ETL 201 Selected History Topics for Primary Social Studies                                                                 Essay
 
Oral History Report
(An Oral History Interview from a woman, Madam Low, who lived in Toa Payoh for fifty-four years and been through the development of Toa Payoh by Rachael Seah)
 
Introduction
Toa Payoh is one of the mature estates in Singapore. There was a vast stretch of swampy land dotted with fishponds and farms back in the 1920s. It was during 1964 where the Housing and Development Board (HDB) began its massive project on developing Toa Payoh into a planned satellite town. For this oral history report, I am fortunate to have an interview with Madam Low Kim Lam, in her early fifties, who have been living in Toa Payoh since 1949, when Toa Payoh was a still a swampy land with kampongs. Madam Low was the second eldest child in her family and she has five younger siblings. During her time living in kampong, her family sleep in a rented bedroom in an attap house. During the interview, Madam Low related her experiences, personal feelings and thoughts in a mixture of Mandarin and Teochew. She is very enthusiastic and very excited in sharing her information throughout the two-hours interview. Her accounts include her experiences about the life in kampong, feelings and things that she encountered after moving to a HDB flats and how she adapt to the change of environment.
 
Descriptions of the kampong
According to Madam Low, the Kampong that she used to stay was located at Lorong 8 and the name of the Kampong was called Puay Geng Teng. The houses that the villagers were living in were called the Attap houses at that time, which was made from wood and attap. When they needed water, they will retrieve it from a common public tap in the Kampong. They do not have any electricity supply back then what they used was those kerosene lamps to provide lights for them during the night, that why, according to Madam Low, the villagers usually be in house before dark because there was no lamp posts along the streets. It was until years later where the government started to install orange coloured street lamps along the roadside and, slowly, installation of water supply and electricity supply were made to individual houses and a meter was used to charge the usage. As for the public tap, it was then removed. There were also provision shops and kopi tiam in the kampong and lives were very simple back then.
According to the history record that I had found, there was indeed a kampong by the name of Puay Teng Keng meaning “ flying sky temple” located near the Lorong 8 industrial estate. It should be the kampong Madam Low was trying to refer to but she got the name wrong. In the record, it was stated that the kampongs in Toa Payoh was more or less self-contained, with about 100 households, provision shops… and medical halls with sinseh (a traditional Chinese doctor). It is also stated that there was standpipes for those villagers whose house did not have a well and quarrels were common scene that could be seen at the standpipes. There are a couple of points that was mentioned by Madam Low, which are different from the records that I had found. Example like, according to the Madam Low, there wasn’t any electricity in the kampong when she was young but according to the record, it is stated that electricity came from standing generators, water via standpipes, and it does not mentioned about anything using kerosene lamps.
 
Reasons for resettlement
According to Madam Low, there was a resettlement because the government wanted to develop the area to accommodate more residents. According to the history records, just like what Madam Low had mentioned, the development of Toa Payoh was done to give the growing population adequate shelter and to create better facilities for the residents as well as a better and convenience of transportation. In order to over come the acute shortage of proper housing, the HDB built a massive amount of flats to solve the problem despite on the quality used to built the flats, more focus are on the quantity and most of the flats are one or two-room flats. It was later after the problems have been solved; HDB started to build bigger flat like three-room flats and focus more on the quality of the workmanship.
 
Life in kampong and HDB flats
After the development of Toa Payoh, Madam Low and her family were offered a two-room rental apartment in Lorong 5 block 54 around 1967 or 1968. It was one of the few blocks that were built at that time. According to Madam Low, she said that staying in a HDB flat is more convenience compare to kampong in term of transportation and facilities, other than that, she still prefer to the kampong lifestyles because the air are fresher, the attap house are so cooling that they do not even need to but fan not to say air-condition and last but not least, she finds that when people are living in a kampong, they tend to be friendlier unlike the people who stay in a HDB flats where they always loves to compare the interior design of their house. She said that living in HDB is more competitive than living in kampong. She also mentioned about the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II to view the first 19th storey HDB flat in Singapore.
In the history record, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II visited Toa Payoh on the 18 Feb 1972 with the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne and made their way to the 19th-floor to see the view from the roof top. It is also stated that as a satellite town, Toa Payoh contains all the necessary facilities and services needed in the daily life of the residents, therefore, in terms of facilities and transportations, living in the developed Toa Payoh town holds the advantage. On the other hand, being a well-developed town, there are more vehicles and the apartments are more enclosed compare to the kampong where most people usually walk or cycle from one kampong to another and therefore, the air pollution is lesser and the ventilation in the attap house is better.
 
Madam Low’s final preference
Madam Low had mentioned that she misses the kind of life in kampong despite its inconveniency of transportations and facilities. She also stated that she finds that the people living in the neighbourhood are not friendly comparing to the past. According to the records, the government had provided social and recreational places and facilities as well as activities for the residents to get together to build up their relationships. The designs of corridors are also meant to promote interaction and allow the residents to visit each other more easily. Therefore, the reason that Madam Low had stated might came from her own perception of the neighbourhood.
In the last question of the interview, Madam Low had stated that she would continue to stay in Toa Payoh and is not willing to move to other estate as she felt that Toa Payoh is a very convenience place as it contains all the necessary facilities and services you can find in a new estate maybe even more. Other reasons for her are that she cherishes the memories she has in Toa Payoh and most of her friends are living in Toa Payoh. Her answer for her last question brought in the doubts about her pervious answer on unfriendly neighbours. I think what she meant by the “unfriendly neighbours” might be those people who are not in good terms with her, if not, why will she choose to stay in Toa Payoh because her friends are here.
 
Conclusion
After conducting this interview, I’ve realised that I’ve gained a lot of knowledge on the history of Toa Payoh. Although I used to stay in Toa Payoh for seventeen years, I’ve never know that Toa Payoh used to be a swampy kampong area. Although some of the information given by Madam Low are not found or proven in the history report, the personal testimony of Madam Low shed new light on how the lace looks like at that time and the advantages and disadvantages of the development. Oral history does provide a fresh insight to events in history where an insight to the human emotions of the times that past through the years and events are shown.
 
 
 
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* I give permission for this work to be digitally stored and made available for NIE for education and research purpose.
References
• 2000, Housing & Development Board. Toa Payoh: Our Kind of neighbourhood. Published by Times Media Pte Ltd.
 
• Presented by A/P Ong Chit Chung.  Toa Payoh Town: From Swamp land to Modern Living. Published: Singapore: Toa Payoh Town Council, [1994]
 
 
Websites
 
• http://www.ura.gov.sg/dgp_reports/toapayoh/int-hist.html
 
• http://www.mnd.gov.sg/newsroom/speeches/speeches_nd1998_300998.htm
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interviewer: Seah Yanlei, Rachael (S)
 
Interviewee: Mdm Low Kim Lam (L)
Place of birth: Singapore
Age: 54 year-old
Date of birth: January 1949
Dialect: Teochew
 
Duration of interview: 2 hours
Venue: Mdm Low’s house at Toa Payoh North
 
This interview was done in both languages, Mandarin and Teochew.
 
S: How long have you been staying in Toa Payoh?
L: I’ve been living there since I was born, since 1949. It been, let me see, around fifty over years from now. I used to stay in a kampong with my family then later moved to HDB flats in Lorong 5 and then moved to Toa Payoh North after I got married to my husband to stay with his family in 1972.
 
S: Could you describe how Toa Payoh looks like in the past, I mean how does the kampong, which you used to stay, looks like?
L: Well, it is dirty and we don’t have proper roads like today. Everyone was living in attap houses; it was made mostly using wood and attap. My parents rented a room from an auntie, just slightly bigger than the bedroom today, for $5 per month. My parents paid people to built a double storey platform for us to sleep and we slept on grass mats. My siblings and I, six of us, will squeeze at the top platform while my parents and two of my youngest sisters will occupied the bottom platform. There were provision shops, kopi tiam, and barber shops in my kampong. Swamp land could also be found near the kampong; Toa Payoh was full of swamp land at that time especially Lorong 8. We usually run around the kampong barefooted cause my parents could not afford to buy us shoes to wear, so when it rains, our foots would be cover with mud due to the muddy roads.
 
S: What is the name of the kampong you are staying?
L: Mmm.. I can’t remember much, it’s been so many years back but I think it should be called Puay Geng Teng or something. It used to be located at the industrial estate, you know, Lorong 8 there, somewhere near to the Toa Payoh Polyclinic. Just somewhere there lah. Life is really not easy at that time, you young people should consider very lucky. Do you know, the attap house I used to live always created problem for my family especially when it rains? The roof always leaking and we need to use the metal piece from the calendar to repair the roof. Living in the attap house is very cooling, we don’t need a fan at all, but it gets very noisy when it rain because of the impact of the raindrops onto the roof.
 
 
 
 
S: How is the security back then, is it as safe as now?
L: Safe, very safe. Much safer than now. I remembered when we are living in the kampong; people open their main door throughout the day even when they are sleeping. There’s no such things as thefts or any crimes. The gangsters in the kampong will protect us from strangers. Unlike now where there always a lot of crimes like break-in, molest, rape and so on. There’s no such thing back then. You tell me, who dares to open their main door nowadays and sleep comfortably? No right, although now we have law officers but people still feels insecure unlike in the past.
 
S: Are there water supply and electricity supply back then?
L: Well, we used to use kerosene lamps to provide us with lights and as for water, there’s a public tap where we will queue up for water, sometimes, we need to queue for almost two hours just to get a pail of water. It is only after a couple of years later where the government installed street lamps along the road, orange colour one and very far apart. By then, the government also installed water followed by electricity to individual houses and it was charged by meter, just like today. As for the public tap, it was then removed because every household have their own water supply. Before that, everyone will be in house before 8 p.m. cause it was very dark outside.
 
S: So life is very tough for you at that time?
L: Not really lah, I still enjoyed my childhood although life was poor at that time. My parents sent me to a Primary school but I stopped studying at Primary Two because my parents could not afford to allow me to continue to study because of my younger siblings. So I stayed at home and help my mother to earn some money by printing those kim zhua (paper money for the dead) using a specific chop and red ink. After that, when I was around twelve years old, I went to work in a provision in another kampong, can’t remember the name, but it near to today Toa Payoh Swimming Complex. It is the same provision shop where my father worked as a deliveryman. I remembered that I earned around $1.60 per day, it’s considered quite a lot for me and I get my salary every two weeks but was all given to my mother but sometimes she will give me twenty-five cents to let treat myself with a bowl of wanton noodles.
 
S: You said earlier that you and your family moved to live in HDB when you are around fifteen or sixteen years old, what happened then, I mean do you know why you are moving to the HDB flats?
L: Not very sure, but I think it is the government who wants us moved. I heard from my parents that the government wanted to develop the place so that more people can live in Toa Payoh. During that time I’m still young, only know that earning money comes first, never bother about this kind of stuff so when my parents moved I just tag along with them but I heard there are a couple of people in my kampong complaint and not willing to move because they have job stabilised and they like the kind of living they are in. These are usually the farmers and provision shop owners, you know, who are afraid to lose all their hard earned money and properties.
 
S: Did the government compensate the people in the kampong, including your family, for resettlement?
L: As the room we stayed was rented, we didn’t receive any money at all and as for the rest, I’m not sure.
 
S: Ok, so when and where are you moved to then?
L: We were offered a two-room rental flat in Lorong 5, block 54 during late 1960s, I think it around 1967 or 1968. I remembered there’s one years when some well-know queen from don’t know which countries came and a lot of people went to see. It is very crowded, noisy and like very grand. They came to view the first 19th storey HDB flat in Singapore, block 53.
 
S: Do you prefer the kampong lifestyles or HDB lifestyles?
L: Well, comparing living in HDB and living in kampong is of course very different. Living in HDB, the transportations are better, more convenience. You can easily get a bus from the bus stop downstairs while in kampong, we need to walk around twenty to thirty minutes to take a bus or we need to take trishaw and it cost around thirty to fifty cents at that time. Even going to the market is more convenience when you live in HDB. So comparing the two, living in HDB is more convenience than living in kampong. But one thing bad about living in HDB is that the condition of the air we breathe, it is more polluted and HDB flats are stuffier. Unlike in the kampong where the air is very fresh and the attap houses are cooling and more ventilation. Overall I still prefer living in kampong because there’s more freedom, the neighbours are friendlier comparing to the neighbours now is just that the transportations were very inconvenience that’s all.
 
S: Do you encounter any pressure or differences after you moved to HDB flat?
L: Yes, you know, life in kampong is very simple and easy, every houses looks alike. But in HDB flats, people tend to compare the interior design of your house to judge your statues and look down on your family. So life is quite different in that sense more competitive.
 
S: So did you able to find yourself a job after moving?
L: Yes, I worked as a sewer after that and I continue after I married to my husband in 1972. I moved to block 203 at Toa Payoh North after the marriage to stay with my in-laws. After my in-laws die, my husband take over the house till now.
 
S: After living in Toa Payoh for so many years, would you like to say something about Toa Payoh? I mean how the upgrading of the flats and facilities has helped you in certain way, why you remain staying in Toa Payoh all this years?
L:  Well, as you can see, Toa Payoh have been develop into a convenience places where you can get almost everything within Toa Payoh itself, there’s no need to travel all the way to city area to buy stuff. As I’ve been staying here for so many years and been through the changes of Toa Payoh, I find it memorable for me to stay here for the rest of my life.  Furthermore, most of my friends lived here and getting to move to another estate is to ask me to start all over again and I don’t think I want to do that.
 
 
Done by : Seah Yanlei, Rachael (020329K24)
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