SINGAPORE TREASURES

unusual stories, extraordinary memories, special encounters, just another unique day in Singapore

   

Stories on this page (click on title to directly jump to the story):
- Raja Suran’s Expedition to China
- Nettings
- A way of life
 

Raja Suran’s Expedition to China
A retelling of a story from the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals)
Author: Sheila Wee

Once, in the time long ago there was a king. His name was Raja Suran and he ruled over India. But India wasn’t enough for him; he wanted to be the most powerful king in the world. He made all the princes of the nearby countries bow down to him, pay him taxes of rice and gold and call him the most powerful king. But he still wasn’t happy. There was someone who refused to say that he was the most powerful, that he was the greatest king: and that was the Emperor of China.

This made Raja Suran very angry and he decided he would invade China. He gathered a huge army with soldiers from every part of his empire.
The army was so big that it was impossible to count the number of soldiers. It was impossible to count the number of weapons. It was impossible to count the numbers of horses and elephants.

But Raja Suran had a problem. You see he wasn’t exactly sure where China was.  He thought that it was in the south, so he led his army into Myanmar and followed the coast southwards. People said that wherever the Army passed the forests were flattened, the rivers dried up and the mountains trembled. People said it took six months for that army to pass by a single village.

Down through Myanmar they went and into Thailand, then further south into Malaysia. They kept on marching for month after month, until at last they reached the beaches of the Straits of Johor and stood looking across the water to the island of Singapore. Though in those long ago times it was not called Singapore, it was called Temasek.

Here they had to stop and build rafts to ferry them across the water.  This took some time, but at last the whole army was assembled on the north shore of Temasek. Raja Suran gave the order to march southwards, but it didn’t take long before they reached the Southern Sea and could go no further.

Raja Suran realized that if he wanted to reach China he would now have to travel by sea. So he set his men to building hundreds of strong ships. But he still didn’t know which way to go, so he also sent men off in every direction with instructions to find the way to China and find it quickly.

Now, Raja Suran’s journey to Temasek, had not been a secret, could not be a secret, not with so many men, horses and elephants making the ground thunder with their footsteps.

Traders who sailed the coast in trading in gold, spices and aromatic wood heard of Raja Suran’s plan, and they told their friends about the huge army that was looking for the way to China. Now their friends told their friends, and their friends told their friends, and their friends told their friends, until eventually someone told the Emperor of China himself.

The Emperor was very worried. He called his ministers together and asked their advice.
“What shall we do?  If Raja Suran finds the way to our land, he will surely defeat us; his army is so much bigger, so much stronger than ours. We must find a way to stop him.” The Emperor and his ministers sat down to think. They thought all day and they thought all night, and then just as the dawn was breaking, the Chief Minister burst out laughing.

“Oh yes, I have it, I have a very good plan”, he cried. He whispered his plan into the Emperor’s ears and the Emperor smiled for the first time in days.
“Yes that is a very good plan, go and get the things you need at once”.

And so the Chief Minister went down to the harbour to find a ship to sail to Temasek, to sail to Singapore. But he didn’t look for the best ship, the fastest ship, the newest ship. No, he searched the harbour until he found the oldest ship there was. Its planks were worn and its sails were yellow with age.

The other ministers, who had not heard the plan, were very puzzled. They wondered how  this old ship was going to help them, how it was going to stop Raja Suran’s mighty army. They were even more puzzled when they heard who was going to sail the ship and what it was going to carry.

The Chief Minister chose the sailors himself.  He chose the oldest men he could find. Some of them were so old they could hardly walk and had to be carried onto the ship. “Old men, sailing an old ship; the Chief Minister’s gone crazy” the people said.

Then the Chief Minister did some thing that seemed just as ridiculous, he ordered that huge fruit trees should be dug up, planted into pots and carried on board the ship. “Crazy, crazy, he must have gone crazy” the people said.

Lastly, he ordered that all the needles in the city should be brought to the palace. By the next morning the palace courtyard was filled with great piles of sewing needles. The Chief Minister ordered the servants to pick out all old and rusty needles and put them into sacks. The servants worked hard and by nightfall they had gather 50 sacks full of rusty needles.

One of them approached the minister. “We’ve gathered 50 sacks of rusty needles. Shall we throw them away?” “Throw them away! No! Don’t throw them away, put them onboard the ship!” The servants did as they were told, but they were sure that the Chief Minister and the Emperor had both gone crazy.

Everyone wondered,  “An old ship with old sailors, old fruit trees and old rusty needles, how was that going to save them from the terrible army of Raja Suran.” The Emperor and the Chief Minister heard what people were saying, but they did not say a word, they just smiled as they waved the ship off on its journey.

A few weeks later the ship arrived in Temasek. Raja Suran and all his men were still there, and they still didn’t know the way to China. When the lookouts spotted the old ship limping into the harbour, with huge fruit trees growing on its deck and a crew of old grandfathers, they couldn’t stop laughing. Soon everyone had heard about the strange ship and even Raja Suran himself came to take a look.

Where have you come from? He said. “What country is it that has such old sailors?”  The oldest of the sailors spoke up: “We have come from China.
When we set out we were all strong young men – we were carrying a cargo of fruit tree seeds and iron bars. But it took us so long to get here that we have grown old, the seeds have become trees and the iron bars have rusted down to the size of needles." And he opened one of the sacks of needles to show Raja Suran.

Raja Suran looked down and sighed.  If China was that far away, he would be an old man before they got there, his soldiers would be old too; too old to fight. No, it was not worth it, he would send his army back to India, and find some other, nearer land to conquer. And so the huge army turned around and marched back the way it came and China was saved.

But some stories say that Raja Suran himself, did not go straight back to India. They say that he followed a dream and went down below the waves of the Southern Sea, where he married the  Princess Mahtab-al-Bhari, the Sea King’s daughter. They say they had three sons and lived together happily for many years. But then Raja Suran began to miss the world above the ocean, to miss the sunshine, the trees, and the birds flying free in the sky.

He became sadder and sadder until at last his wife told him that he should go back to his own land, back to his own people. He wanted to take her and their sons with him. But the great Sea King said no, his daughter and the boys must remain in the land below the sea.  But he did promise, that when the boys grew into men, they would come up out of the sea and become kings on the land.

And some people say that is just what happened; when the boys grew up they came out of the sea near a place called Palembang in Sumatra. And they did become kings. The youngest prince became the king of Pelembang and was given the title Sangsapurba.
 
In time, Sangsapurba married and had a son. Now, if you are from Singapore you may have heard of that son before, for his name was Sang Nila Utama, the very same Sang Nila Utama who sailed across stormy waters to land in Temasek, saw what he thought was a lion and gave our country its name, Singapura - the lion city. But that, as they say, is another story.


© Sheila Wee 2003
www.storywise.com.sg

Nettings
Author: Ivan Ang

There is always a certain level of pretense in everything we do.

We wake up pretending that today would be a better day for all of us; that there’s something beautiful, great or wonderful to look forward to when really, we are clueless about how things are going to unfold in the duration of the day.
I cannot quite explain why I was feeling the way I felt except that I know that there wasn’t really a proper reason for doing so. I got up from my bed and made my way to the living room. I am alone in my apartment. My parents aren’t home and I can’t quite locate my brother. I am 23 years old this year and my brother’s 19. I suppose I could text or call him but I keep getting a dead tone. My parents won’t answer my calls either.

I go to college where I am working towards a BSc in Building. I couldn’t quite get into the School of Architecture and I have no real interest in Real Estate so, Building seems just about the right place for me. I like where I am in college, I like the idea of how I am able to tell people about how land and space can be maximally utilized with the right approaches. I wondered if building friendships and intimacies also followed the same logic – maximum utilization.

There is no school today. I went back to my bed and laid down for a while. I took a look at my cell phone and checked if I missed any calls or text messages. I missed nothing, unfortunately. I laid on my bed for a while longer. I couldn’t tell how long I laid, and I didn’t want to know. I got up again, once again pretending that there will be something happening and something worth doing by my getting out of bed. I headed to the bathroom and pissed. I caught sight of the razor and was reminded of what I should have been doing. I am in competitive swimming, which means it was necessary for me to shave my legs and underarms daily. Hair of any sort has the potential to slow a swimmer down by a couple of milliseconds. And those milliseconds could determine a lifetime of fame or embarrassment. People who want to keep their hair get into those expensive pretentious looking full body Speedo suits that makes them look like cheesy aliens from the cheesier alien movies from the cheesiest era of human history. I don’t need no body suits, I just needed to get hair off.

I ran my fingers over my legs. Smooth. I have done something right today. It was a pity I couldn’t get to swim today. I haven’t swum for the past four days in fact. I couldn’t.

I went into the living room and turned the TV on. The same message was on TV, and the news presenter was repeating the same stuff she did four days ago. We are all advised to ensure that the netting of our houses were secure and make it a point to check on them every day before we go to bed. I heard the message several times, but I couldn’t remember if I checked the netting. Maybe I should do so now. At least it is something important that I can do. I am following orders for once. I wish mum was here to see this. I went up to the windows of our living room and checked the green colored netting. I ran my fingers over them and there appeared to be no noticeable holes on them. Which means, they were good and I am safe. I went to the kitchen and then my room, and my parent’s room and my brother’s and did the same thing. No major holes whatsoever. I did notice a near empty glass of water in my brother’s room. The stains on the glass tell me that he hasn’t touched it for days. I chose to leave the glass alone.

I checked my cell phone again. Nothing missed. I headed back to the living room again to watch TV when the house phone rang. I jumped. I jumped like how one would jump after not jumping for a good number of years. I froze for a moment, allowing my ears to get used to the sharp sonorous ringing sound before I answered it.

“Hello?”

My voice sounded deep and hoarse. I was a little embarrassed at how I sounded and I hope whoever at the other end of the line won’t freak. It was my mum. My mum was on the phone.

“It has not gone well Darrell! It has not gone well!” The unusual hysterics in her voice scared me.
“What hasn’t gone well? What are you saying?”
“Felicia Darrell! She has succumbed to it! David, oh god! David’s distraught!”

Felicia? Felicia was my brother’s girlfriend. They met when they were in junior high. She has succumbed? Does that mean she’s dead? Surely that was implied. I didn’t ask. It would sound odd.

“And David?”
“David’s like, he’s crying and he won't stop crying! Your dad is with him trying to calm him down.” I could tell she had been crying too.
“OK, what now?”
“Darrell, I need you to listen to me. Get out of there and come over to the Center now.”
I shuddered a little. “No Mum, don’t you think that is even more dangerous?”
“Haven’t you seen the news? Wear white long sleeved clothing with jeans and a cap. There are special designated pick-up points near where you are. All you need to do is to get there! Darrell! This is important! I need you to listen to me. The Center is completely safe. You, on the other hand, are sitting at the eye of the storm.”
“No Mum, it’s safe in here. Really it is!”
“What’s the matter with you? There? Safe? It’s not safe! Why did you think we all left? Felicia thought it was safe in her home too and look what happened to her! David risked his own life when he went to get her out of her home, thinking she might stand a chance. But no! No!” My mum went into crying mode again.
“OK, OK, give me sometime OK?”
“Hurry! Oh God, please hurry!”
“I will see you Mum. I will see you.”

The air of silence feels heavier after I replaced the phone receiver. I was in a daze for a while. Unsure of what exactly I said and what has gone on in the conversation I had with my mum. Mum, Dad and David are all at the Center. The Center.

I looked at the mosquito nettings that were in place. Surely there’s nothing wrong with that. I went to the kitchen at stared out of the window. The sun was blazing outside. It was a perfect weather to swim, but also a perfect weather for the Ades mosquito to breed. The number of Ades mosquitoes increased exponentially four days ago. People, meaning scientists and analysts could find no reason for the sudden explosion in the number of mosquitoes. They claimed that that the sudden weather change provided an optimum condition for the mosquitoes to breed and multiply. But that was the farthest they got. All they knew was that mosquitoes were everywhere and are infecting people with Dengue hemorrhagic fever. We were all advised to put mosquito nets round any openings of our houses to prevent the mosquitoes from coming in and get rid of any stagnant water source that will potentially serve as a breeding ground for the Ades mosquito.


I continued staring out the kitchen window. Unsure of I what I should be doing. I felt an itch on my leg and I reached down to scratch it. Scratching only made me feel itchier. I bent down to take a look at my left leg and saw a reddish bump standing out clearly from my leg. I scratched it again, feeling a little sick. I felt a dull numbness course through my body. The same numbness I get minutes before I get ready to jump into the pool at the swimming competition.

I went into my room. Shut the door and turned down the temperature of my air-conditioner. I continued scratching till the patch threatened to bleed. I laid down on my bed and pretended once again that everything was going to be OK.

A Way of Life
Author: Poh Tiong Ho

Buntal, a District Officer from Punggol, was walking from his house to the office early in the morning. His car was used by his wife who would be playing golf. Buntal thought of his past- how he managed to climb from the position of an office clerk to his present situation. Many years ago, he had a fight with his classmate, Chua, in the school, and was sacked by the principal. His greatest enemy was Chua, then a welfare officer in  Singapore
“Morning Buntal, I have been transferred back to Singapore. Please allocate me a quarter," Chua requested. “Sure, " Buntal answered with an icy stare.
The following day Chua came to sweep his quarter, which white ants and rots had taken off the front and the back doors. The windows and the ceilings were in shabby condition. Chua returned to request for a better quarter. “Get out of my office or I'll throw you out," Buntal whose lips, hands, and legs were trembling, after a heated row yelled. “Throw now," Chua gazed at Buntal. Buntal jumped up, pulling Chua by the collar and swung Chua out off the office. Because of this incident, Chua lost his job.

The public had begun to notice how Buntal courted the favours of the Governor. Rumours leaked out that one cold rainy afternoon the guard who looked after the golf course happened to have a peep when the clumsy governor was making love to this longhaired young lady in the clubhouse when she squealed and groaned with ecstasy. " I must climb higher, " Buntal told himself. " That bastard was saying that I became a convert to please the governor. Isn't it an open secret that all the converts were the ones holding the higher positions?"

One night after a party the governor requested to sleep in Buntal's house because of dizziness. The guest room was beautifully decorated, but one thing was missing, a woman. All the women had gone off with the other men. Buntal called a lady who was on a part time callout basis. Unfortunately, this lady's husband just came back from the timber camp and would not be gone until one month later. The ship, Kimanis berthed at 11 pm, and the woman’s husband reached home before 12 a.m. All the one-night stands on his list are occupied.

The poor bachelor could not go to sleep. He rolled left and right on the bed, his eyes were wide open. At last he walked into Buntal's bedroom and tapped gently on the young lady's face. Not a word was spoken. She followed him to his room. Both of them groaned and mourned with delight. Helen could not care if Buntal would wake up and find her in the room with the governor. Why should she? Had Buntal not spent most of his time with the other girls, even with his own office girls?

The squeaking sound woke Buntal up. He thought Helen was in the toilet. The way the servant girl peeped at the copulating couple behind the flower bush this evening assured him she would not refuse him this time. He hurried into her room and kissed her on the lips.
“I thought it was a devil," the girl woke up and whispered.
“Devil ?, I can give  you what you want."
Buntal climbed on the girl and began kissing her all over the body after he took off all her clothes.
“You really need it now. I saw you peeping at the Bangladeshi  making love to Ah Yun, who lived at the Block 166, Starry Road."
“Yes I want it badly. The guy from Bangladesh is only 20 years old. Why was he making love to the old hag, who is 65 years old, with sagging and wrinkled skin full of warts, and has hundreds of wrinkles on her head and neck ?"
“Maybe  he cannot afford to find more attractive girls. Are these Bangladeshi  better at sex? "
“One month ago, Ah Yun wanted to sell to me one piece of stone wrapped in black cloth, for1000 U.S. dollars. She said that lust spell was from India and a woman who possesses it just has to rub on the body of the man she want to have sex with and the man would be in love with her forever. She bought the stone  from Lin Hu Huat, who was a labourer  from the construction site at Tuas. Hu Huat always changed into a white shirt whenever  he knocked off from work at Tuas. He told the girls he was a qualified engineer.”
“ Who was this Hu Huat?” Buntal was curious.
“ Oh, this Hu Huat  is a local. One day I heard him boasting to a group of old women, about ten of them. He said his name was Hu Huat because his black magic was very powerful.  And in Chinese “Hu Huat” means black magic. That was why all the locals called him Hu Huat. He claimed that by casting  a spell on an air hostess, that hostess fell in love with a labourer.”
“Which airline was she from?”
“British Airways. Ah Yun entertains about ten men daily. Yesterday she took me to see a black magician who ran an office in Chinatown. The office was air-conditioned but was dark and very smelly. All the visitors were old women.”
“Do you believe all these swindlers?”
“You were assistant district officer before. Why didn’t you tell the police to arrest them?
“Why arrest uneducated people who cheat few hundred dollars every week?  Those old women deserved to be cheated. They are very evil and greedy.”
“One fat woman paid Hu Huat  S$5000.00 to cast a spell on the engineer from China.  This engineer was earning about S$6000.00 per month. Hu Huat said that engineer would surely marry her and that she would become rich. That spell did not work but this ugly hag continued to hold a piece of dirty cloth in her hand and pretended to wipe the shelves, coffee makers or other dispensers whenever that engineer came in to have his coffee. Once she grabbed that piece of cloth at one end and flicked it on the head of that engineer, as adviced by Lin Hu Huat, saying that the perfumed cloth must land on the engineer’s head for the spell to be effective. She told the engineer she was only trying to flick at the coffee maker. If an eighteen-year- old sweet thing makes advances to him, the result could be expected.”
Buntal slept soundly with the girl that night. In the other room were his wife and the governor.

Years passed quickly. Buntal was then the managing director of a manufacturing company at Tuas. A secret society was organized with Ahmad Yong, a man of no political principles, as the leader. Since Chua was aware of Buntal and Yong's plot, these two cunning guys tried to put Chua on their side so that Chua would be willing to keep the secret at whatever cost. Chua decided not to collaborate with them because he heard another group of people was also starting to come out with something for the independence of the country.

Yong organized a dinner party on board Sri Gaya one night. Being a friend it was not difficult for Yong to persuade Chua to drink until he was drunk. Chua was getting drowsy by 11 o'clock that night. He went out to sit at the rear of the boat, his back facing the sea. Yong staggered out of the room.
“Brother, another glass, “he filled Chua's glass with more wine.
As the wine was rising to the brim, Yong cut Chua with open hand on the throat where the Adam's apple was and thrust him into the sea with the right foot.

Many years passed, not many people even knew Chua was on board the ship that night, except Sara. The murderers were the friends of the governor. This Angmo was also treated like a Deva by almost all the Singaporeans. She would only endanger her own life. She was then three-month pregnant.

The political party Buntal wanted to organize could not materialize, not because fate was against him, but it was his own inferiority complex that caused him to back out. He was not willing to compete with another group of young graduates whom he knew commanded better respect and trust from the public. Instead of joining the few young graduates, he went around running down the credibility of those graduates saying that these graduates eat with knife, fork and spoon and that the chop sticks were unknown to them and for that reason the Chinese culture would be finished off if these graduates were elected. Buntal and Yong therefore moved from one location to another in Singapore telling people that it was better for the country to remain a British colony because the potential political leaders could not even speak Mandarin.

David was only seven years old when she narrated the painful story to him.
“ Buntal was jealous of him. In the department where Buntal worked, only the inefficient and the bootlickers were promoted. "
“Why didn't you report to the police that Dad was missing?" the innocent son wanted to know.
“At that time Singapore was a unsafe place. A gangster could simply pull out a gun from his pocket and shoot at anybody. No one would dare to report the matter to the police. If the police requested for help to nail down the killer, no one would come forward to assist. Even if the police knew the thugs were hiding in Kumpong Bugis, they wouldn’t dare go in to search for the thugs."

Buntal was about to retire from the private sector when David found him at Sembawang. First of all David got himself a job in that company called Global Construction. It was also in that company he met Selini, the beautiful daughter of Buntal, if she was his biological daughter at all, and fell in love with her.

One night, David, Selini and Buntal went camping at Pulau Ubin. Helen did not go because she wanted the chance to be with the governor. Many of the marriageable young ladies on this island were wondering what was it that glued the governor to Helen. Buntal and David went out fishing in a speedboat leaving Selini to amuse herself in the tent.
" Mr. Buntal, do you know the murder of Chua had been found out?"
" Who found out?"
" I did."
" Who are you?"
" His son."
" You father left a poor seed behind?"
Buntal turned pale, got very nervous and was unable to speak properly. His immediate reaction was to get rid  David.
" Don't panic," David comforted him.
" What do you want?"
" To marry Selini."
Buntal swung an oar over David's head. David caught the oar and kicked him on the left armpit. Buntal dropped noisily into the water.
“Bastard. If you just begged for mercy, I would have considered forgiving you. But you wanted to get rid of me too. If I die, Selini would be hurt the most.”
David came down on his knees and uttered.
" Father. I have taken the revenge. Please forgive me; I want to marry his daughter,"

At midnight David returned to tell Selini that her father was taken by sharks, that though he fought hard to try to beat off the sharks it was impossible for him as there were more than ten of them.
“Oh, father!“  the lady yelled pitifully and was on her knees. David dragged her up and put his arms round her back, pressing her hard toward him, and promised that he would take care of her forever.