Growing up in Kampung Sungei Cina II
- the story of Mr Woon Teck Beng, BBM, interviewed by Mr Lai Tuck Chong (TC Lai) on 7th June 2014 at Woodlands Galaxy CC.
Like Mr Abdul Gani (see other story), Mr Woon Teck Beng also grew up in Kampung Sungei Cina living not too far from him.
According to Mr Woon, the land his family lived on in the kampung belonged to a well-known Singapore pioneer, Mr Lim Boon Keng. "My father knew the man and he rented the land from him to build a few houses on." The family also grew fruit trees on the land. They were, however, not full-fledged famers. Mr Woon's father worked as a mobi-crane driver inside the British Naval Base dockyard.
Born and bred in the kampung, Mr Woon studied at the local "tuan ren" village school.
"There was only one mixed-standard class taught by two teachers," remembers Mr Woon.
Because his father worked at the Naval Base, he was later allowed to study at the Admiralty Asian School there. This AAS later became the Naval Base Secondary School. He remembers a special Chong Ah Kee bus that ran inside the Naval Base. It was exempt from taxes and such stuff that the other public buses were subject to.
As Mr Woon was overaged, he did not sit for his Standard Level Exams. Instead, he found work at the Naval Base, first as Labourer and then as a Skilled Labourer after a year. Not long after, he was again promoted this time to Plumber 2nd Grade, showing that the man always learned his trade quickly. He was also involved in sheetmetal work.
With that new certification, Mr Woon decided to stay on at the Naval Base. Three years soon became seven. When the British Naval Base Dockyard changed hands to become Sembawang Shipyard in 1968, staff numbers had to be trimmed. Workers there who had worked ten years or more were offered retrenchment, with benefits.
Although Mr Woon worked there only seven years, he too was offered the retrenchment package. It would be a month's salary for every year worked. Mr Woon decided the opportunity was too good to pass up and took it. He had, in his spare time after work, developed a love for growing orchids. With the retrenchment money, he decided to invest in his hobby full-time. Already he had built up a clientele selling his beautiful flowers to the European set living on the Naval Base at the time. Some would even want to bring the flowers back to their homeland.
If you were living there at the time, you would have seen Mr Woon on his motorbike with sidecar puttering about.
Mr Woon loved to cultivate the sun-loving variant of orchids called Maggie Oei, Wendy Scott, and Christine popular with his clientele at the Base. Actually, his business grew out of his hobby quite by chance.
Recalls Mr Woon: "I would work at the Naval Base from 7am to 4pm, then I would potter about in my orchid garden afterwards until about 10pm, often working from the light of a pump kersosene lamp. Then a flower shop owner from JB saw my orchids and wanted to cut and sell them. He would do all the work and then paid my wife. Later I would do that myself by hiring a worker to work on the garden, and that's how my hobby became a business!"
Having worked at the Naval Base also gave him an advantage.
"Travelling about and signing in and out at the Base gates was a great hussle. I had to go in one way and come out all the other way round. Fortunately, having worked there and known people, the folks there kindly issued me a temporary business pass to get in and out. That really helped!" recalls Mr Woon, grateful for the kind intervention. The Naval Base had three major entrance/exit gates at the time: Rotterham, Canberra and Admiralty and some smaller "mata mata" policing gateways.
But after five years, things did not remain as usual. Between 1973-74, KSC in Marsiling was being cleared to make way for a larger HDB town. This meant Mr Woon's family homestead had to go too.
Though sad, Mr Woon also saw that as an opportunity to expand his orchid farm, and through a tip from a relative working in a law firm, he managed to purchase a plot of 99-year lease land (where the Sports School in Woodlands presently now stands) for $18,200. The move brought him geographically closer to the folks also cultivating orchids in Mandai. Mr Woon's plot was some 8 hectares big then when the average plot was just 3-4 hectares!
Says Mr Woon: "I would oftentimes meet the other orchid growers in a coffeshop to chat. One time, a grower even asked me to take over his business!" Thus from delivery with a motorbike and sidecar, his business grew to the use of a lorry!
And like most growers there then, Mr Woon worked with Singapore Orchid in Mandai to have his orchids exported. He priced his flowers between 8 to 12 cents each, making a 4-cent profit.
Back then, when the BKE Expressway was not yet built, that area of Woodlands where his farm was, was landlocked to Mandai. This proximity to the folks there also helped him get started in community service, which he began at Mandai 2km CC (community centre).
"At first, we would help report faulty street lamps to PUB, that sort of thing. Then we got into project management to help the villages expand/grow, do household concensus, etc," recalls Mr Woon, rather fondly.
This passion to help lasted thoughout his career. Mr Woon is the longest serving CC management member in Woodlands and maybe Singapore. He was secretary of Mandai 2km CC from 1974-82; treasurer of Fuchun CCMC from 1983-96; chairman of Woodlands CCMC from 1997-2004.
During festivals, Mr Woon says they would work with the neighbourhood temples to provide free rice grains to needy families.
"But we had to tell them how much as the rice grains could be not be stored too long or else they would spoil," says he.
Recalling his time in Marsiling, Mr Woon remembers the huge pasar malam that used to line Woodlands Road from the Customs all the way to the Metal Box company every Saturday night.
"There were some 1000 stalls! Folks from JB would even walk over to buy stuff. At the time, not many things were available in JB," says Mr Woon.
This lack applied to cinema films as well as Malaysia and China were not on the best of terms due to the Communist insurgency issue. Chinese folks from JB would flock to the Millow or Mei Lu open air cinema in Marsiling to catch a movie.
"The seated tickets were 30 cents each. Twenty cents if you chose to stand," recalls Mr Woon.
In 1984, the government started again to acquire land in Woodlands for redevelopment. Mr Woon decided to give up farming and start a shop selling kid's clothes at Woodlands Central to last till his retirement years. "The beginning years were good. Many of our customers were workers travelling from Malaysia. Woodlands Central was a very busy hub then," says Mr Woon.
It was only recently that shops in Woodlands Central were being acquired back by the government for whole-site redevelopment. Mr Woon decided to take up the Government's offer and retire from business for good.
It seems a well earned rest for this very active CCMC member. Since his young days, he had been very entrepreneurial besides holding on to a full time job. Besides flowers, he also sold "swa la" (Manila clams) to a fellow KSC fella. That's how he met his future wife.
Now his extended family numbers 30 and above, and each Chinese New Year gathering would be like a kampung gathering of sorts. When asked what kampung living was like, Mr Woon says, with a glint in his eye: "Kampung is kampung!" - indicating that the kinship was like family and could never be replaced.
The End (This interview to be published in a Woodlands CC initiative/retrospective.)