang to sell to others, or drive them back to the village for people to slaughter, and the next morning we would sell them off for making roast pork. So sometimes when our arms were not strong enough, and we accidentally drop the piglet, it would run and we would chase. School time then was about a livelihood, about family.

Our business began to grow in the early 1970s. Three of my older brothers came back to help. So we sold feed to farmers, and after coming home from school, I would help to move the feed. One sack of feed was about 40 to 50kg. Some were 100kg! So we would help to send, because it would be expensive to hire people, so we had to rely on each other. Life started to get better.

It was only in 1972 that we had water and electricity installed at home. Earlier on, we had to go to the public standpipe to get water. If we didn’t want to queue, we would bathe in the drain. In the past, we had a pond, and we grew water hyacinths and fish in it. Our pigsties and chicken coops were built over the pond. And our toilet was made of three wooden boards nailed together over two wooden planks, perching over the pond. When we were younger, we did not feel that it was unhygienic or what. Sometimes two of us would even use the toilet at the same time, when we were young.

My house was built by our father. It was made of wooden boards and had only one big room. The floor was made of some cement and earth. We wore shoes in the house and took them off only when we were about to sleep. All of us slept on this big, big wooden board. But my parents had another bed of their own. There was a huge mosquito net to cover everyone, the net was made from those green nylon nets used by farmers. There were a lot of mosquitoes at night but we were used to it. We didn’t have any mattresses till much later, in the 1980s! When we grew older, my father got someone to partition the house into four rooms.

In terms of medical care, the nearest clinic was about half an hour by foot, at Tong He. There was a small township there, with provision shops, clinic, coffee shops, a small food centre.  My father would only bring us there when we were really ill, only when we could not get better after some time. Now, it probably just takes ten minutes to get to a clinic. That was also why my parents passed away so early. My father was in his fifties. He was overworked and had high blood pressure and passed away because he didn’t receive treatment. He passed away at Alexandra Hospital.

At that point, I felt that our lives were not taken care of in this country. It was like, if we die, it was our business. If we live, it was our business too. I was very pessimistic, even hopeless. After my father passed away, we had to take care of the business, and we had to seek our own survival. So things that were going on around us, like volunteer work etc, we had no interest. We had no interest in social or political issues. We had our own difficulties which we needed solutions for. So we lived on like that.

My younger siblings were still very young then. My youngest sister was only over a year old when my mother passed away. When my father passed away, she was about ten or eleven. My elder brothers took up the burden of looking after the family. When my mother passed away, it was my eldest sister who helped us to wash clothes and cook. And after my father passed away, because he left a business to us, it was my elder brothers who looked after it. Then I was only a teenager, and didn’t know what business was about.

So I stopped studying. I was halfway through polytechnic, and I didn’t continue. I stayed at home to help look after the business and worked as a labourer, till I went for National Service. My National Service was delayed for a year because of my family’s situation. It was originally 1978, I deferred till 1979. So I went for National Service when I was 20 years old.

During those times, I was influenced by leftists. I felt that it was the kind of government we had that resulted in my leading such a hard life. We were not taken care of, and when urban development took place at such a high pace, many of those living in rural areas could not adapt to it. So during National Service, I did not care about anything happening in the country. 

My neighbours were living in similar conditions. Everyone was generally poor. All were big families, and all of them worked very, very hard. And we didn’t think about the future, or about life in ten years to come. It was a day to day existence. News reached us mostly through word of mouth. After I left secondary school, we had a radio, but mostly, we listened to music and songs. We didn’t find the news to be very important.

Tar roads were built only in the late 1970s. I remember that our first phone line was so expensive! We needed a phone for our business operations, and it was with great reluctance that we got a phone line. Water and electricity were expensive too. To install the cables and the pipes, we had to pay, even for the cable poles, and we were responsible for these poles.

I got married in 1985, when we were still staying in the village. I built my own house, and we stayed there for six years. We didn’t have any savings then, and I had to work very, very hard to get more business. Then I had started my own business already, in building and construction. When I held my wedding in the village, all the guests were people we knew quite well, most of them neighbours. My neighbours were all Chinese, from different dialect groups. We put up a tent on the vacant land in front of my house, and got people to come and cook. And our guests came into our new house, look at the rooms, gave us blessings. Everyone could not bear to leave after the feast. I remember that my wedding expenses came up to about $5000.

Life was better in the 1990s, but I could not adapt to the new living environment, from kampung to public housing. In terms of amenities, transport, etc, there were great improvements. It was much better than when I was in primary or secondary school. In my secondary school days, I took part in school volleyball competitions and in National Cadet Corps, and sometimes, it was dark when we reached home. I couldn’t even tell what time it was, it was so dark. Now it’s so different, with the MRT and buses, transport is very good.

When I was still staying in the village, there was a sense of serenity. Moving to a flat, it was convenient but it was more constrained. It was very different. The whole environment in a housing estate, you have everything, you don’t have to worry about water, or electricity, or even food, because you could get it downstairs. But in the village, water and electricity were not guaranteed. Sometimes, trees fell on the electric cables! In terms of mosquitoes, of course there are none in housing estates. But for a quiet life, the public housing estate is definitely noisier. Two big differences. In the village, you would feel healthier. In the public housing estate, if you want to stay healthy, you need a lot of willpower to find ways to work out.

After we moved out, I was busy with work. By 1992, I had four children. My wife took care of them and I focused on my business. It was convenient then. There were schools nearby, not like when I was going to school earlier. So, I wanted to earn more money to give my children a better life, to give my family a better life. Because I experienced growing up without my parents, and having to depend on myself, so having brought my children to this world, I want to give them a better life - not the kind of life I went through. So I wanted to make it better.

I worked very hard, whatever business I could take on, I took. But the environment was changing. And in the early days, I didn’t pay much attention to current affairs, and things happening around me. So in 1989, 1990, it was the Gulf War. And economy declined, and I didn’t prepare for it. So I lost money, with the inflation of goods’ prices. Creditors took me to court. Under the advice of a good lawyer, I declared bankruptcy. He didn’t tell me about the advantages of being a bankrupt. It was only in 1998 that then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced there was a provision that if your debts were less than $100,000, you could work your way out of bankruptcy. And after talking to an official, I learnt that Singapore’s bankruptcy laws helped to protect the poor, to give them some time to recover and understand why they failed and have a chance to start all over again.

So I started over again, and reorganised my assets and sold my flat, bought a smaller flat and paid off the debts. Maybe the flat was not suited to me, living there was not very comfortable. So I bought a four-room flat. It was easier for the children to get to school too. My wife also took on a job. So I felt a lot more at ease, with less worries, so we moved.

I took on jobs, and worked as a driver in a logistics and transport company. I wanted to make back my losses and worked very hard. My boss recognised me and made me an agent. Then in 2001, I was diagnosed with kidney stones, and I realised the importance of medical care. I gave up my work in logistics and transport. Then another friend in the food industry approached me and asked me to start a business with him. So now I’m running this business in seafood trading.

The life I’ve led has shaped my will to survive. I had to adapt to different environments. The sweet will only come after the bitter. It’s only going through all this hardship and problems that you can find a way to survive and the solutions. It trained me to stop and think of another way to get out of bad situations.

My life is closely tied to the development of the country. In the sense that from rural to a city that was just beginning to develop. Even now, we are still not very developed. But compared to 30, or 20 years ago, it’s a big difference. Primarily, in terms of medical care and transport, things have developed. In my case, because of my family’s background, I’ve also set up my own family. And with this family, I had struggled very hard for another 25 years. And for the next 25 years, till I’m 75, I don’t know what is in store. But I feel that for things to be built, you need a foundation. And this foundation, it’s not something that people would be aware of when it is being built. How do we teach this to our younger generation? It has to be through education. For example, my oldest son who is now 25. How do I tell him of my experiences and the lessons I’ve learnt? This is a great difficulty, because the environment he grew up in is very different from the environment I experienced.

But I can see my second and third children going overseas to take part in community work, and they experienced it, how poverty was like. And they realise how different our living environment is. And now, looking at my youngest child, who is 19 years old, it’s different again. This child has parents, older siblings, classmates. If we have another younger child, I wouldn’t know how things would turn out. The experiences my wife and I went through, and our peers, the lives we led, they were the same for us. For the next generation, I don’t know.

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

The biggest changes would be in terms of medical care. It was only when I was diagnosed with some serious medical conditions in 2001 and needed medical attention,  that I realised what Medisave was for. My father was hospitalised in 1977. Looking at the facilities at Alexandra Hospital then, and looking at the medical facilities in 2001, after 24 years, the medical services had developed so much. Our medical system had improved so much, and now, sicknesses can be detected in the early stages. It was not like during my parents’ time. When they discovered the ailments, it was too late for treatment.

Now we can detect much earlier. Now I’m 50. I am diagnosed with high blood pressure, so for the past three years, I had been taking medication. In 2004, I found out that I was suffering from diabetes in the early stage. I’m happy to know that it’s now controlled at an early stage. So these changes had been going on, for the better, and I was not aware when they were taking place. And when I had to use them, and they were already in place.

Just take my recent hospitalisation. If there are any emergencies, they, the doctors and nurses, can respond very swiftly and come to your side. If you feel anything wrong with any part of your body, they will check immediately. Then I remember, my father had high blood pressure. And when he had to take an X-ray, and he had to queue. He was wheeled to the room and there were few attendants. The whole environment, I mean, besides the fact that he was lying there and could not move, it was like a torture chamber. Hospitals today are not hotels, but, in terms of moods, you would be more relaxed. At the very least, you would feel a sense of security, that you could go back well - that you have the chance to go home, have the hope that you could walk out of the hospital! Then, we felt that we couldn’t tell when our father could get out. It was different. This is really heartfelt. When I was in hospital, I had the hope that I could get out of the hospital. But when we saw our father, it was, ‘Sigh.’ There was despair. This was impressed very deeply in me - that when he lay down there, it was final, he would never come back. When you returned home, and thought about it, there was no hope. Not like my situation, I went to the hospital in pain, and I came out smiling. The change is very big. It is really very big.

The second main change is transport. If you want to go out, the whole transport system is there waiting for you. You don’t have to buy a car. In the past, all of us owned only one bicycle. Even among brothers we had to figure out how to share it! If you walk, you had to perspire. If you take the bicycle, sometimes, there are mischief makers who let the air out of the tyres, mischievous people. Or it may be stolen. When I was in secondary school, I had two bicycles stolen. And there were times when people made it impossible to use the bicycle by letting the air out. So it was different. Now even the farthest point in Singapore can be reached by MRT.

And it’s very bright now! I remember that in the village, the tracks, there was this tall grass growing by the sides, taller than us by twice the height. And if someone was walking or cycling up the track, you couldn’t be alerted. Here it’s good, every corner is lit. This is something we should treasure!

And just look at the toilet, I brought my children, when they were young, to the village, and when they looked at the toilet, they felt uneasy. Not used to it.

Is there anything you miss about Singapore from the past?

Singapore of 25 years ago, the environment I grew up in as a child. I am talking about the documentation of the changes in life, from a rural country to what we are today. I think we cannot find this here anymore. But in Singapore, I wish we can establish a place that is a part of the past. Our ancestors, for the search of a better life, came here, to this land, and this land nurtured us to where we stand today. Can we establish something like that, for students to visit and experience Singapore in the 50s, 60s, 70s? A stone plaque maybe. Or let them walk for 45 minutes to school. Without the poverty of the past, we won’t have today. This is something I keep telling my children. I make my children walk to school. So that they are more independent. Sometimes I feel pain for them, but no choice. When they were in primary school, I had them walk to school, whether rain or shine.

What does ‘Home’ mean to you?

Home? It means having a good life, having your own home, family. Like for myself, being a good husband, a good father, a good brother, then being part of the country. If the country is doing well, but your family is in a mess, it’s not good. We see that in the papers, siblings fighting for wealth, etc. I think in a home, as a husband, how you treat your wife. In a family, you are a member, you have siblings and parents. And outside that, the country.

If things are not going well between you and your spouse, and your children, and relationships are not good between your siblings, how can you think of the country? This is from internal to external, I think it’s right. That’s my life philosophy. The very first point is your spouse, then your children, and then siblings, and then friends, and then country. I think a family comes before a country does. If everybody has his family in order, these families would make up a country.

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

Yes, it is my home. I grew up here. This is a promise I made to myself, there are things I still want to do here. My wife, my children, my siblings, my career; the responsibilities I have towards them. That is what a country is, made up of many small units of families. And this is our own responsibility. If everyone plays his role well, and get his own relationships well, and the children are in order, I think we can have a good country.

What does it mean to be a Singaporean to you?

We have laboured for much of our lives to build this place. No matter what kind of hardships we have to go through, here or elsewhere, we still retain this thing. This is our Singapore identity, that we are not afraid of hardships. We can take anything. Even if we go to other places, and people criticised us or treat us otherwise, I will be able to tolerate and not take it up with them because I can take hardships. My will to survive is strong, and it is here. Every one of us has a chance, an opportunity. In fact, every country has a chance, but we are ahead.

What hopes and aspirations do you hold for Singapore?

This is difficult. I hope that every Singaporean’s sense of duty towards the country would be stronger, deeper. And, that we can be humble. After all, we are in a very competitive environment. Other countries, if they want to develop, it can be very fast. Like Singapore, it was so fast. So if we take it lightly and become complacent, we will lose this advantage. Other countries have many more advantages than us; we should not lose sight of that. I think the right direction, our strength, lies in our humility. We should be humble and have more social responsibilities, towards society and Singapore. Looking at parents bringing their children to school, I feel worried. For the sake of dropping their children at the school gate, they can stop in the middle of the road to let their child off. On rainy days, because they are afraid that their child would get wet, they would even fight with the security guards, just to drive into the school. Loving your child is right, but this will lead to a mindset that we can get our way by force. We can only support our children till they are 18, and after that they have to support themselves.