Singapore memories
I WATCHED the RTÉ TV show High Road, Low Road recently.
Two well-known personalities are chosen to go on a holiday together, but with one sent via business class and the other only allowed to ‘enjoy’ basic amenities. This programme featured two women sent to Singapore.
It reminded me of my first visit to Singapore, during a long weekend holiday when I worked in Malaysia (from April to December 1994). I decided to drive down the Malay Peninsula in my car and stay at a $100-a-night, low-cost hotel. I had earlier in the year booked into a hotel in Bangkok, during another long weekend holiday, and I was pleasantly surprised to be given a five-star hotel suite, for the same amount in the Thai capital. As with the Low Road visitor in the TV show, my Singapore hotel bedroom had no window.
The highlight of my visit was to visit Raffles Hotel and Bar (Thomas Raffles was the first European to claim Singapore). Most of the population of Singapore are of Chinese origin, with two other races – Indian and Malay – living in the small area. I took the metro (opened in 1987) to the end of one line and discovered I was the only person left in the carriage (of a driver-less train) at that stop.
I alighted and walked around a deserted landscape, which was strange, as Singapore is one of the most populated states in the world. I dined in McDonald’s at one time on my visit, and noticed that all those serving in the restaurant were old-age pensioners.
Singapore had full employment, and it was hard to find workers to fill menial jobs back then.
Anyway, what I most remember from that first visit to Singapore was a sign that showed a hangman’s noose, and some solemn words issuing quite a dire warning to drug traffickers.
On that Friday when I arrived in Singapore – September 23, 1994 – the authorities hanged their first European person, for drug trafficking. He was a Dutchman named Johannes Van Damme.
Despite pleas from European leaders (including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands) to call off the execution, the Singapore government refused to even postpone the death sentence.
TOM BALDWIN, by email.