A Side Show
by
Yakkity Yak
“A Side-Show”
Footballing interest spawned yet another side show. We were somehow intrigued by the photographs in the newspapers, showing the great athleticism of footballers; mostly of centre-forwards scoring goals or the acrobatic feats of goalkeepers foiling goals. Unable to afford our own newspapers, we begged our richer Indian neighbours for the previous week’s papers so that we could scour through them, painstakingly cut out the pictures we wanted and meticulously pasted them on a jotter book. The jotter book costs 5 cents and we needed to justify the purchase to our mother. I told her that the entire exercise of cutting and pasting those pictures were part of a class project ordered by my stern form teacher.
We were great fans of the State team then. What with personalities like Awang Barkar, Lee Wah Chin, Quah Kim Swee, Majid Arif, Rahim Omar, Wilfred Skinner and many more? The entire galactica of stars were only on parade together in Inter- State games, then known as the Malayan Cup and the FAM (Football Association of Malaya) Cup. These were played at the Jalan Besar Stadium and they charged an entrance fee, which, without saying, was beyond our reach. Our next best course of action was to watch the local league teams selectively, whenever these players were featured, gratis, at the Geylang Stadium, not too far away from where we stayed. It was within easy walking distance. Most of these State players turned out for local clubs at the local league games. We would watch the Police team which boasted of at least 3 State players, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, also at least 3 State players, Blue Rovers, Darul Afiah and Fathul Kabrib, which together accounted the rest of the Malay State players; Chinese Athletics and the Amicable Athletic Association from which the Chinese State players were hailed from. Unknown to us, it was at Geylang Stadium or at least the mosque next to it, that gave us all a fright much later. The race riots started from this particular mosque which we were so familiar with. Frankly, we could see simmering tensions borne of racial partisanship at the foot ball games which we watched at the stadium. The teams were definitely organized on racial lines. A greater proportion of the teams were Malay-based. The only Chinese-based teams were the Chinese Athletic, the Amicable Athletic Association and Hai-kow-yu . The Indians played for the Joyful Indians and the Jolly Lads, with Kinta Indians from Perak as an occasional guest–team.
The racial riots told me another facet of the secret societies and the triads. One day I saw two or three macho men, of the type whom you would call “Ah Beng’ today, scarred with tattoos of dragons, snakes and nude maidens, escorting my father back home. I was to later learn that the various SS groups operating at the Kallang Airport Estate sunk their differences temporarily during the racial riots, to help ‘protect’ whoever they think would potentially fall prey to the racial wars. These were heroic acts, carried out with benevolent intents. Much later, in the course of my Police work, I learnt that much of their rites and ceremonies, values and behaviour were inspired by Chinese legends such as the White Lotus Society, the 128 Shao Lin Monks, the Romance of The Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. And talking about sinking differences, I thought they might as well, because as far as I can see, no one gang has managed then, to establish any kind of hegemony in Kallang Airport.
The Kallang Airport Hawkers Centre is today, arguably one of the better hawkers centre in Singapore. Yet, if you know anything of its history, you will recognize that it hasn’t a really very glorious past, perhaps like most hawkers centres. I think they all started as some make-shift nondescript stalls set up by residents within the estate, to eke out a living. Needless to say, they were illegal and were frequently and mercilessly mowed down by the authorities, of course, for various reasons and mostly legitimate ones, too. For one thing, they were probably not prepared in the most sanitary of conditions (in all probability in the confines of the home kitchens).
We ate from these stalls, devouring every morsel, not so much as some savoury gourmet delights but more to satisfy a basic biological need. As growing up kids, we needed more than a generous helping to satiate our insatiable appetite! We paid a dear price for this as well. Two of my siblings; an elder brother and a younger one were struck down by typhoid fever. The Middleton Quarantine Hospital where they were treated informed us that typhoid was due to food prepared in unsanitary conditions. To us, this was traceable to the stalls where we bought our breakfast. Nevertheless, up till today I still have a yearning to visit the Kallang Airport Hawkers Centre but not really for nostalgia but because it has some of the best street food in Singapore!
Today, Kallang Airport is vastly refreshed, cleaned up, and thoroughly face lifted. It has a shine and wears a veneer of a gloss that it never used to have. It is a little up-market. It is shorn of its entire previous drab and has shed all vestiges of a scruffy past. It is distinguishably-new; no longer a nest of pigeon holes where we used to come to roost. Kallang Airport! I vow to thee, I shall return yet another day to my now, unfamiliar home!
It was once scruffy!!
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