A Village Girl (2E5 Suriani's Mother)

Madam Chumanis live through the racial riots that happened in 1964. Then, she was only 18 years old. As a typical village girl, she did not know anything that happened outside her own front door. My grandmother would then tell her the news. Here is some information about my mother. Her birthday is on 24 of October 1947. She was born at  home in a village known as Bukit Cermin. She is a Singaporean. She has two sisters and four brothers. My grandfather was originally from Java and my grandmother was born in Selangor and later came to Singapore. My grandparents lived at Bukit Cermin at that point of time. My grandfather worked as a farmer and owned a farm. They led a simple life; being neither poor nor rich.

My mother spent her childhood playing games with friends. The games she played were five stones, hop scotch, cooking, dolls and a lot more. All the games were home-made.

During the holidays, she only stayed at home and did not go overseas because they could not afford the expenses. As the youngest of the family, she was not assigned any chores but would help my grandfather around the farm sometimes. As a girl during the olden days, she did not know of any pranks to play on others. The worse punishment that she ever received was a caning. She studied at a village school called Kampong Jaguh Malay School. The teachers that she remembers are Cikgu Rahim, Cikgu Ibrahim, Cikgu Suratnam Markasan; now a Malay novelist, Cikgu Abu Sama and Cikgu Ismail. (Cikgu is Malay for “teacher”)

Games that were played in school were netball and rounders. The activity that she frequently participated in was the writing and reciting of Malay poetry. The subjects that she learnt in school were English, Mathematics, Science and Malay. She did her prayers at home and at the small mosque, the Surau.

During the olden days, dating was perfectly acceptable but couples were not allowed to go out as a couple. They would go out as a group but did not meet as frequently like couples do these days. Holding hands, kissing and hugging in public were not allowed, unlike couples nowadays.

My mother’s marriage was not held at a restaurant and was not very grand. She registered her marriage at Registry of Marriages and had a small reception at her house. She did not know the cause of the Maria Hertogh Riots and student strikes and labour riots in 1950s because she was only 3 years old at that time.

She knows something about the racial riots. It happened on Prophet Muhammad's birthday. She did not know the cause of the riots. It was between the Malays and the Chinese. My mother told me that during the riots, there was a 'black area' and a 'white area'. The public were not allowed into the 'black area' because it was where most of the riots took place. The 'white area' was not badly affected but there was a curfew. So, if one wanted to shop for anything, one had to make it quick. She also said that if one was not familiar with a village, one ought not to go there during the riot because one would be in danger of being attacked by a hostile group from the other race.

My mother was not born yet when Singapore was under the British and the Japanese rule. When Mr David Marshall and Mr Lim Yee Hock were in the government, my mother was only 3 years old and everything was taken care of by her parents. When Mr. Lee Kuan Yew took over in 1959, she said it was good because he took the initiative to give speeches to the public. There is once my mother attended his speech rally at Sa Im Road where the HabourFront shopping centre now stands. When Singapore merged with Malaysia in 1963, the UMNO (United Malay National Organisation), MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) and MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) did not like Mr Lee Kuan Yew's way of running the government because he used democracy and equality for every race whilst Malaysia favoured the Malays. When Mr Goh Chok Tong took over from Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the Prime Minister, he continued to lead Singapore to becoming a cosmopolitan city. Many things improved under his leadership. The point is that he played an important role in the running of Singapore. When Mr Goh Chok Tong stepped down, Mr Lee Hsien Long took over from him. My mother felt that Mr Goh Chok Tong has been a good leader for Singapore. Under Mr Lee Hsien Long, there have been some positive as well as negatives changes. The positive thing is that goods can easily bought, but the prices are rising; for example oil and taxi fares.

So the point is that the leader of a country must be good and have good leadership qualities.

Suriani bte Yahya (15)