Encounters with geography in 1960s Singapore and beyond

During my undergraduate studies at the Université de Bordeaux (1963–65), in France, I became keenly interested in Southeast Asia, although I remained primarily centred on Africa, where I had already taught as a young volunteer for a full year, in Uganda.1 But during my subsequent MA studies at Université Laval in Québec (1965–7), my interest in Southeast Asian issues, particularly those pertaining to agriculture, became more exclusive and my professors prompted me to persist. Then, already, I did not look kindly on the fundamentally colonial relationship which characterized the system, whereby Western PhD students did fieldwork in developing countries but completed their degrees in their home countries. So, I enquired about universities in Southeast Asia and was told that the best in the region was (already) the University of Singapore. I then wrote up a research project to compare labour policies among rubber and burgeoning oil palm plantations in Johor state and applied both to the University and to the Canada Council for a scholarship. I was lucky with both applications and, as soon as I had publicly defended my MA thesis, I headed for Singapore, making several stopovers in Europe, the Middle East, India, Burma and Thailand,2 taking six weeks to reach the City-State, where I landed on 26 May 1967. I was to remain for three years, almost to the day, those three years being essentially devoted to my PhD research and writing, as well as submitting and defending my thesis. Unfortunately, because it was difficult to get a Malaysian research permit while being based in a Singaporean University—unnecessary tensions between the new island Republic and Malaysia were already common—I had to give up the idea of doing fieldwork in Johor. So, I followed the advice to focus on what I still think was a wise choice, Singapore's own farming areas and populations. At that time, more than 20 per cent of Singapore's territory were still devoted to farming, mostly market gardening, pig and poultry rearing and some fish rearing. The so-called City State was then nearly self-sufficient in vegetables, its rural belt also supplying some 50 per cent of the local demand for pork and chicken. After consulting with several members of the local teaching staff, and not only in the Geography Department, I opted for a study of the local agricultural scene. I initially toured several of the outlying rural areas—particularly Lim Chu Kang and Chua Chu Kang and the Mandai Hills—on my newly purchased motorcycle, a vintage 1942 BSA 500 bought at the Sungei Road ‘Thieves’ Market’ (see Figure 1). It was a year older than I and in roaring condition!3 Source: Photo by Iain Buchanan. I also visited the headquarters of the Primary Production Department (PPD) and of the Resettlement Department (RD), created in 1957 but, since 1962, a unit of the already powerful Housing and Development Board (HDB). In the first case, I was met with polite skepticism and, besides given the proper authorizations to conduct fieldwork in the agricultural areas, was offered very little information or help. The RD staff was significantly more helpful, by at least referring me to the Economic Research Centre (ERC), located on the University of Singapore campus and headed by Prof You Poh Seng. The ERC had recently been mandated to carry out a survey among newly resettled farm operators in the Lim Chu Kang district located in the extreme northwest of the island. For a short period, I was to be involved in this initiative. All these meetings and visits, particularly the field ones, made me keenly aware of some of the dynamic transitions occurring in the Singaporean countryside and allowed me to put together a new research proposal. My key questions were: 1) How were Singaporean Chinese4 farmers coping with the already ongoing territorial overhaul? 2) What were their assets and how were they adapting to the rapid and somewhat brusque resettlement policies and practices many of them were submitted to? To answer those questions, I planned to survey and map the entire farming areas and to carry out a large survey among a random sample of farm operators. My proposal was approved and Associate Professor Warwick Neville was appointed to supervise my work. Neville's supervision was perfectly adapted to my needs, as he was readily available and helped me put my thoughts together. He was also very patient and helpful with my handling of English, then and still very much my second language! In addition, I benefited from the advice of several other teaching staff members, such as Lee Yong Leng, Chia Lin Sieng and Bernard Swan, as well as fellow graduate students. Life on the Bukit Timah campus itself was rather quiet, but nevertheless pleasant. I first resided for a couple of months in Dunearn Hostels, just across from the campus. These student hostels were conveniently located and almost comfortable, but the food was lousy, giving a wrong impression of the great gastronomic adventures available in Singapore! I quickly stopped taking my meals there, venturing out to eat at various street hawker stalls, particularly in the evenings at the southwest corner junction of Bukit Timah and Farrer Road. This allowed me to make numerous discoveries, including that of durian fruits, to which I eventually became addicted, like so many others. After two months, I moved out of the Dunearn hostels, to share a flat on Linden Drive with a young lecturer in Political Science, David Gibbons,5 who became and remains to this day a great friend, now residing in Malaysia. Several young staff members also became close friends, among them the political scientist Chan Heng Chee, who was to become a senior diplomat with the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is still active as Ambassador at large; Bob Gamer, also a political scientist; Peter Metcalf, an anthropologist and Peter Weldon, a gifted sociologist. Weldon, now living in the Philippines, advised me very competently on survey methods, even assisting in data analysis. In fact, I probably spent more time with some of the younger teaching staff than with other graduate students, of which there were not that many! These included Iain Buchanan, Tan Lee Wah and Wong Poh Poh, all in Geography. I also befriended several members of the supporting staff, in particular Julie Yeo, Irene Chee and Lim Kim Leng, the latter two having become close friends over the years. In August 1967, Poh Poh invited me, along with a Singaporean friend of his, Chua Chap Gee, to accompany them for what turned out to be a formidable one-week field trip along the East Coast of the Malayan peninsula.6 Every morning, and all the way to Kelantan, we accompanied him on his ‘beach combing’ expeditions, collecting sand samples, carefully and systematically. Just as systematically, we also visited Malay fishing villages, and, every evening, when we had to choose a hotel, Poh Poh and Chap Gee would make rapid investigations concerning their major preoccupation, i.e. the nature and quality of the food offered! This particular experience, along with my subsequent years of living in Singapore, convinced me that, contrary to my prejudices, French cuisine did have a rival: Chinese cuisine! As a matter of fact, Singapore itself was already, well before its spectacular overhaul, a gourmet Eldorado, benefitting from the contribution of several major gastronomic Asian heritages. And, in line with this strongly engrained preoccupation for adequate restoration, Singapore's food policies have been substantially adapted, ‘upgraded’ and deployed with regard to imports, transformation, redistribution and catering, and even niche production. Like in France, this epicurean approach to food is shared by all social classes. In short, from the very beginning, Singapore had struck me as a wonderful place, full of life and possibilities. Problems of poverty, housing, education, public health, public transport, urban and land management, etc., were prevalent. But things were being done about them! To my eyes, that was and remains fundamental: Singapore and Singaporeans are obviously keen to tackle problems, dedicated to solving them and at improving their methods of resolution. The list of such problems has always been extensive. And, as elsewhere, applying solutions brings about new problems. This is particularly frequent when issues or goals appear contradictory, such as in land use allocation, a particularly crucial and frequent issue in the small island republic. Over the years, numerous dilemmas have occurred regarding the relocation of places of worship and burial; but a combination of drastic and practical solutions have been applied (De Koninck, 2017: 76–9). Sometime after my settling in, including in the Department of Geography I had an appointment with an American researcher who was working at the Economic Research Centre. He had been contracted to run a survey on livelihoods in the resettlement areas located in the Northwest of the island. Not knowing a thing nor caring about farming, he obviously had no idea of what he had gotten into. He promptly put me in charge of drafting, first a section of the questionnaire he would be relying on… and then of the entire questionnaire! Finally, I was put in charge of running the survey, in collaboration with two senior civil servants from the Resettlement Department, who had at their service close to a dozen interviewers. The survey was carried out among 1063 households of settlers, i.e. about two thirds of the population of the resettlements (De Koninck, 1972). The work was swiftly completed in three weeks, during which I managed to sit in on 70 interviews, in each case filling in a questionnaire, which left me with a sort of sample. That turned out to be a wise move. Because, once the survey was completed and the entire data collected returned to the Economic Research Centre, the American researcher requested that I prepare my thesis under his supervision, otherwise I would not have access to the collected material. I refused and that was the end of that rather stimulating adventure. In some ways I had lost some precious time but, in reality, I had acquired some experience and perhaps some wisdom regarding the nature of the academic world. And, on the basis of my sample, I was able to observe that, among the resettled farming population, only a very small number of households were giving up farming; however, among the others, nearly a third were seeing their farm labour reduced and were starting to rely on non-farm employment, at least partially (De Koninck, 1972). By late 1968, I had completed my own overall map of agricultural land use, designed my grid sample and organized my own survey, with the purpose of collecting data about farm households, land tenure and farm operation. Over a period of some seven months, the survey was then carried out among 209 respondent Chinese farming households of all types—primarily market gardening of vegetables and fruits, rearing of chicken, pig or fish—and in all rural regions of the island: Lim Chu Kang, Chua Chu Kang and Jurong, Mandai and East Sembawang, Yio Chu Kang and Punggol, Tampines and Changi as well as some residual farming areas on the urban fringe, such as Tai Seng and Potong Pasir. I also went back to carry out more in-depth interviews of ten households, devoting a thirty-five-page chapter of my thesis to two of them (De Koninck, 1970; cf. also 1975), then benefitting from the very skillful participation of Wong Ming Ming, Poh Poh's brother. Very few respondents were proficient in English and only a handful in Mandarin so that nearly all the interviews had to be conducted in Chinese dialects, primarily Hokkien and Teochew, but also Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese and Shanghainese. Consequently, to carry out these surveys and interviews, I had to rely on the kind participation of a small of mostly fellow students, including two very from the Political Department and but also some staff members or even survey in to in the of or two or even three I a from a In fact, over the entire survey period, I six from six I also made use of the and 500 I had to to my which I in a with these field surveys and I my research among for among and and among the of farm turned out to be when not out to be as I at least After I had during the at a market in where I went (see Figure and where and I back to the University campus to have an at the staff I out in the still I the of my The small I had left on the was It had been and by a on of which the was the and more or to my research were the I from the in 1968, left for the University of in that I had become very with Singapore's that I charge of the Department and to the island. These were mostly and American on and from the In I have a dozen such on my in a in my little The were mostly and while the were or to the the I a French particularly taking a of and to After an day in his I was to him at his I of but, a couple of years out that he had a small about Singapore, about his local the American the experience was I in particular a who so much that, way and on that I had toured the island from the promptly offered to me up in a small then went to his he a and up we For nearly an we and the me to some me at (see Figure several of which my a I a recently from the He was still as by his as we were Road on Chinese were by he managed to his under the of the Source: Photo by Source: Photo by During my studies in Singapore, I was involved in several other only to my academic That included being time by the as a for map I that of my students was who eventually completed his PhD in and returned to Singapore to an with the But what I even more is having been a of the Singapore and Research from to as well as in the of the local chapter of the during nearly a was in and headed by the who along with his became close an of Singapore's policies and involved as well as and, even for a period, civil These to issues of and in Singapore 1967, and with what I would not to to as a of turned out to be very me to the and of the issues Singapore had to with the so-called on every at during much of the data and thesis period and my from to of a of in many ways it was These which involved so-called but also a number of Singaporean and were in the areas of the island. run at least seven or and, very to me, in the still of the particularly the and or in agricultural In other I was as well as I allowed me to That was and, once on issues of and particularly and And, given the burgeoning I was I to what was to become of Singapore's territorial and social I had become of the of a Singapore and to about it what I about Singapore during those three years was the island also me with access to some of its Southeast Asian or particularly and I made frequent short to these essentially during few or even or were also very with regard to the agricultural as I the to and which were to for I to some of these and adventures in Malaysia and of my first short already was in August up and the entire East Coast of the Malayan In fact, I to the several mostly by by large and small such as Johor and and even plantations and But I trip to the occurred in My and I then a of undergraduate students which had a trip with a a of the who had the during the had since mostly those to in the of Malaysia. met this the of the in During a full with and his two we the in two making frequent stopovers on its or on sand where we up every and from which we for The of the and of and and, more of in short of the of the Malaysian was It made me in of the of policies and This was to be very for my on the of agricultural on (De Koninck, to were The first was under the of of the I have as he was by his friends on the was a of Asian to the study of not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian that of were to Prof was of the University of Singapore In 1968, in with the he accompanied a small of Singapore for a of the of including a trip to the was a very and as well as a gifted Not only did he and English, he and was an in Chinese and and French and the of Prof You Poh the of the Economic Research was the of the Singapore had me to the for The was not interested in handling practical such as with the local staff in including at the where we were to So, I was as and and I along as I carried out my to his and in his and very field the The was then were In the once both and I to accompany a new of to were to between and the the of in Singapore and the first of in and But just after who had the to of in the evening, had it and an I about it when me, at the of to him as the of the I But both were Finally, still me during a full day as we went over his of with me to and between and at the I managed to prepare to so that the trip did and, in I a of much In my who was of the of in with To such an that, once had completed MA thesis and we had left Singapore, turned to the study of the and eventually devoted PhD thesis to their analysis. at the in in and has since on the for Koninck, and In fact, which nearly years my major has been the after a of having and in Singapore during three full years, and having also to Southeast Asia from that I still to the I both but also at even I as I were as Tan wrote in To the since having returned to Singapore almost every year, for short or as a senior researcher or The island had in become the at least of such like or my research of the Southeast Asian on and But these stopovers and have also a at least for I lost in Singapore, what with the relocation of some many so many and a large of the population and its I lost in a I I to have become very This me to what was what was what I was as a territorial Singapore became an of once I first my to my about the territorial being for social (De Koninck, To that I planned to rely on of a large number of Singaporean That and population, housing, Consequently, I designed a research applied for a research and it from the and Research Council of To my for I was by the Geography Department at from to of my time in the map of the The work a but I a of both at and, at Laval where I was at the That research to the in France, of my first Singapore de Singapore. of the of (De Koninck, the when I was invited as a researcher or I or we resided in University at During the of and I a flat in (De Koninck, and a from Over the years I was by friends such as and Lim a at the Road During several of these to be able to with such friends, including Chua and was In little did I that I had a nearly three years as my of once had a second and was this time by It was Singapore, of (De third was to than a also by and with much more and (De Koninck, It was Singapore's in In other I was to my by the rather than the more This was followed by the of three including a in French the third as well as on several of the (De Koninck, these three even my to Southeast Asian and issues remained my interest in Singapore's and in a large number of These many out to be I to and in my each and every to Singapore, every several a few months in my as or senior researcher with or I to That of what I still the territorial overhaul, even and, of what with more social and, and more and more and this in that social has or become more I not But I still about or even the of much of the political the of the available to those who the still of the of and the on labour and the of the I by the Singaporean for to the of being able to or some of its own The is still of and But is that Singapore be able to on to its I wrote this after having in a graduate in the Geography Department at on I to all in this as this is when I to on the of a more about these

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