Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. ῏῏, No. ῏, March ῎ῌῌῒOn the Margins of the “Economic Miracle”: Non English-Literate
Chinese Factory Workers in Singapore, ῍῏῎ῌ῍῏ῌῌErnest KD= Wee Songῌῌ

Abstract
While the writing of Singapore’s “history from below” has begun to gain momentum inacademic circles, there is still a considerable lack of understanding about the contributions
and experiences of the ordinary person to the city-state’s remarkable growth after ῍ΐῑῐ. In
Singapore’s broader historiography, the success of the nation’s economy is commonly
attributed to the genius and foresight of key personalities, or in more recent times, thespirit of entrepreneurship by a select few. Thus, the non English-literate Chinese factory
worker in Singapore currently only exists in a marginalised space in Singaporean historical discourse, in spite of their role in Singapore’s transition “from Third World to First,” touse the parlance of Lee Kuan Yew. Through the use of collective reminiscence andbiography, this paper seeks to present the lives of the workers in narrative. In doing so, itaims to solicit an alternative, Chinese working-class account of the “economic miracle”
epoch.
Keywords: Singapore history, oral history, literacy in Singapore, Chinese factory workers,
Chinese working-class life

A study on the lives of non English-literate, ethnic Chinese factory workers ῍ ) in Singapore is necessary in tracing the reasons for, and social effects of, the country’s remarkable
growth. Although they are by no means the only reason for the success that much ofSingapore’s population has enjoyed, they are a primary source of the nation’s “economic
miracle.”῎) Contributions to Singapore’s outstanding development were certainly madeῌI am indebted to Stephen Dobbs, David Bourchier, and Anne Pauwels for providing theircomments on an earlier draft of this paper.
ῌῌDepartment of Asian Studies, School of Social and Cultural Studies, The University ofWestern Australia, Crawley WA ῑῌῌΐ, Australia
email: tsenre῍tartarus.uwa.edu.au
῍ῌ For brevity, this community will be referred to throughout this paper as “Chinese factory
workers” or simply “factory workers.” The term “factory workers” is used to exclusively
describe production-line staff, as opposed to clerical/management/administrative personnel
that might also be involved in factory operations. Furthermore despite frequent use of theterms “manufacturing” and “production,” the types of factory workers that this paper willconcern itself with also include assembly- and packing-line staff.
῎ῌ Factory workers in Singapore were, of course, not exclusively ethnic Chinese. Apart fromSingaporean Malay and Indian factory workers, foreign labour from Malaysia (in particular) also features strongly in the demographics of most factories in Singapore. However, thehistorical experiences of each community must be regarded as being sufficiently different
to warrant the attention of separate studies.
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E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

by other sections of the industryῌfactory managers, clerical staff, supervisors, andentrepreneurs to name but a fewῌbut numerically, the Chinese factory workers formeda third of the island’s entire labour force by the end of the ῍῔ΐῌs [Census 1990 (ῐ) ῍῔῔῏:xvii], and if one also takes their families into account then the experiences of the factory
workers in everyday life are representative of how a considerable proportion of theresident Chinese population lived through the historical experience of “Singapore.”
Significant gaps in the existing body of works indicate that the function of theChinese factory workers, whether in the context of Singapore’s social past or in its
development, is not yet widely understood.

The few scholarly texts on the factory

workers of Singapore that do exist are largely academic exercises in the field of social
work by graduate students such as Chang Kung Yee [῍῔ῒ῏], Lim Cheng Yuen [῍῔ΐ῔] andAngeline Balasingam [῍῔῔῏], while a sociological study of female factory workers wasundertaken by Chung Yuen Kay [῍῔῔ῌ] in the form of a doctoral thesis at the National
University of Singapore. Janet W. Salaff’s research [῍῔ΐΐ] must be regarded as a seminal
ethnography of the working-class Chinese household in Singapore; however its broader
objectives invariably prevent a more nuanced engagement with the factory workers.
Broader accounts on Singapore’s post-independence economic developmental policies and the successes that they have induced are the subject of study by several notablescholars such as W. G. Huff [῍῔῔ῐ], Edgar Schein [῍῔῔ῑ], Lim Chong-Yah [῍῔ΐῌ; ῍῔῔῍; ῍῔῔ῑ]and Linda Low [῍῔῔῔a; ῍῔῔῔b; ῎ῌῌ῎], while the importance of creating a malleable, disciplined, low-waged, and docile labour force in order to sustain the brisk pace ofSingapore’s industrialisation has been raised by Christopher Tremewan [῍῔῔ῐ: ῑ῔]. Correspondingly, compelling analyses by Chua and Tan have drawn the attention of academia
toward the pattern of increasing income disparity between class groups within
Singapore’s general population [see Chua and Tan ῍῔῔῔; Chua ῍῔῔ῐ]. The authors suggestthat the “economic miracle” served only to tantalise the working-class sections of the
population by continually fanning their aspirations towards a middle-class standard, astandard defined by the possession of material wealth in the form of home-ownership andluxury goods. For many households, Singapore’s economic development created themirage of class mobility, rather than actual movement.

Oral History Reminiscences and a “History from Below”
When we look beyond statistical representations and explore the finer details of thefactory worker’s experience both as individuals and as a collective, we reinvest theelement of historical agency to the workers and discover how, as a social class and as alanguage community, they struggled to come to terms with the alacrity of Singapore’s
economic development. In his study on the ordinary person’s experience of the Great
Depression in Singapore during the ῍῔῏ῌs, Loh Kah Seng [῎ῌῌῑ: ῐῑ] underscores the value467ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῐῐ῎ ῐ ῑin oral records in writing histories that seek to present an alternative understanding of
the past through the eyes of the common person, and as Loh indicates such an approachalso resonates with authors of people’s histories such as Paul Thompson [῍῕ΐ῔; in Loh῎ῌῌῒ].
The interviews cited in this paper are drawn from my doctoral research on literacy,class, and the subjective experience among the ethnic Chinese of Singapore from ῍῕ῐῑ῍῎ῌῌῌ. The interviews operated around a series of loosely structured questions designed toencourage each participant to reminisce how s/he remembered specific periods of theirlives amidst Singapore’s past.

The process of selecting the participants began byapproaching a list of contacts in Singapore. Many of these were friends and acquaintances drawn from personal association. Others were complete strangers, introduced tome by contacts made through the process of research. All functioned as the initial line of“gatekeepers” in that it was they who were asked to source for potential interviewees,
and the chief guidelines for selecting the participants were based primarily on educationlevel and age. From the pool of potential interviewees, my principal concern was toensure that the four broad groups from the former criteriaῌ“no formal education,”“primary schooling,” “secondary schooling,” and “college/polytechnic/university graduates”ῌwere each strongly represented. The ratio of interviewees by education level was

῍ῑ : ῎ῌ : ῎ῌ : ῍ῒ respectively.
The age of the participants ranged from ῎ῐ to ΐ῏ at the time of their interviews.
There were two main concentrations in the ages of those involved, the first between theages of ῎ῑ to ῏ῑ, and the second between ῐῑ to ῑῑ. All were interviewed over two periodsof fieldwork in Singapore, in ῎ῌῌῐ and ῎ῌῌῑ, lasting over eight months, and there was noattempt to control or proportion the representation of dialect groups. But the importanceof ensuring that gender representation was as equal as circumstances would allow
dominated the process of approaching potential interviewees. In all, there were ῏ῐ femaleand ῏ΐ male participants.
The main criterion for selecting the factory workers from this group was that theyneeded to have been employed for at least a year in production-related work in a factory
between ῍῕῔ῌ and ῍῕῕ῌ. To define what production-related work specifically meant forthe purpose of selecting oral accounts for use in this study, I relied on the classifications
used by the Singapore Department of Statistics for the purposes of census enumeration,
which in turn is based on the Singapore Standard Occupational Classification of ῍῕ΐ῔.
The occupational work undertaken in the factories by the interviewees fall under the
categories of “Production Craftsmen and Related Workers” (Major Group ΐ ) and “Plant
and Machine Operators and Assemblers” (Major Group ῔ ). Ownership of the factories(whether by foreign or local capital, or by the state) was not a factor, although this detaildoes emerge in the interviews that follow.
In all, ῍ῑ interviewees from the participant pool met the occupational criterion, andreferences to ῔ of them appear in this paper. Of those employed as factory workers
468

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

during the ῍ΐῒῌs, ῒ are Hokkien and ῐ are Teochew. They are joined by ῎ Hakka anda Hainanese. Ten were under the age of ῐῌ in ῍ΐῒῌ, ῑ by ῍ΐΐῌ, and ῍῎ were married withat least one child in the household by the decade’s end. For this discussion to remain
concise, it is not possible to articulate all of the factory workers’ stories. Several accounts
presented by the remaining ῑ workers that made overlapping points with those which
do feature in this paper were reluctantly left out.
There is room among historians for scepticism about the reliability of oral traditions
in history-writing. While the concern is valid, it must also be conditioned by recognising
the usefulness of oral traditions in soliciting personal memories and the circumstances oflife, which are far less susceptible to being distorted by mainstream discourse. It is thismemory that this paper seeks to draw upon from the participants, both as individuals
and as a collective, for the purposes of historical interpretation.
By telling the story of the Chinese factory workers in Singapore during the ῍ΐῒῌs, andpresenting their lives and aspirations within the context of exploitation as a dominanttheme in their daily existence, a greater understanding of just how unequal the “economic miracle” actually was can be achieved. Primarily (though not exclusively) throughthe use of reminiscence, oral history and collective biography, this paper will therefore
seek to illustrate the historiographically understated function of the Chinese factory
worker as an effecting mechanism of Singapore’s history, as well as explore how s/hecame to terms with broader patterns of socio-economic change in Singapore during the῍ΐῒῌs.

Negotiating the Concept of a Singaporean Working-class
Since the ῍ΐΐῌs, advances in sociological approaches to Singaporean society have demanded a rethink on how class and stratification in Singapore’s recent past is understood. Following on from his earlier works on the subject, Chua Beng Huat argues in LifeIs Not Complete Without Shopping that class in Singaporean society is shaped through apractice of reciprocal perception, and that it is an unrelenting process of judging whatmaterial wealth one “has” or “lacks” with what others “have” or “lack” [῎ῌῌ῏: ΐ ]. It can beargued that class-structures in Singapore are therefore understood in everyday life
through a process of lifestyle comparisons. The degree in which one is able to participate
in the process of material acquisition is the central yardstick of measurement in classperception [ibid.: ΐῌ῍ῌ].
Tan Ern Ser’s recent quantitative survey on how Singaporeans describe their respective positions within a subjective class structure provides a useful framework fromwhich we can approach this discussion. Utilising educational attainment, householdincome, property ownership, occupation, ethnicity and age as principal indicators, Tanargues that Singaporeans tend to understand the world around them within the context469

ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῏῏῎ ῏ ῑa four-category class structure, ranging between the “Lower,” “Working,” “Middle” and“Upper” class groups [῎ῌῌ῏: ῍῏ῌ῍ῒ]. Thus, Tan argues that the working-class in contemporary Singapore is created and located at an intersection of self-perception and economic
realities.
The primary constraints in these modes of understanding class in Singapore are thatthey are highly contemporary. As survey tools they operate best within the confines ofSingaporean society after the ascent of the “miracle phase,” i. e. from the ῍ῒῑῌs onwards.
For the purposes of this paper and the time period it concerns itself with however, they
are invaluable as aids in conceptualising how the otherwise abstract idea of class wasthought of in Singaporean everyday life.
This paper amalgamates these respective approaches toward the Singaporean working-class with a Weberian perspective of social structures and relationships. Specifically,
it views class within the framework of life chances [see Parsons ῍ῒ῏ῐ]. For Weber the ideaof life chances in class determinism is tied heavily to the ownership of economic
resources. This in turn yields the capacity to acquire higher levels of education andincome, and increases the range of opportunities in the context of life chances. The
determinants of class in this discussion are therefore occupation, household income andeducation level.

Understanding (Non-)Literacy in the Context of This Study
The socio-economic function of literacy, or more specifically, non-literacy in the English
language, is one of the central pillars of this discussion. Literacy standards are often not
clearly defined. Indeed, one tends to struggle at any attempt to compartmentalise asociolinguistically-complex community, such as that of the Chinese of Singapore, into
simplistic categories of being “literate” and “non-literate” in a particular language. The
factory workers are a case in point; while many were able to speak English, albeit atwidely varying degrees of competency, their actual literacy levels were far lower, as
evidenced by the generally low levels of education they received.
Because a chief objective of this paper is to examine the implications of education asa life chance for the Chinese during the ῍ῒῑῌs, the term “non English-literacy” will be
expanded from its literal meaning to accommodate a more subjective approach. The“non English-literate” can be understood in this study as including those individuals who
demonstrate English literacy levels that are insufficient for them to move easily fromfactory production positions to non-menial forms of waged work, either for the purposesof economic mobility or when their jobs in the factories became untenable.

The

assumption in framing English literacy levels in the context of employment opportunities therefore is that it is closely tied with the actual level of education received by anindividual.

470

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

The Social Profile of the Chinese Factory Worker during the ῍ῐ῏ῌs
Scrutiny of the data from the census of  allows us to construct a socio-linguistic
profile of the Chinese factory workers at the start of the decade.

Tables  and 

correlate the languages spoken at home with the occupation of the head of the household
among the Chinese in Singapore.
Very few of those employed in production-related work in  were literate inEnglish; in fact an overwhelming majority came from Chinese households that spoke
exclusively in dialect. The third most dominant language group that contributed to the
manufacturing workforce were the Mandarin monolingual families, with the Malay
monolingual households ranked second at  [Census 1980 () :  ]. By thecensus of , the Chinese language communities remained the principal source oflabour for the factories, although there were significantly more Mandarin monolingual
factory workers than there were dialect monolingual workers [Census 1990 () :  ].
Table ῍Language(s) Spoken in Household and Occupation of Head of Household (Monolingual)Languages
Spoken inHouseholdProfessionalandTechnical

Administrative
andManagerial

Agricultural
Workers andFishermen

Production
and RelatedWorkers

Not Working

Mandarin
Chinese dialects
English    




 

 


 


Source: [Census +32* () :  ]Table ῎Language(s) Spoken in Household and Occupation of Head of Household (Multilingual)Languages
Spoken inHouseholdProfessional Administrative
andandTechnical
Managerial

Agricultural
Workers andFishermen

Production
and RelatedWorkers

Not Working

Mandarin andChinese dialects(without English)



 



  

Mandarin andEnglish (with orwithout dialects)

 

 







Two or more
Chinese dialects

 









English andChinese dialects

 

 





 

Source: [Census +32* () :  ]471

ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏῎ ῑIn , over  per cent of all workers were between the ages of  and  [Census 1980( ) : ], with women forming nearly a third of the production force [ibid.: ]. By ,women accounted for over half of the production line positions in the factories, with the
majority aged similarly between  and  [Census 1990 ( ) : ].
The circumstances that drove Ai Lek to find work in the factories were commonplace
among the non English-literate Chinese women. She dropped out of school after four
years at primary level, finding work in a textile factory in order to help put her younger
brothers through school. Aged  in , she married the son of a family friend, Ah Tee,and a year later she was pregnant with their first child. But less than two months after
giving birth she was again looking for work in the factory lines [Author  : Ai Lek].
There is little risk of over-generalising when one suggests that factory workers in were either illiterate, or had received only minimal levels of education. The Reporton the Ministry of Education (otherwise known as the Goh Report) notes that as of only  per cent of the Singaporean student cohort that began Primary One would
eventually gain entrance to Junior Secondary, with a mere  per cent of the student
population making it to Senior Secondary level.

Just  per cent would undertake

tertiary studies [Goh : Section ῍].
While the education system prior to the reforms set in motion by the Goh Report
was responsible for a general increase in literacy levels across the population through the s and s, inherent flaws in pedagogical practices resulted in a large “unskilled”
labour force by .

Of the   persons across all ethnic and language groups

employed in the manufacturing industry, had no formal educational qualifications

at all, with a further   listed as having completed only primary school [Census 1980( ) : ]. Just over forty thousand managed to complete the first two years of theirsecondary education [ibid.: ]. In short, in  over  per cent of the entire manufacturing work force (  persons) did not have at least secondary school certification. By

, the average level of education among the employed factory workers was higherῌ
an indicator of the new demands of “economic relevancy” within the landscape ofhigh-technology industries that many workers faced in the battle to remain employed
and employable. Those without any formal education at all numbered just  , while
over   attended secondary school, with just under half completing [Census 1990 ( ): ῍ ].
The census and Ministry of Education report fail to provide insight into the reasonsfor the high rate of attrition in the school system during the  s and s, which led to
the large, poorly-literate factory force. The Goh Report points to the intolerance of theeducation system at the time toward “slow learners,” suggesting that “most of these
pupils would not have the capability to proceed to University education” regardless [Goh: ῍, ῍ ]. Such a view, while undoubtedly applicable to some cases, ignores the
economic problems faced by many families that contributed to the attrition rate. The
immediate and overriding need for members of the family to alleviate the burden
472

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

shouldered by the principal breadwinner(s) often resulted in young students beingpressed into work out of necessity. Proudly displaying a pair of battered old workbooks
from her school days filled with star-shaped stickers presented by her teachers, theauthor’s interview with Lok Kwee revealed a story of promise unfulfilled. Enrolled in
Dorset Primary School during the mid-῍῔ῒῌs, she recalls:
I was good in Maths and Chinese. . . and because my results were always not too bad [in all
subjects], I was usually third or fourth in my class at the end of each year. My form teacher wasvery proud of me, because I once won a Chinese composition contest held by the school. Out of
the many students who were in Primary Three mine was the best. Can you imagine that ! WhenI had to drop out of school [after Primary Six to look for work]. . . my form teacher was very
upset. . . I will always remember that she tried to keep me in school by offering to help pay myschool fees. [Author ῎ῌῌῑ: Lok Kwee]

While not demonstrating the same level of aptitude as Lok Kwee, Ah Tee found his
education at Yio Chu Kang Primary School falling afoul of similar circumstances:
School was not a priority; my father was the only one working in the family [as my motherremained at home to look after the children]. So once it was possible I had to go out and earnmoney, to help ease the burden. . . . Up to Primary Four I earned some money by delivering
newspapers in the morning. . . and coffee in the afternoon to offices. I tried to study at the sametime. . . it was too hard [because I just had no time], so I quit just after attempting some yearsof secondary school and went to work full-time. . . [at first] as a labourer [with a moving
company]. . . and then [at a factory] in Jurong. [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ah Tee]In these two examples, instead of functioning as a mechanism through which economic
mobility could be achieved, the education system served to reinforce the capitalist
structure of “meritocratic social stratification.” Families with the financial ability to do
so invested in home tuition for their children in order to familiarise themselves with “thebattery of tests designed to identify superior pupils” [Salaff ῍῔ΐΐ: ῏ῑ]. For example, when
preparing for their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), it was common practicefor students from more affluent households to furiously hone classroom concepts on
assignment books that contained past examples of exam scripts. Tutors, charging a feethat ranged from S$ῑῌ to ῍ῒῌ depending on their reputation and qualifications, would beon hand to diligently aid the pupil in navigating any difficulties [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ong].
As ῍῎ year-old Rosyth school student S. K. Ong prepared to sit for his PSLE in ῍῔ΐῒ,he had tutors to assist him in English and Chinese. They would come to the house twicea week for two-hour sessions, setting homework and going through mistakes made inschoolwork or classroom tests.

His mother, who held a bachelor’s degree from the

University of Leeds, tutored him in Science and Maths on weekends [ibid.]. Ong found473

ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῐῐ῎ ῐ ῑthe PSLE “easy,” admitting that he was well-prepared “because I knew what kind ofquestions were coming out” [ibid.]. His results qualified him for entry into the island’s
premier school, the Raffles Institution.
In contrast, for the families of both Lok Kwee and Ah Tee, the financial demands ofkeeping them enrolled in Primary School were already testing their household finances
to the limit. Hiring a tutor was out of the question. Lok Kwee’s parents had bothcompleted primary school, and her father had attended one year of junior secondary. Ah
Tee’s father dropped out of school at Primary Five, and his mother was illiterate. In bothhouseholds, turning to parental guidance for schoolwork was not a possibility. As far as
school was concerned, the children would have to fend for themselves.
Ah Tee was fatalistic about his grades, accepting his teacher’s remarks that his
dropping out of school was inevitable, given his poor results in tests and examinations.
At no point did he suggest that his academic struggles were due to problems with thecurriculum, or the economic circumstances of his household:
School is for those who can be doctors or scientists. For me, I’m not so smart, so paying all that
school fees is a waste of money. My mother and sisters convinced me to stay in school, so I tried.
I kept failing, or just passing. . . [I agree with my teachers in that] I think I was not good enough.
After I failed Secondary Two, I thought, enough is enough. No more school. [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ah
Tee]

Similarly, other interviewees (including Lok Kwee) expressed an uncertainty toward
their own abilities to complete secondary school, even if their financial status had
allowed for such a scenario. This attitude is a symptom of the discourse of inadequacyand “surrender from children who do not make the grade” as foreshadowed in the Goh
Report [Goh ῍῔ῒ῔: Section ῍ῌῐ].

The Factory Workers as a Mechanism for Singapore’s
Economic Growth after ῌ῏῎῍The loss of self-esteem in an environment where “the ideology of. . . meritocracy labels
those who cannot continue on in school as lacking qualifications” [Salaff ῍῔ΐΐ: ῏ῑ] isintegral in contextualising the willing silence by factory workers as other sections of the
population began to reap the rewards of the nation’s “economic miracle.” Salaff points toa parallel study of low-income American families by Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb,
who argue that households in the lowest socio-economic tiers in the United States often“refrained from directly challenging the political system because they felt personallyresponsible for the labels of ability they bore” [ibid.: ῏ῑ]. The acceptance of their plight as
merely being of their own making, and the exploitation of this submission, is fundamen474

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

tal to the creation of the low-waged, yet efficient and docile labour force that theeconomy required in the drive for spectacular growth.
Workers like Lok Kwee and Ah Tee et al. were part of a community and industry that
played a critical role in Singapore’s rapid economic growth and the funding of its
substantial infrastructural development.)The net investment in the manufacturingsector in  amounted to  million Singapore dollars, of which  million camefrom foreign sources. By , these figures had increased to  million and million respectively [Statistics : ]. Because the bulk of these investments camefrom companies headquartered in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, theNetherlands, and Germany, the s would see multi-national conglomerates from thesenations in particular emerge to play a central role in guiding the nature of production in
Singapore’s manufacturing industries.
In the period immediately after independence, the economic guiding principles
adopted by the state meant that production would primarily concern itself with fabricated products/machinery, electrical machinery, transport equipment, as well as textiles,
garments and leather goods. Factories in these industry groups were vital in the battle
against unemployment throughout the  s and  s, accounting for   jobs orjust over  per cent of the employed pool in the manufacturing sector in [Industrial : ῌ], an increase from just   per cent in   [Industrial  : ῌ]. By , themanufacturing industry alone accounted for over   per cent () of all jobs in theentire working population [Census 1980 () : ], with the majority being in factoryline positions [ibid.:ῌ, ῌ]. Over the course of the two decades since independence,

the industry had thus emerged as one of the central pillars of Singapore’s economic
growth. The Report on the Census of Industrial Production 1976 notes that the sector’s
contribution to the country’s GDP in 

stood at 

per cent, or   billion Singapore

dollars [Industrial  :  ], compared to   per cent or  million Singapore dollars in  [Labour  : ].

Aspirations, Debt, and Control
The labour-intensive industries and their factories which dominated Singapore’s manufacturing sector meant that unemployment was not, at least relative to the island nation’s
neighbours, an overwhelming issue for the state. At the time of the  census, 
ῌ The writings of W. G. Huff, Linda Low, Lawrence B. Krause, Edgar Schein and Lim ChongYah provide detailed analyses on the reasons for Singapore’s rapid economic development.
In order to remain thematically focused on the intentions of this paper, and because of the
body of literature that has already been published on the subject, this paper will not be
attempting to explain in detail “why” the economic development of Singapore was, formuch of its population at least, such a great success.
475ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῎  ῑeconomically active Chinese were unemployed and (if one discounts the temporary surge
in unemployment caused by the recession of /) as a proportion of the working
population the unemployment levels would remain constant throughout the decade[Census 1980 () : ; Census 1990 () : ].
However, the high rate of employment has disguised a more elusive narrative ofSingapore’s economic history. Income for workers employed in the manufacturing sector
presented a significant obstacle towards fulfilment of material aspirations, with many
households living a hand-to-mouth existence. Only just over  per cent of all production/production-related workers were on a salary of over S$

per month in  ;per cent were reporting monthly incomes of less than S$ . Monthly salaries for male
factory workers ranged between S$
was usually between S$

to S$

to S$

in  ; for their female counterparts it[Census 1980 ( ) : ]. An analysis of the average

wage for production workers between  and  , compared to their administrative
and/or professional peers, begins to reveal a stark contrast in economic experiences at
the time.
Phang Sock-Yong’s analysis of the National Housing Price Index provides anotheruseful framework to view the rapid escalation of living costs during the latter  s. He
observes that the cost of housing increased on average by  per cent between   and, before falling by  per cent by the end of , coinciding with the nadir of the/ economic recession. According to Phang, as the economy began to recover,housing prices surged once again. By , the cost of housing in Singapore was nearly
three times what it had been ten years earlier, having witnessed an increase of nearly 
per cent on average [Phang  :  ].
A cursory glance at the advertisements for housing sales during the decade provides
a closer glimpse of the increasing financial demands placed upon factory workers who
aspired to home ownership. Table  depicts a selection of asking prices gleaned fromadvertisements at the time for three- and four-room type HDB apartment units across theisland between  and  . These two particular designs were chosen due to the factthat these designs were used as a yardstick by the PAP in its plan to achieve complete
Table ῌAverage Monthly Earnings in Manufacturing Sector by Occupation Class,  ῌ(Singapore dollars)
Production Workers













$

$

$

$ 

$

$

Professional, Administrative, Managerial, Executive Workers













$ $  $ $ $ $  

Source: [Statistics : ῌ ]476

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore
Table ῌExamples of Asking Prices Found in Advertisements in The Straits Times for
Pre-owned HDB Housing between  ῌ, ῌRoom and ῌRoom Types(Singapore dollars)

Type

Location

Asking PriceYear

HDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoomHDB ῌRoom

Circuit Road
Kim Keat Avenue
Sims Drive
Haig Road
Toa Payoh
Clementi
Bedok South
Dover Road
Toa Payoh
Eunos Crescent
Ang Mo Kio
Ghim Moh
Tampines
Telok Blangah
Ang Mo Kio
Bedok North
Kim Tian Road
Circuit Road
Moulmein Road
Jurong West                    






















Source: [ST . .  ;  ; ; ; ]home-ownership by the end of the twentieth century [ST . . : ].
In spite of the rapid upsurge in real estate prices after the easing of the recession in/, the People’s Action Party (PAP) was confident that its target was achievable. In, then Minister for National Development S. Dhanabalan contended that it wasconceivable for a worker earning S$ a month to own a three-room flat at the least,
based on a  year repayment period and concessional down payment of  per cent [ST. . : ]. However, Ho Kim Hin observes that[o]n the basis of housing affordability measured by a CPF member’s ability to pay for thepurchase of his flat in , it is found that [mainly] dual-income households in Singapore areable to pay for the purchase of a HDB flat [Ho  : ] (emphasis added).

Ho’s analysis makes for stark reading when placed alongside Dhanabalan’s assurances to
Parliament at the time, the latter having declared that “there’s no [other] country in theworld where someone starting work after leaving school can expect to buy a home after
two years” [ST . . : ]. As a requisite for home-ownership for many families
within the lower income groups, the dual-income model drew increasing numbers ofhousewives into the workforce as the s progressed. The Yearbook of Statistics 1990477

ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏῎ ῑfor instance notes that there was an increase of over  women employed in the workforce from . Two-thirds were women in their early s, and most had taken up
positions as production operators in the manufacturing sector [Statistics :ῌ ].

The success of the HDB’s housing project in improving the living conditions of thegeneral population cannot be disputed. By the s a vast majority of the population
had been moved from quarters that were either overcrowded or lacking in basic amenities. A large proportion of the population became home-owners, in their eyes an elevationin their socio-economic standing, thus creating a mood of contentment among most of thecitizenry. But in order to keep the prices of the HDB flats comparatively low in the faceof the nation’s natural land shortage, the PAP government pursued the policy of leasing
housing to the majority of its citizens. Because the flats were built on state land and theunits were sold leasehold (the lease lasting for  years), the prices could be kept at levels
that were significantly lower than if they were freehold properties.

Christopher

Tremewan has pointed out HDB apartment “owners” purchased equity, rather thanownership in the strict sense of the word. After the expiry of the term the flat would
revert back to the control of the HDB [ :].

As Tremewan contends, the net effect of the public housing policy was to lodge
many within the working-class firmly into a long-term debt to the state [ibid.: ]. A senseof urgency and anxiety drove the Chinese factory worker to remain employed regardlessof the workplace situation in order to meet the demands of the repayment schedule.
Complaints against long hours or inadequate safety measures, for instance, were suppressed for fear of forfeiting the steady income that employment offered. And it was thisfear of being unable to repay the debt to the state that was essential to maintaining a
disciplined and efficient workforce in the factories.
Exhaustion was the defining theme in Ai Lek’s life in the factory. She would returnhome after her  hour shift, which began at  in the evening, just in time to prepare
breakfast for her children who were about to leave for school. There was laundry to bedone and simple dishes of vegetables, pork or chicken to be prepared as dinner for thefamily. Once cooked, these would be left in a tin pot, to be reheated and consumed by themembers of the household as they each returned home later in the day. It would be close
to noon before there was time for sleep. The blaring ring of an alarm clock would stir her
from her slumber at around half-past-four in the afternoon, followed by a shower and aquick meal, before she made her way to the chartered bus that would carry two scores ofother women like herself to the factory to begin the shift [Author  : Ai Lek].
Tiredness left the worker prone to making mistakes that could jeopardise his or her
own safety. Ai Lek was fortunate to avoid grievous injury when the gears under a line
belt that carried microchip boards into an automated stamping tool caught her sleeve.
But for two of her friends who were alert to the immediate danger, she would have losther arm to the pitiless automation [ibid.]. Others were not as fortunate. Just a week into
her first job as a production worker in the Molex factory, Lok Kwee witnessed a fellow
478

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

worker lose three fingers to a precision moulding machine. Fatigue, the monotonous
nature of line production and the fast-moving components of powerful automatedfactory equipment combined to devastating effect as her colleague’s fingers were severed. “She just stared, I think at first there was no pain. Then she wailed, long and keen.
It was a terrifying sound, one that I will never forget” [Author ῎ῌῌῑ: Lok Kwee].
Even when fatigue was not an obvious factor, the lax standards of safety in thefactories meant that the workers were subject to physical hazards that threatened eventhe most alert of staff. In a review of occupational health and safety in Singapore, Liew
Khai Khiun suggests that the historical problem of poor workplace safety in Singapore,
particularly within the factory, was a considerable one that went largely unaddressed by
the Singapore government, and that “[t]he victims have been predominantly blue-collar
workers. . . . Women workers make up most of the numbers of those hurt in the factories
and the manufacturing sectors, as these concerns are staffed mainly by females” [Liew῎ῌῌ῏: ῏]. On ῍ῒ July ῍῕῔ΐ, Chong Sow Wan lost all of her fingers on her left hand in an
accident while working at a seafood-processing factory in Jalan Tepong. The company,
Marine Foods, had failed to erect a safety fence around the mincing machine, an act thatwould have cost the company less then a hundred Singapore dollars. As it was, the actof thriftiness on the part of the factory owners left Sow Wan maimed for life [ST ῍῔. ῌΐ.

῍῕῔ΐ: ῎῍]. On ῎῕ April ῍῕῔῔, ῏῔-year old Teo Chee Hua was killed and three others crippled
in an explosion at a gas-manufacturing plant in Senoko. Highly flammable acetylene gas
had leaked from a faulty generator, leading to the disastrous blast. His wife would haveto raise their two young daughters on her own, both of whom were still attending
primary school [ST ῌ῍. ῌῑ. ῍῕῔῔: ῍ῒ].
The increasing cost and pressure of surviving in Singapore in the ῍῕῔ῌs was, as aconsequence, exacting upon most of its citizens. The lowest socio-economic strata ofsociety found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the realities of working life with theirown aspirations. Factory workers such as Ai Lek and her husband often had to look to
supplementary sources of income to get by:
We worked alternate shifts. . . but even that was not enough. . . the children needed textbooks,
workbooks, stationary, uniforms. . . shoes, allowance. . . we only bought one set, so that the
younger one can use it when our older son outgrew them. . . even then it was hard on ourchildren. We had to make sure that we did not cook too much rice everyday, as it would havebeen very expensive to buy another bag of rice if we ran out [for the month]. . . . In the early
evenings [my husband] would work as a drinks stall vendor at the coffee shop downstairs, andbecause I was still at work, he had to bring the children there with him, so he could watch
them. . . they would do their homework while he made drinks. [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ai Lek]

While the environment around her changed at a bewildering pace, the fundamental
theme of daily life did not change for Giok Cheng. Her older brother left home when he479ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῐῐ῎ ῐ ῑwas ῍ῒ, only surfacing nearly two decades later after he established a small bicycle sales
and repair shop in Jalan Kayu. The burden of providing for the family was unexpectedly
and prematurely thrust upon her when her father died of tuberculosis in ῍῕ῒΐ.
Earlier in her life, her basic competency in spoken English helped her find work as ahousekeeper for the families of British Royal Air Force (RAF) officers stationed in
Singapore. When the RAF began withdrawing its personnel from the late ῍῕ῒῌs onwards,
this left few opportunities for similar employment. Like an increasing number of womenat the time, she turned to the factories for survival.
Her younger brothers, whom she helped put through secondary school, each maintained loose ties with the family after leaving home in the early ῍῕ΐῌs. They offered tokensums of money to help their mother, sometimes by mail, sometimes at the end of the odd
visitation, and only once every few months. After a few years, even this inconstantstream of monetary aid dried up.

Throughout, her obligations anchored her to thehousehold, and her sense of responsibility smothered any desire to start a family of her
own. She remained single, in order to care for her mother:
Who would look after her if I got married ? Everyone left by that time, there was only myself. . . . My mother gave birth to me, I think I should at least pay her back by promising my life toher. . . . What husband do you think will like it if I spent all my time and money looking afterher [even after I’ve married into his family] ? If there was only me, at least I could force myself
to spend less. I don’t mind the hardship. With children and a family that could not be done. If
I was rich, then maybe. [Author ῎ῌῌῑ: Giok Cheng]

Aged ῏ΐ in ῍῕῔῎, Giok Cheng joined King’s Shoe Manufacturing as a production
operator at the company’s factory in Genting Lane. The long hours of her work kept her
away from her aging mother. Though she worked diligently to provide for the simple
comforts of life for her mother, apart from the times when the pair would sit almost
silently watching Mandarin television programs in their humble two-room flat after
dinner, there was little interaction. On the weekends, the matriarch would sit muttering,
partly to herself and partly to Giok Cheng while the latter swept the floor, cleaned thewindows, and did the laundry. On occasion, she would grow tired of the old lady’s
constant nagging, and a heated argument would ensue during which hurtful words were
exchanged, and painful memories evoked. On a rainy Thursday evening in May ῍῕῕ῌ, shereturned home to discover the body of her mother hanging from a rope tied to a window
grill. Abandoned at every turn, she now felt completely alone in the world [ibid.].

The Chinese Factory Worker’s Life in the ῍῏῎ῌs as a Gendered Experience
As we pursue the theme of exploitation and the non English-literate Chinese factory480

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

worker, it is also critical to recognise the function of gender as a key variable in this facetof everyday life. The male and female experience of the factory workers was often
markedly different in affairs that ranged from wage discrepancies to the demands ofenforced single parenthood, all of which are reflections on the nature of gender andsexual relations in Singaporean society.
As much as the male factory worker was a subject in a relationship heavily definedby exploitation that he endured with both the state and other strata of Singaporeansociety, there was another community whom he often exploited in turn. Within thegendered relationships of Singaporean society, the male factory worker was often a chief
precipitator in the commodification of women. The community of prostitutes were
subservient to the carnal demands of (among others) the male, non English-literate
Chinese factory worker.
To use a prostitute was not simply an act of sexual release. As we shall see, it wasalso an act to display masculinity by being blasé about the feat.

It provided an

opportunity for the male factory worker to reclaim an element of sexual agency when hefound himself denied by his spouse for a variety of reasons in the household. The role ofprostitution in the lives of male factory workers during the ῍ΐῒῌs is thus an integral one.
For the female worker, gender relations took on a different meaning, particularly inthe workplace. Many were illiterate, or at best poorly educated, and were either not fully
aware of the protection that they were ostensibly afforded against unwanted advancesby male superiors, or were content to let the latter get away with lewd actions due to adesire to remain in employment. For other women, the factory was a physical space
where opportunities for economic mobility could arise.
Among male factory workers, there was a tendency to disconnect the idea of visitinga prostitute from infidelity, just as there was a trend in associating their sexual interactions with streetwalkers as a form of harmless “entertainment” [Author ῎ῌῌ῏: Ah Siang].
So long as they fulfilled their monetary obligations as fathers and husbands to theirfamilies, how they spent any remaining portions of their salaries was based on personal
whim. For many, the carnal relief afforded by a visit to the brothel was a welcome, eveninevitable, respite from the mundane daily routine [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Heng Yew]. Ah Siang,
who worked the production lines at the Leung Kai Fook Medical Company’s factory since῍ΐῑ῏, describes:
My wife was working [in another factory] at night, I was working from mornings until
the evening. And having the children in the house made [having sex] difficult. I’m a man, andall men need to have certain things in life. A woman is just one of those things. Looking
for a “chicken” was a way to ease the urge. . . . I’m still a good father and husband, because I
don’t keep another woman outside. My money goes to the children for school, and food for thefamily. . . . A very small amount goes to my entertainment. I think I worked hard enough todeserve just that, correct or not ? [Author ῎ῌῌ῏: Ah Siang]481ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῐῐ῎ ῐ ῑIt is apparent that the households of other factory workers were similarly desexualised. In her study of the relationship between individual households and the state inSingapore during the ῍῕ΐῌs, Janet Salaff’s interviews point to a similar pattern among
other non English-literate Chinese women. Ng Wee Ping, described by Salaff as a former
packer at a peanut factory with no formal education, considered sexual intercourse as her
obligatory duty [῍῕῔῔: ῐ῎῍ῐ῏]. “I don’t like sex. Even though I haven’t told him, that sticky
thing frightens me. . . . Most women I know don’t like sex either. . . [but what] can you dowhen he wants sex ?”[ibid.: ῐ῏].

Also interviewed by Salaff, homemaker P. H. Lim

remarked in like fashion, “I didn’t mind sex at first, but not after so many children. I’m
tired of it. . . . My husband knows I don’t enjoy sex, but we never discuss it” [ibid.: ῒ῕].
While the home was thus the undoubted emotional and obligatory anchor (at least
for those who felt beholden to their responsibilities as a parent) for the male factory
worker, apart from the necessities of procreation there appeared to be little sexual
activity for pleasure. Reasons for this, my informants have suggested, ranged between
the presence of children in the household to the unwillingness of their wives [Author

῎ῌῌῑ: Heng Yew].
In adopting an arbitrary attitude towards women there is also a sense of malebravado involved. Brothel calls were seldom done alone, and it was not uncommon forlarge groups of factory workers to make the trip together after work by bus to Geylang,
Chinatown, Joo Chiat or other locales where the sexual services of women could be easilyacquired [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ah Siang]. Once there, they would settle down over a cup of blackcoffee or bowl of noodles in one of the scores of coffee shops that dotted the districts,
mingling with other factory workers or members of Singapore’s lower social strata.
Notes about which prostitutes to use or avoid would be exchanged as readily ascomplaints about working conditions or rising living costs [Author ῎ῌῌῑ: Heng Yew].
The brothel represented a useful alternative domain to the desexualised home formany male Chinese factory workers in large part due to the lack of similar “obligatoryanchors,” for instance the upkeep of children. It was also an economical substitute for
mistress-sing, which increasingly involved greater amounts of material wealth beyond
the means of factory workers. A worker at the Speedy-Tech Electronics transformer
plant during the late ῍῕῔ῌs, Heng Yew was then married with three young children. In
our discussions he candidly admitted to visiting prostitutes at least thriceῌand on someoccasions up to five timesῌa week. When asked if it would not be more practical tomaintain a mistress given his libidinous appetite, he replied:
Keeping a mistress is expensive, only the towkay can afford it. [The women who were willing
to become mistresses] were all very demanding and pragmatic. . . not like the old days during
my father’s time. . . . You need to have a car, let her stay in a nice room, or even a house, abungalow. You need to give her a lot of jewellery and money for shopping to keep her happy.
For us it’s much simpler to look for “chickens.” You pay her for an hour, and if you like her you
482

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore
can come back again next time. If not, or if you grow bored of having the same “dish” after
awhile you are free to find another one. And there are no attachments that can harm yourfamily. [ibid.]

Fees to secure the services of a prostitute varied greatly, with the determining
factors chiefly her nationality, age, general popularity with the clientele, and the reputation of the brothel and its facilities. On average for a fee of around S$ to  a client
would be able to choose one of anywhere up to a dozen local women.

Less picky

customers could pay just S$ and allow the choice to be made on their behalf. Thais andIndonesian prostitutes, who were also often freelancers with no brothel affiliation, camecheaper. Across the board fees were considerably higher if virginity could be promised
to the patron.
In several instances their wives grudgingly accepted these liaisons with streetwalkers as part of the lifestyle expected of male Chinese factory workers. Mistress-sing was
regarded as a more dastardly and serious transgression given its cost. Discovery was still
hurtful and often resulted in emotional arguments between spouses, but so long as themale remained employed and continued to provide income for the family, fidelity was notalways an expected trait [Author : Ai Lek]. For Ah Siang, his visits to the brothel
were especially obvious to his wife when he forgot to dispose of the evidence. At times
he would have unused condoms in his trouser pocket, or complimentary matchboxes
bearing the street address and “house name” of the brothel:
She knew. . . we fought over it sometimes, but we also fought over many things. Deep down I
think she knew that I was still a good husband and father. I didn’t leave her and the children
for another woman. . . . At the end of each day I still came home to them. [Author : Ah
Siang]

Apart from the emotional consequences surrounding the use of prostitutes, in theirinteractions with prostitutes the male factory workers also had to contend with thespectre of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). From  to  , the highest annual
incidence of STDs peaked in   when the number of infections was registered at  
cases per   members of the population, with gonorrhoea, syphilis and nongonococcal urethritis the most common forms [Snodgrass  : ]. In 

the island

reported its first case of HIV infection, followed by a debut of the AIDS virus a year later[ibid.: ]. Ian Snodgrass of the Communicable Diseases Centre in Singapore remarks thata significant number of those infected with STDs were production craftsmen andmachine operators/assemblers, and that a majority of the patients were male [ibid.: ].
For female workers the factory could be transformed into a domain where, if not
overtly sexual, was at least charged with sexual-tension through the advances of males
in superior positions.

These overtures reflect the dynamics of gender-relations in483ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏῎ ῑSingapore and the region at the time, where the empowered male line-supervisor,
production manager or factory owner was the norm for female workers. Towkay was amale designation both literally as well as in the context of gender relations. The term
towkay neo did exist, though it was less used to refer to a “lady boss” than it was for
identifying the “(male) bosses’ wife.” Of the  ethnic Chinese designated as employers in the census of , only   were female [Census 1980 ( ) :  ].
In key sectors within the manufacturing industry, women constituted the bulk of theemployed workforce [ibid.: ῌ; Census 1990 ( ) :  ῌ].

At the time ofenumeration, the census of  reports that  Chinese female employees staffed the
production lines [Census 1980 ( ) :], increasing to   by  [Census 1990 ( ):  ]. Most of their immediate supervisors were male, and the youthfulness of muchof the female work force made the latter prime candidates for romantic overtures, sexual
harassment, and in some instances, assault. Leng Yip, who was employed as a night shift
worker at the Motorola Factory in the Ang Mo Kio industrial park, recalls how aparticular supervisor placed in charge of the shift abused his position for his own lewd
gratification:[My supervisor] was a lau ti ko,  over years old with a wife and children. . . . The way helooked at the young [female factory workers] was so disgusting. He would stand over theirshoulders and look down. . . pretending to watch their work, but actually he was looking at theirchest. Other times he would look for chances to touch them, like when he was “teaching” them
how to operate the machinery, or when he said, your skin is so smooth, or, your hair is sosmooth, he would stroke their arms or hair. . . he kept a few of the women as his mistresses. . . it
was a well-known fact. He once offered me money too, I was tempted. . . because it was a sourceof income and I didn’t need to do much. . . . If I had taken up the offer I would have been no
better than a prostitute. [Author  : Leng Yip]

Exploitation of the women’s desire for continued employment, as well as a lack of
education about the channels through which they could express their grievances andreport cases of sexual harassment, meant that abuse of the workplace power dynamic
was prevalent. One factory supervisor allegedly took it upon himself to provide impromptu “medical check-ups” for production workers, particularly the younger women.
He would summon them into an office to examine their bodies for signs of ill health,which involved the female worker removing some articles of her clothing. Many women
who encountered such behaviour at work remained silent, or restricted their complaints
to each other [ibid.].
In other cases, romantic propositions by superiors were received more favourably. A
mundane existence could be enlivened by the “excitement of romance” [ibid.]. While noneof the female interviewees were forthcoming in personal revelations of adultery, several
were keen to defend friends who were less reserved about having extramarital affairs.
484

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

Many were young when they married their husbands and hence “not that ready” to betied down in matrimony and motherhood, Leng Yip offered. Consequently, for some atleast the desire for romance and excitement away from screaming children and absent
husbands was adjudged to be natural [ibid.].
Class mobility was also another draw when it came to considering the propositionsof a factory superior. Thoughts of escape from the financial immediacy of life on the
production line were inevitably contemplated as a worker from Seagate Technologies
Singapore, Boi Eng, illustrates:[The shift engineer] was young, quite good-looking. . . wearing glasses so he was very gentlelooking and spoke English very well since he had a degree from the National University ofSingapore. [He] was different from the very coarse type of men I grew up with. He treated mevery nicely. . . and dropped me off at the bus-stop [with his car] every evening. . . . I could tellvery quickly he was interested. . . you can tell by the way a man talks to you and looks at you,
you know ? . . . . Even though he knew I was married he still tried. . . . If I was still unmarriedthen I would have been happy to go out with him. . . .

He had money, a car and lived acomfortable life, it would have been nice to live like that. What a good life, an engineer you
know ! [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Boi Eng]

Ultimately Boi Eng would turn down his approach “to avoid subjecting my husband
to ridicule” [ibid.]. Shortly after, the shift engineer left Seagate to join JIT Electronics,
and the two have not met since.
It was often only due to tragic instances of violence, usually inflamed by the rejectionof an overture or a messy end to an affair, that such matters were brought to the surface,providing evidence of how exploitative and sexualised the factory environment could be
for many female workers.

Thirty-six year-old shift manager Wee Seng Chew was

accused of raping and assaulting a female worker in ῍ῒῑῑ. Wee had offered his victim alift home and took the opportunity to declare his feelings for her. When she rejected his
advances, he forced himself on her [Wanbao ῎ῑ. ῌῑ. ῍ῒῑῒ: ῑ]. The following year ῏῎ year-old
Teo Cheng Wee, a line supervisor, was arrested for repeatedly outraging the modesty of
two female workers. It was soon apparent to the police that they were not his first
victims [ibid.].

Labour Control and Moves Toward High-technology Industries
in the Latter ῍῏῎ῌsThe conditions in the factories were a symptom of the PAP government’s labour policies
drawn up after it came to power. The intervening years between the PAP’s victory in the
General Elections of ῍ῒῐῒ and the ῍ῒῑῌs are characterised by a legislated disempowerment
485ΐ῔῍῎῍ῑῐ ῐῐ῏ ῐ ῒof Singapore’s trade unions, accomplished primarily through the deregistration of “leftist-oriented” members of the Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU) and theamendment of the Trade Unions Act in ῍῕ῒῒ [Deyo ῍῕῔῕: ῍῎῎ῌ῍῎ῑ]. Frederic Deyo notesthat there was only one instance of industrial conflict-related work stoppage in ῍῕῔ῒ, andthat there were none in the years ῍῕ΐ῔ῌ῔ῑ [ibid.: ῒ῏], a remarkable decline from ῍῕ῑῑ when
there were ῎ΐῑ instances of work stoppages [ibid.: ῒ῎].
At the centre of the PAP government’s policy was its pursuit of an Export-Oriented
Industrialisation (EOI) strategy; by diminishing the power of collective bargaining andeliminating oppositional unions, the PAP state hoped to increase Singapore’s attractiveness to foreign capital by creating what Deyo terms as an “industrially peaceful”
investment landscape [ibid.: ῕ῐ]. Garry Rodan also suggests that the success of the EOI
strategy also required a high degree of government intervention, particularly in matterspertaining to labour costs and wage levels [῎ῌῌ῍: ῍ῐῑ].ῐ)The success of the EOI strategy manifested itself in the increasingly critical role thatthe factories played in Singapore’s economy, and the growing number of jobs the sector
was responsible for. The nature of the nation’s economy after independence is hence
characterised by the persistent presence and continued wooing of foreign Multi-National
Corporations (MNCs). As Mauzy and Milne have documented, investing MNCs foundSingapore attractive primarily due to labour legislation that was in place by the ῍῕ΐῌssuch as the Employment Act (῍῕ῒ῔) and the adoption of the National Wages Council(῍῕ΐ῎), which boosted productivity and aided in cost-minimisation [῎ῌῌ῎: ῏῍]. Singapore’s
reliance on MNCs firmly entrenched the nation’s economy, and in particular its manufacturing sector, into a system that would mirror industry developments in the host nationsof these corporations [ibid.: ῒΐῌῒ῔].

As the computer and technological industries in

the primary investor countries such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom,
the Netherlands, and Germany began to grow in significance from the latter part of the

῍῕῔ῌs, so too would this drive and alter Singapore’s manufacturing landscape. For thefactory workers, the prerequisites of “skill” and education in the factories would increase
dramatically.
As depicted in Table ῑ, investment emphasis on food and beverage production,
textiles, wearing apparel, plastic and wood products fell significantly (or continued to fallin the case of textiles and wearing apparel industries) between ῍῕῔ῌ to ῍῕῕ῌ as factories inthese industries were either wound up or relocated elsewhere in the region.
As much as they were concerned only with the immediate needs of their dailyῐῌ A more detailed examination of the function and decline of organised labour in Singapore’s
post-war history is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this paper. Interested parties shouldrefer to the excellent works dealing with the subject by Frederic C. Deyo (Beneath theMiracle) [῍῕῔῕] and Garry Rodan (“Singapore: Globalisation and the Politics of Economic
Restructuring”) [῎ῌῌ῍], both of which have been cited here.
486

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore
Table ῌNet Investment Commitments in Manufacturing Sector by Industry, ῍(millions of dollars)

Industry Type













Food and beverages
TextilesElectrical machinery and appliances
Plastic products
Wood products
Wearing apparel

 



 


 

 
 

 

 

 
 
 


 

 

 
ῌ

 


 
ῌ


 

   

Source: [Statistics :  ]

existenceῌfood, education for the children, and a home of their ownῌthe lives of theChinese factory workers were inextricably bound with the greater and abstract driving
force of technological determinism.

Salaff observes that the Singaporean schoolingsystem was tarred by “educational wastage” throughout the s, with large numbers ofstudents dropping “out of the academic stream without acquiring any of the skills
required by the advanced hi-tech industries” [: ῍].

And as we have alreadywitnessed, a premature end to schooling was a common feature among the Chinese
factory workers.
Made possible with the invention of components such as microprocessors andintegrated circuits, the “Personal Computer (PC) Revolution” began to gain momentum
by the mid-decade. Propelled by billions of investment dollars, the industry was transformed from hobbyist to multi-national in nature. PC sales doubled each year from to  from   units to . million in the United States alone, and by  computerrelated sales in the U. S. exceeded  billion United States dollars. Yet a combination ofhigh overheads and low productivity in the manufacturing sector of key developed
economies, particularly in the United States and Germany, meant that production often
fell heavily short of demand [see Sichel ]. Marrying the generous setup subsidies
provided by Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) with a pool of low-waged
skilled workers, the island appeared an attractive proposition for the situating of production facilities for many technological conglomerates [see ST . . ; ST  . . ].
The Yokogawa Hokushin Electric Corporation announced in  that it would shift
its production operations to a facility in Singapore [ST  .  . : ], while a Singaporean company, Wearnes Technology, was commissioned in the same year by Victor
Technologies to undertake the production of microcomputers for the North American
market [ST .  . : ]. Apple Computer, IBM and Compaq established manufacturing and sales facilities by  , while Kenwood announced the opening of its largest
factory in the Ang Mo Kio industrial park two years later, which would produce receivers
and compact disc players [ST  . . : ]. Alongside the Kenwood factory was amulti-million dollar wafer-chip manufacturing plant operated by Italian semiconductor
firm SGS. Other electronics giants such as Sony and Philips announced plans to site487ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῎  ῑextensive production facilities in Singapore by the end of the decade, the former in Tuas
employing nearly  workers and the latter with five factories running consecutive
eight-hour shifts, employing over  staff [see ST . . ; ST . . ].
The effect of this change in Singapore’s production landscape devastated the households of many older Chinese factory workers, with thousands of unskilled employees
rendered “obsolete” as they were considered by many employers to be lacking in thenecessary skills and education required for efficiency in high-technology factory operations. At the end of , the Ministry of Labour reported that 

workers in the

manufacturing industries had been retrenched in the first nine months of the year alone,adding to the total unemployment pool of nearly  [ST  .  . : ]. The census reveals that of the  economically-active persons who were unemployed at

the time of enumeration, more than a third were literate only in Chinese [Census 1990 (): ῌ ]. The majority were over the age of , and had received only primaryschooling [ibid.:  ].
Thus, the poorly educated and those literate only in Chinese, such as Swee Seng, aworker at Tractors Singapore Ltd. and a father of three teenaged children, were the ones
most directly affected. Swee Seng, along with over  factory operators, was laid off by
the company in November , with the recession a key reason cited for theorganisation’s retrenching of its employees. Bitterly, he suggests that this was merely an
excuse:All of the people that were let go were older workers like me. . . those who cannot read andspeak English. . . they wanted to get rid of us for a long time before that because they had
bought some new machines that were more complicated and more difficult to use. [Author :Swee Seng]

With only a Primary Two education, Swee Seng was left with few alternatives of
employment. From his two-bedroom flat in Toa Payoh he moved between odd-jobs forthe next six years, ranging from newspaper delivery to junk collection, until he was
finally able to secure more stable employment as a cleaner in the Kallang National
Stadium in  .
Having received no formal education in her childhood and entering her s by themid-s, Ngai Leong found herself discarded in similar fashion by her employers, Carlee
Electronics in  . Despite having been told that the company was downsizing its
operations, a few months later she learnt from a friend that the company was advertisingfor female production operators for single-shift work. The stipulated requisites wereyouth, and for applicants to have at least completed primary school [Author : Ngai
Leong].
At the time of her retrenchment, Ngai Leong was a mother of four. Her husband, aman  years her senior with a penchant for heavy gambling, worked the Keppel docks
488

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

as a mobile canteen operator. Once a month, she would rummage through his clothes andwallet while he slept, “extracting” her household allowance from whatever money he hadat the time. When she first did this, her husband flew into a rage, accusing her offrittering their money away on frivolous things. But according to Ngai Leong, over time,
he began to see the reason for her actions:
He knew that he cannot control the gambling habit, so this was the best way. Of course, he was
not happy.

All men have their egos and [to have their wife controlling their money] ishumiliating, but you cannot expect me to bring up the children by myself. [ibid.]

Even with her husband’s enforced contribution to the household income, employment remained foremost in Ngai Leong’s mind. Scouring the newspapers and pleadingwith friends and relatives to let her know if any work was available, she found her age
and lack of education an insurmountable barrier. She cannot remember how many jobs
she applied for, both on her own and through an employment agency, but it was “a lot,
many more than ῏ῌ I’m sure” [ibid.]. Two years and a series of odd jobs later, she was ather wits end when she heard of an opening at a new hotel. She applied to join its
housekeeping team, and after an anxious wait, Ngai Leong was given a job with amonthly wage of seven hundred dollars, subject to her undergoing a training programme.
From March ῍῕῔῕, the Westin Stamford would be her workplace. She was never to returnto the factories.

Remembering the ῍῏῎ῌs and the “Economic Miracle”:
The Perspective from Below
On the evening of ῎῔ November ῍῕῕ῌ, Lee Kuan Yew, who held the office of Prime
Minister since ῍῕ῑ῕, handed the official stewardship of the state over to Goh Chok Tongin a simple ceremony watched by the population on television sets live across the island.
Amid the tributes that poured in from friends and international dignitaries, it wasevident that Lee’s role in Singapore’s history was absolute. S. Rajaratnam, a colleague ofthe PAP strongman from the earliest days of the party, suggested that it was notnecessary for a statue of Lee Kuan Yew to be erected to honour his achievements. “I
think his statue is Singaporeῌwhat he created and left behind” [ST ῎ΐ. ῍῍. ῍῕῕ῌ: ῍ῒ].
Dennis Bloodworth, a former journalist and a close friend of Lee’s, commented, “He had avision of Singapore that he could create and I think he’s had the satisfaction of creatingit” [ibid.].
Ai Lek and her husband watched the ritual on the Mandarin television channel
mostly in awed silence, with the former commenting to her husband, “so sad that he has
to retire. He is a great man, without him we will not have today” [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Ai Lek].
489

ῒΐῌ῍ῌῐ῏ ῏῏῎ ῏ ῑDespite the harshness of their lives through the ῍ΐῒῌs, the couple was adamant that theirplight could have been far worse if not for the PAP. “Look at Africa, people there havenothing to eat. Life was hard, but at least we could survive. . . . All you need to do is work
hard and trust the government to know what’s best for us” [ibid.]. Since that November
evening in ῍ΐΐῌ, the couple’s view on the Singaporean leadership has changed, citing theunfairly high wages earned by subsequent PAP ministers compared to the income of“normal people” as a principal grievance [Author ῎ῌῌ῏: Ah Tee]. But the memory ofSingapore under Lee Kuan Yew is spared from criticism. “At least lao (old) Lee earned theright to be paid highly. The ministers today haven’t proven themselves at all” [ibid.].
What was most astounding was the simple acknowledgement of how they understood their plights. Virtually all were subservient to the state’s narrative of meritocracy,
and that their role as the nation’s labour force was a natural occurrence. Proof of this wastheir own attrition from the education system; regardless of the financial circumstancesthat led to them leaving school, workers such as Lok Kwee and Ah Tee were adamantthat they would not have successfully completed school even if financial resourceswere readily available. “Good in primary school doesn’t mean I’ll be good in secondary
school. . . . I am not the studying kind” reflected the former in spite of her outstanding
academic performance in her early schooling [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Lok Kwee]. For Boi Eng, theorder of the world was understood through the attainment of adequacy.

“Life isdestined,” she remarked, “Have house, have job and have food. Cannot complain, right ?
Always count your blessings” [Author ῎ῌῌῐ: Boi Eng].
In “the house that Lee built,” it is the ῍ΐῒῌs that visually captures all that iscommonly thought of when one considers Lee Kuan Yew’s historical function in
Singapore’s development.

Bearing the architectural hallmarks of the modernisation

process, it was dominated by the rapid appearance of skyscrapers en masse, complemented by the increasingly massive sprawl of HDB flats. Cutting a swathe throughthe urban jungle, both above and below ground, was a sophisticated multi-billion dollar
public transport system, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). These elements are arguably themost obvious signs of Singapore’s affluence attained during Lee’s leadership. Despite thedifficulties encountered in ῍ΐῒῐ/ῒῑ, the nation’s economy appeared triumphant, and ayounger generation of Singaporeans who were highly literate in the English language,
and thus projected an impression of sophistication in their dealings with clientele fromoverseas, were helping to transform Singapore into a centre for financial and computer
services in Asia.
Though the factory workers were a chief effecting mechanism in Singapore’s remarkable growth, the ῍ΐῒῌs were a time when their considerable problems, stemmingfrom having to survive in a hand-to-mouth existence, were increasingly compoundedthrough newer demands in economic relevancy. Older workers would be cast aside ascompanies began to demand of their production workers increased levels of minimum
education. For those who successfully made the transition into the new production490

E. KD= W. S. : On the Margins of the “Economic Miracle” in Singapore

workforce that was desired by the dictate of technological determinism, one had to makedo with long hours, low wages, and escalating living costs. Struggling to make loan
repayments for the houses that they had purchased from the state, pushing themselves tothe limits of endurance in order to come to terms with the rising costs of daily necessities,
the factory workers found themselves lodged in a long-term debt through which theirdocility toward their harsh circumstances could be exacted and expected. Amidst thegrowing affluence of the rest of the nation, they were to remain on the margins of the“economic miracle.”

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