Loh Kah Seng – The Bukit Ho Swee Fire Part 3: A Roar from the Kampongs | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Long forgotten, the 50-odd kampongs in the city were the scene of Singapore’s political awakening after the Second World War. The British colonial government banned attap housing from the city and tried to build SIT flats in their place. In response, kampong residents resisted – as families, as communities and as part of the mass base of the People’s Action Party. The politics of rehousing had become a national issue, culminating in the PAP’s ‘new kampong policy’ in the City Council. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/gfItIHDwjSA Part 2 | https://youtu.be/hTsdQ4k9ZZ0 Part 3 | https://youtu.be/juGDEJU00Wg Part 4 | https://youtu.be/9pI3QbR76XQ Part 5 | https://youtu.be/1mNjqU7UTAM Part 6 | https://youtu.be/5CQqsV2PX_E 00:00 Introduction 01:21 Anti-colonialism & Nationalism 05:57 A Question of Control 08:20 Grow Vegetables on Rock 11:46 The Squatter Problem 14:29 The Master Plan 19:13 Resistance in Geylang & Covent Garden 22:52 Kampong Associations 29:56 Awakenings in the City Council 32:07 Further Research 36:03 Outro My book, Squatters to Citizens: https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/squatters-into-citizens I’m Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian. I’m interested in the history of Singapore and the lives of its people. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city today. We discuss three topics: 1. People and places. 2. Change and continuity. 3. The importance of heritage. As a historian, I try to stay true to the oral history method on a video format and social media platform. I let the interviewee speak, as the ‘voice of the past’ as Paul Thompson put it. No clickbait, no BS, no posturing. The aim is to canvas a wide range of voices on various aspects of Singapore history and heritage – physical, social, cultural, economic. Do like the video, share your memories below and subscribe to the channel for future episodes. Write to lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com if you have any of these stories to share: • Old places or kampongs. • Communities – their way of life & culture. • Childhood & schools. • Work or business. Support Chronicles of Old Singapore on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore Follow the channel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551786759344 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lks992002 Chronicles Research & Education is my research consultancy on the history of Singapore: https://www.chroniclesresearch.com/ Caveat: this is above all a podcast based on personal memory. As has been well-documented in oral history, memory is not always reliable and what is recalled here should not be taken as fact. However, as Alessandro Portelli noted, the subjectivity of oral history is also its great strength, and what is inaccurately remembered may point to how deeply meaningful the past is to people. #singaporehistory #memory #heritage #nostalgia #oralhistory #socialhistory #history #singapore