Page 16 - Stories from our Grandparents
P. 16

was born on 11 January 1949, in post-World War Two in Singapore.                   Mr Liw Sin Liong                BORN 1941    orn on 11th September
              I was born in hard times; the British had just recently left the country                                                        1941, my grandfather,
              and the economy was bad. My parents had a hard time making ends                    By Berwyn Liw Li Jun                         Mr Liw Sin Liong, was
                                                                                                 ITE College West
          Imeet. At the age of 12, I had to quit school as my parents could no                                                        Bborn in Pengerang, Kota
            longer afford to provide for my education. Singapore back then was                                                         Tinggi, Malaysia. Unfortunately,
            really under-developed and nothing like what it is today. I remember that             both his parents passed away before he migrated to Singapore.
            I had to struggle and work in demanding jobs even at a young age.                     Financially strapped, Mr Liw was desperate to find a job to support
                                                                                                  himself. That was when he migrated to Singapore in search of a job.
                               After leaving school, I began to work at
                               Circuit Road, selling roasted peanuts and                          The most memorable experience during his
                               water buckets. I used to make 2 dollars a day                      childhood days was when he was extracting
                               or 70 dollars a month. I wanted to use the
                               money to go back to school, but it just wasn’t                     rubber sap with his mother. The rubber sap
                               enough. I think I was resigned to my fate.                         that Mr Liw and his mother extracted will be
                                                                                                  sold to various rubber factories. He had to
           Things only improved after Singapore      One of the happier
           became independent and Mr. Lee Kuan       moments of my life was                       wake up at 5 am in the morning everyday with
           Yew assumed leadership of the country.    when I met my wife at                        his mother to extract the rubber sap.
           Only then did we begin to get more
           resources such as food and housing;       the age of 22 in Thailand                             Although this was not the most enjoyable experience for typical
           I managed to get better jobs and no       on a holiday. We got                                  people, to him, the most meaningful thing was to be able to work
           longer had to do hard labour.             married at the age of 24.                             together and spend time with his mother.

           Things are different now for the younger   Life was still hard due to                  During the early years of Singapore’s independence, Singapore became
           generation. They are lucky they do        the lack of money. We                        more industrialised and Jurong has been introduced to Singapore; SBS
           not have to experience what we went       had to do some farming                       buses were introduced as well. Mr Liw’s first occupation was a shopkeeper
           through. Today’s world is very different   and even fishing so that                    for a leather shop at Bugis. The job did not pay him well and he eventually
           and it’s quite remarkable how much                                                     resigned. He also worked as a driver for a cement company and served the
           Singapore has prospered and grown.        we would have enough                         company for 9 years before retiring in 2001.
           What we have achieved as a nation is far   to eat. I worked as a                                              Mr Liw feels that Singapore is a well-developed
           beyond anything we had ever imagined      plumber until I retired                                               nation today. However, he feels that Singapore
           and hoped for.                            when I was 68 after                                                        will not be what it is today if not for the
                                                     sustaining an injury.                                                       pioneers. Mr Liw aspires for the future
                                                                                                                                 generations to contribute to the society
                                                                                                                                 and give back to the community.


             Mr Tay Bak Chee
                                            BORN 1949

            By Veronica Ng Wan Qing
           16 ITE College East                                                                                                                         Grandpa Stories  17
                 Grandpa Stories
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