Where were you on
BY RUSSELL HENG
The news that Singpaore separated from Malaysia came on radio at 10 am on Monday, Aug 9, 1965.
At noon, Malaysian flags were taken down from public buildings and Singapore flags went up. My generation was schooling then, children of a troubled era having their future determined by its politics.
Mr Wang Hsien Chin, a civil servant then in Secondary 2, said without hesitation that he saw The Sound of Music at Orchard cinema that afternoon. It was the third time he saw the film which, according to an old copy of The Straits Times, was going into its 19th day.
He said: "I heard about the Separation only after I got home from the show. I really cannot recall having any specific emotional reaction."
Mr Y.M. Kang, an accountant, who was in Secondary 1 that year, was strolling out of the National Library that morning when a passerby announced it. He could not help saying to himself: "Oh good, now I do not have to pass my National Language."
Mr S.Vijayan, a police officer then in Secondary 2, heard the news from somebody in the family, he forgot who. He said: "I had no reaction beyond sensing that it was something important. I was not aware of the political issues then."
Miss Carol Lim, a teacher then in Pre-University 1, said she felt sad for a variety of reasons. First she worried that it would be difficult to go to Malaysia which she liked visiting.
Then there was the sight of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew fighting back tears on television as he talked about the Separation.
That television programme was by far the best-remembered. It was broadcast at 4.30pm that day, two hours ahead of the daily television schedule.
Lawyer Mohamed Muzammil, then in Secondary 2 at St Patrick's, said he first heard of Separation on radio with his family at 11am.
He said: "After we heard the announcement, our family talked about what could happen in the days ahead...I was told not to go out into the streets."
Then there was Mr Maarof Salleh, a teacher who had just finished his Secondary 4 that year and was waiting to go into Teacher's Training College. He said: "I was in Malacca visiting friends in a kampung called Masjid Tanah. It was a social function...maybe a wedding.
"I heard it on the radio. I felt sad. I knew there were political problems between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore then.
"I also felt that as I was away from home I could not share the feeling of my friends and family."
Sales executive Gerry d'Cruz, then a 16-year-old preparing for his O levels, remembered his mother gathering her friends together and going off to church to pray for the country.
So there we were on that day, suddenly the children of a new nation, not quite understanding the forces that had just altered our future in a fundamental way.
For those old enough to sense that an important change had just taken place, the implications were never defined for them by parents or teachers.
Yet the anxieties of the times did not leave us untouched. Almost all were aware of the racial tension that formed the backdrop to independence, the two incidents of racial unrest in 1964.
Everyone interviewed whether from Primary 1 or Pre-U 2 then had a story to tell. They were either on their way to school and had to turn back or in class when their parents came to fetch them. Most recalled the hurried journey home.
Mr Maarof, who was at Pasir Panjang Secondary School, could also remember a friend, Ali Mukri, being set upon by a gang of Chinese and having to abandon his bicycle.
Car mechanic S.W. Teo, who was in Primary 4 that year, recalled his family moving from Geylang to stay with relatives in Queenstown because they were uncomfortable in their Malay neighbourhood.
Miss Premarini, an editor in the publishing business who was eight years old then, said: "My parents, like most other Indian parents were worried that we might be mistaken for Malays and took pains to dress like Indians.
"When school reopened, I remember my grandmother dotting my forehead with a larger-than-usual dot every morning before taking me to school."
Did the riots make us as children more racially conscious? Yes and no. Many said they see things then in terms of good guys and bad guys and them. However, nobody recalled falling out with Malay or Chinese classmates or friends as a result of the disturbances.
Mr Muzammil, for example, recounted how he walked home from St Patrick's School with a group of Chinese and Eurasian classmates when the curfew was announced, seeking comfort in each other's company.
I myself thought of a Malay classmate, Tahale, and how I asked him if he thought the Malays or the Chinese started the incidents. He said there were trouble-makers on both sides. We never talked about race again.
Was it an early awareness that kept us politely away from discussing our racial feelings? Or were feelings about race just irrelevant when we related to our classmates or friends?
Probably a bit of both. It was our response as children to the challenges of the times and we did not do too badly. If I feel a sense of regret, it is that I never kept in touch with Tahale after we left school.
True, I have also not kept in touch with classmates who were Chinese. But somehow in the case of Tahale I wish I had made an extra effort.
First published in The Straits Times, 9 August 1988
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
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