By TAN SAI SIONG
IT WAS a grand-uncle of Education Minister Teo Chee Hean who made it possible for Dr Sun Yat Sen to use a villa off Balestier Road, as his South-east Asian headquarters.
This historical nugget, unknown to many, was revealed in a recent press report about the $7.5 million restoration and extension of the 117-year-old villa, where Dr Sun, a doctor-turned-revolutionary, once stayed.
It was while at the villa that he drummed up support from overseas Chinese in South-east Asia for his 1911 revolution which toppled the Qing dynasty's 267-year rule over China.
The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, where the doctor-turned-revolutionary
once stayed.This tidbit enhances Singaporeans' knowledge about the site which, in the words of Information and the Arts Minister George Yeo, gives us "the sense of having participated not just in the history of China, but in the history of all Chinese people, including the Chinese in Singapore".
The extra information also casts light on the family history of a leading member in the Singapore Cabinet: how deep Rear Admiral (RS) Teo's family roots in Singapore go and the social milieu his relatives move in.
Another bit of the minister's family history that I have uncovered concerns his grandfather. He was one of the tens of thousands of Chinese swooped upon by the Japanese soon after they captured Singapore in February 1942.
The Rear Admiral's father, Mr Teo Cheng Guan, who was the sixth chairman of the OCBC Bank, confirmed the story for me, after I had learnt of it from Mr Teo Senior's former colleagues at the bank.
According to the senior Teo, his father, Teo Beng Wan - an officer of the OCBC which led in raising relief funds to help China in its war against Japan -- was taken away along with many Chinese males.
He was never seen again, a victim of the pogrom known in our history books as the Sook Ching, in which those considered to be anti-Japanese were massacred.
Mr Teo Cheng Guan, around 20 years old at that time, said the last he heard was that his father was among the Chinese males rounded up in River Valley Road at the site where Liang Court Hotel stands today.
This story provides a rare glimpse into a private aspect of a public persona. Similar information is not readily available about most of the prominent personalities in Singapore.
I feel it is a pity that I can bet confidently that more Singaporeans know the family history of Michael Jackson and his siblings than those who can state where Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng's family hailed from originally.
It may not be imperative for us to know the family history of all the faces that appear in the Singapore Tatler. But Singaporeans should at least know more about the roots of those who hold this country's destiny in their hands.
I have in mind our political and business leaders, top civil servants and other policy makers. I would also include those considered to be outside the Establishment's mainstream, like opposition leaders or respected government critics.
To all intents and purposes, many appear to have risen into prominence like Aphrodite from the sea, with no detectable past apart from perhaps where they went to school, the last job they held and whether they had grown up in a poor or middle-class family.
For example, how many know that Jimmy Tan, who stood on a Singapore Democratic Party ticket several elections ago, is a direct descendant of Tan Kim Seng, who gave his name to the road on which Times House stands?
Such thin information may be acceptable for candidates standing for election because even if they were running on the People's Action Party's ticket, there is no guarantee that they will become Members of Parliament until the people give their verdict.
Yet, once these are past the post and are given public positions, what little family detail has been given when soliciting for voters' support is seldom added to.
Perhaps this is because of Singapore's reluctance to create personality cults. Or it reflects how jealously many guard their privacy.
Moreover, in a meritocracy, what does a person's pedigree - which is what his genealogy would reveal - have to do with his ability, which is better measured by the number of degrees he holds and the successes he has managed to chalk up in his career?
I agree with these reservations, if delving into our leaders, movers and shakers' family backgrounds were done only to satisfy puerile curiousity or to assess their suitability for the tasks they are assigned.
However, my case for proposing to trace the roots of well-known Singaporeans is to increase the store of information on the country's history.
Questions I would like answered include: When did the first generation in their family arrive in Singapore; what did they do for a living; what major parts, if any, did they play in shaping the country's history, and so on.
If gathered painstakingly, the anecdotes, the threads of kinship ties and the shared experiences of this family with that, can provide future generations with a better sense of time and place and where we have come from.
Even if the accounts are ho-hum - and most probably will be as not many would have illustrious forebears - they will still serve as testimonies that Singaporeans' roots go a long way further than 1963 or 1965.
So, teachers needing ideas on how to implement the National Education's agenda besides sending class after class to tour the Singapore History Museum, you could consider assigning your children the task of tracing the family of a prominent living Singaporean.
You may not succeed in nurturing a C. M. Turnbull. But such an exercise could help future generations develop enough of a feel for the nation's history not to believe like many of today's students do - according to one university lecturer - that Aljunied is just an MRT station.
First published in The Straits Times, Nov 28, 1997
Next: S'pore's leaders, like Raffles, are not afraid to look far
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
