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0. 🏡 Project Motivation {Kampong Soopoo}

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0. 🏡 Project Motivation {Kampong Soopoo}

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I've chosen to investigate the colonial history of the Kallang ecosystem and communities, driven by personal/familial origins.

My paternal family were until recently, residents of the Kallang area since the 1930s, residing in Kampong Soopoo (my dad's birth certificate is attached - a primary source).

A few curiosities in the Birth Certificate - 1) the British administrators collected data on the 'Occupation' from only the fathers, and 'Age' of only the mothers.

This might reflect on the colonial administration's expectations of the father as sole breadwinner of the house (which was inaccurate - my grandmother was a seamstress).
In addition, the recording of age for only the mother seems to suggest that the interest in the collection of that information was purely to ascertain the health of the mother - for reproduction demographics, with no interest in gathering data of the parents beyond that.

2) Given the combination of the illiteracy of my grandparents and the lack of formal building numbers in the squatters of Kg. Soopoo, the home address was truncated to a non-existent 1, Kampong Soopoo.

This highlights the limitations on record-keeping due to the state of housing then, as well as the difficulties for the administration to communicate with the population - given this generic address (everyone in the village was not tracked to the squatter location), how would communications be continued with the subject (resident) (e.g. posting a package to them)?

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1. 📓 Let's Start with our Source(s) {Lower Pierce Reservoir}

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1. 📓 Let's Start with our Source(s) {Lower Pierce Reservoir}

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Sources and Padlet Usage Recommendation
Padlet Recommendation

Hi Prof Fiona and Fellow Visitors!

I've designed the Padlet to be best enjoyed as a lazy river trail down the Kallang River! That is to say, following the river route on our map!

Should you wish to jump across sections - I've neatly labelled the sections with number indicators (from 1 onwards; 0 serves to share some background on the project motivation and acts as a Foreword)

The Map can be changed to other styles (in particular I'd highlight the 'Satellite' view which allows you to see the true features of Kallang today. 'Watercolour' is my chosen default as it mimics old colonial maps but with pretty colours that colour-code the natural and human features of the Kallang ecosystem!)

Sources

Primary
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Newspaper Article - KALLANG WILL BE VITAL INDUSTRIAL SUBURB, The Singapore Free Press, 23 July 1958, Page 5 (nlb.gov.sg)
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Birth Certificate courtesy of Choy 🤬 Foo, 1959
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FIRE AT KAMPONG SOO POO - VICTIMS WITH THEIR BELONGINGS (nas.gov.sg), 1959
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Singapore Planning Department, Technical Paper No. 48, Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1967
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Lt. Jackson's Plan of Singapore, H. F. Pearson, 1969
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Singapore Parliamentary Debates, Official Report (3 November 1972)
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Master Plan 1980 : Town Map Sheet 4/815 (nas.gov.sg) URA Master Plan 1980, 1980
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General Household Survey, Resident Working Persons Aged 15 Years and Over, Department of Statistics Singapore, 2015

Secondary

Govt acquires site for housing scheme to link Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio estates, The Straits Times, 30 April 1979, Page 8
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The “Remains of the Dead”: Spatial Politics of Nation-Building in Post-War Singapore, Tan Boon Hui and Brenda S.A. Yeoh, NUS, 2002
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Life and Death in Singapore - 99% Invisible (99percentinvisible.org), 2019
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Instagram, Darren Choy, 30 November 2020

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How successful were the colonial British administrators versus the indigenous People's Action Party (PAP) government in caring for the largely poor communities in Kallang River in the late colonial period (1945 - 1959) and early independence period (1963 - 1980s)?

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The British colonialists were less successful than the PAP in caring for the poor communities of Kallang River.

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Serangoon Road, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, Singapore

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4. Exhibit A - Kwong Wai Shiu Free Hospital

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4. Exhibit A - Kwong Wai Shiu Free Hospital

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The hospital my father was born in serves as one key example of how local communities largely relied on ground-up grassroots measures to cope with poverty.

The free hospital founded by the Cantonese community, served members regardless of language or religion in the Kallang area, providing an avenue for those who might have fallen through the gaps of the colonial government's support systems.

They provided not just free healthcare for the poor, but also free funeral services (at the affiliated Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng (KWSPST) cemetery

This cemetery (once Singapore's largest) used to encompass the whole of Bishan town (Bishan is Cantonese for 'pavilions on the green'), some of Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio, before forced government acquisition in 1979 for a measly compensation of SG$4.95 million for 384 acres (1.55 km²).

The improvement in wages and living standards meant that by 1974, services no longer needed to be subsidised for most patients, and the hospital was renamed, removing the word 'Free' from its name.

As such, we might argue that since basic healthcare and funeral services had to be covered by charitable foundations, that the British administration was unable to single-handedly manage some basic needs of the locals in Kallang.'

The management of the burial process by the PAP government was greatly improved over the British administration's, notable in increasingly population-dense Singapore after the post-war baby boom.

This was due to legal changes such as allowing the public commissioner to "close cemeteries without assigning reasons for doing so" (Primary Source: Singapore Parliamentary Debates, Official Report (3 November 1972), and mooting cremation as an alternate to traditional Chinese burial - expanding both the first columbarium (Mount Vernon Columbarium) and the opening of the second columbarium (Mandai Columbarium).

In contrast, the British had "little power to control burial spaces because it did not possess sanctions of sufficient strength" (Secondary Source: Tan Boon Hui; Brenda S. A. Yeoh (2002), "The 'Remains of the Dead': Spatial Politics of Nation-Building in Post-War Singapore").

The PAP's efforts led to reduced land-use by cemeteries (Primary Source: URA Master Plan 1980) and today "more than 80% of Singaporeans get cremated when they die — substantially more than in the US, where that number is just over 50%" (Secondary Source: Life and Death in Singapore - 99% Invisible (99percentinvisible.org), being a great boon to the ecology of the country.

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Attached Image - November 2020: The Singapore Government's decision to proceed with demolition of the Dakota Crescent flats (Making way for renewal - Straits Times)

The demolition of the flat where my great-grandmother (a staff nurse for the British soldiers based in Kallang Airport) for urban redevelopment and my paternal family once lived struck a nerve in me (attached - Instagram post I made)

In the transitional period between the British colonial administration towards local self-governance, the Dakota Crescent estate built by the colonial Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) (Primary Source: Newspaper Article - KALLANG WILL BE VITAL INDUSTRIAL SUBURB, The Singapore Free Press, 23 July 1958, Page 5 (nlb.gov.sg)) catered for the squatters in the poor Kallang area. The poor had settled in the area as the nearby river provided easy access to water - for sustenance as well as supplies (access to the harbour meant supplies came more easily and cheaply). Being nearer to the industrial outskirts around Singapore's city centre meant easy access to manual jobs too - people did not need to pay much to travel to work, some like my grandfather could walk to work.

This was largely successful and was greatly helpful in the relocation of residents in the numerous squatter fires of the late 1950s (Primary Source: Flats for fire victims, Straits Times, 27 May 1958) including one affecting my father's village of Kp. Soopoo (Primary Source: FIRE AT KAMPONG SOO POO - VICTIMS WITH THEIR BELONGINGS (nas.gov.sg)).

This shows the British not just took notice but were clearly bothered by the poverty of the area, enough to take measured steps with financial backing to build entirely new housing estates at low cost to local residents.

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My paternal grandfather used to work as a fitter at a metal factory next to the Kallang Gasworks.

A key part of town planning meant that space for auxiliary commercial and industrial companies were set beside existing ones such as the Kallang Gasworks which opened in 1862 (not a typo!).

The success of the PAP government in improving the conditions of Kallang residents lynch-pinned upon being able to not just provide cheap reliable housing and healthcare, but also ensuring jobs were nearby.

Their ability to leverage on existing infrastructure built on the foundations given by the British shows that a lot of the successes by the PAP do rely heavily on the "foundations of urban planning" by the British "since the Jackson Plan (in 1822)". (Source: Lt. Jackson's Plan of Singapore, H. F. Pearson, 1969)

Today, Kallang has been gentrified, and is the planning area with the 5th highest gross monthly income per working person (2015) out of 28 planning areas. (Primary Source: General Household Survey, Resident Working Persons Aged 15 Years and Over, Department of Statistics Singapore, 2015)

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7. 🧐 (River Mouth)y Conclusions {Kallang Basin}

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7. 🧐 (River Mouth)y Conclusions {Kallang Basin}

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In conclusion, the PAP through ensuring affordability of healthcare, providing more housing and ensuring availability of decent-paying jobs, was better cater to the needs of the impoverished Kallang community.

While the British Colonial Government made clear attempts with financial spending to build new facilities for the residents (i.e. they were indeed bothered about the poverty of the area), faced with the priorities of a post-war Britain and the lack of political capital with lower perceived legitimacy as a foreign administration, was thus less successful at handling the poverty of the area.