SINGAPORE – His day job involves organising events and conferences for companies.　

But on Thursday nights, Mr Irza Fauzan Suprapto, 35, is a football coach at a street football court near Chin Swee Road.　

For each session, Mr Irza puts about 20 children through various football drills before ending with a friendly match.　

“The court is built at a very strategic location, in the middle of all these blocks in this estate,” said Mr Irza of the rooftop space above a multi-storey carpark in Jalan Kukoh.　

“It’s an important focal point in this neighbourhood, and the kids spend most of their time in the area,” he added.　

The participants, aged seven to 16, are mostly from lower-income families, living in the HDB blocks in Jalan Kukoh, and nearby estates such as Jalan Minyak and York Hill.　

The football training is one of many initiatives by Catch Plus, an after-school programme run by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee.　

Other than football, Catch Plus also works with community partners such as Mendaki, Rotoract Club and Heartware Network to provide other programmes – including tuition and reading and literacy classes.　

For Mr Irza, the one thing he hopes to inculcate in his young charges is discipline.　

“I don’t know if any of the kids here will become a professional footballer in the future, but I hope that they walk away with a strong sense of discipline,” he said.　

In this episode of Living City, Straits Times Video visits Jalan Kukoh.

This article was first published on January 31, 2017
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MyTurf is a new fortnightly series that aims to tell the untold stories of our neighbourhoods.

In this second instalment, we take a look at the last of the old-generation swimming pools.

Where there was blue, now there is green.

Five years ago, Yan Kit Swimming Complex was demolished.

Like a disused grave, the rectangular pool was filled with soil and covered up.

Today, a carpet of grass rests lightly on it.

Singaporeans mourned the demise of the country’s second-oldest public swimming pool.

Tanjong Pagar residents mounted many campaigns to resurrect it.

The MP for the area, Ms Indranee Rajah, appealed to Sports Singapore on behalf of residents for a new pool to be built there.

But plans unveiled last month for the site – to be redeveloped into a new sports facility – did not include a pool, as the place is earmarked for sports and recreational use only until 2030.

A pool would have been too expensive, said Ms Indranee, explaining the authorities’ decision.

The only memorial to Yan Kit Swimming Complex now is a small semi-circular building where people used to wait to enter.

In its heyday, the pool, built in 1952, was so popular that a time limit of two hours was imposed on swimmers.

“People queued outside for hours to get in,” said retired lifeguard Ong Poh Soon, 72, adding that staff had to ensure that the crowds did not turn rowdy.

They included gangsters, whose notoriety in the Yan Kit area was well known in the 1950s, he said.

Lifeguards often had to double as bodyguards for young women who found themselves harassed by the gawking hooligans.

While Yan Kit occupied just 0.6ha, its three pools – a 50m swimming pool, a smaller and shallower training pool and a wading pool – were a first, setting the standard for public pools here. It also had a 6m- high diving board, a rarity then.

But the Yan Kit complex and others of its era later fell out of fashion.

They were overtaken by newer public pools such as the one in Jurong East, which opened to much fanfare in 2000, with water slides and a wave pool resembling those of commercial pools.

Today, the new-generation pools dominate the scene.

There are currently 23 public pools operated by Sports Singapore.

The first public pool built in the country was the Mount Emily Swimming Complex in Upper Wilkie Road.

It started as a reservoir in the 1880s before opening to the public as a pool in 1939. It closed in 1981.

Another, the River Valley Swimming Complex, which opened in 1959, closed in 2001.

While humble, these pools had their fans. Heritage blogger Jerome Lim had his physical education (PE) lessons at River Valley in the 1970s.

He described the walk to River Valley Road from his secondary school in Bras Basah as an “adventure” that took the better part of an hour-long PE lesson.

The quieter corners of the complex were popular among couples taking part in “clandestine acts”, recalled the 52-year-old naval architect.

Today, Singapore’s oldest surviving public pools date back to the 1970s.

They include the Queenstown Swimming Complex.

Built in 1970, it is most famous as the training ground for the nation’s water polo players, who have won gold in the SEA Games 26 times since 1965.

Sports Singapore said there are no plans to redevelop Queenstown or the Toa Payoh and Katong swimming complexes, built in 1973 and 1975 respectively.

But two others – Bedok and Tampines, built in 1981 and 1989 respectively – will be closed in the near future, to be replaced with pools integrated into new community hubs.

Other old-generation pools have found new leases of life.

Though the Farrer Park Swimming Complex, built in 1957, was closed in 2003 – one of six to shut down that year – it later became the home of APS Swim School, started by former national swimmer Ang Peng Siong.

The complex, leased by the authorities to the school, has helped train a new generation of swimmers, who include Paralympians Yip Pin Xiu and Theresa Goh.

The Bukit Merah Swimming Complex – the focus of a five-year dispute between the Housing Board and owners of a 120-year-old Buddhist temple that stood on its site – was also privatised in 2003.

It is now run by a private operator, Sports Lifestyle Initiatives.

Writer Jocelyn Lau, who describes swimming as a “national pastime”, documents the evolution in her book 50 Metres: Our Swimming Pools, a second edition of which will be launched next month.

Ms Lau, 42, the owner of publisher Kucinta Books, had started the book as a “small tribute” to her father, who had taken the family to swim at public pools in Toa Payoh and Katong, among others.

While newer pools may have better facilities, calls like the one to restore Yan Kit are part of a desire to preserve memories in the face of rapid development, said Mr Lim.

He added: “It’s a part of their childhood and what connects them to Singapore.

“I myself have a longing to go back and visit some of these places but they’re no longer there.”

azhaki@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 2, 2017.
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It can be sweltering in Singapore, but there is at least one place here where one can find respite, of both the physical and spiritual sort.

That place is St George’s Church – located off Minden Road in the Dempsey area, a former British army barracks turned dining enclave.

It is 36 deg C on a Sunday when this reporter visits the church’s 10am service – its second of three services – but the heat is forgotten as soon as one steps into the red-bricked, barn-like structure.

There is no air-conditioning, but the church, flanked by arches on its sides, lets the wind through. Inside, it is cool and shaded, and churchgoers get additional comfort from fans hanging overhead.

They sing, and their voices carry over to the forest outside: “Hosanna, hosanna. You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises!”

St George’s may not look as grand as Paris’ Sacre Coeur, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia or even the local Church of St Teresa, given that it boasts no spires or towers.

But its hallowed halls contain their fair share of history. On Nov 10, 1978, it was gazetted as a national monument for its historical and architectural significance.

Designed by British architect William Henry Stanbury, the church was built in 1910 to cater to the spiritual needs of British soldiers living in the Tanglin barracks.

It is a broad, rectangular building, inspired by the basilica style that prevailed in many parts of 4th and 5th century Europe, composed of red bricks from India which were laid out in intricate but practical patterns that aided ventilation.

When it was completed in 1913, the 650-seater church was appropriately dedicated to St George, the soldier saint and patron of England.

Some soldiers found it hard to reconcile their peace-embracing faith with their effort in the war.

While a military parade service was compulsory, and therefore well attended, no more than 100 out of 800 in the garrison would attend the evening services.

Chaplain Basil Copley Roberts wrote in his diary that “the work amongst the troops has been steady rather than exciting”, according to St George’s Church Celebrates One Hundred Years by David Jones and Anna Teo.

During World War II, the Japanese used the church as an ammunition store, and its British chaplain was taken as a prisoner of war.

He did not survive.

Another casualty was the church’s stained glass windows, which were said to have been buried for safe keeping in a secret location by the same chaplain.

Despite attempts to find them – including a 1992 “expedition” in Upper Changi Road led by a former British military man – the windows have never been found. Replacements were installed in 1955.

The new windows – in bold colours of red, blue, green, yellow and orange – sit above the altar and bear the image of Christ and the badges of the various regiments and forces that fought for the British in Malaya and Singapore: the Gurkha Regiment, the Malay Regiment, and the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Corps, among others.

After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, swift efforts were made to re-establish ministry work at St George’s.

By early 1947, many expected church functions had been restored, including Sunday school.

In 1971, St George’s was incorporated as a civilian church under the Anglican Diocese, after British troops withdrew from Singapore.

It was then granted parish status as a community church with a dedicated pastor two years later.

A visible reminder of its military links stands outside the church: Many worshippers would walk under a lychgate, typically used to shelter a coffin until the pastor arrived for a burial.

The gate is a replica of the one built by British POWs in Changi in 1942, reinstalled at St George’s in 1952, then dismantled and moved to England, where it now stands at the National Memorial Arboreteum in Staffordshire.

There are other echoes of the past in St George’s Church today: In the early days, a chaplain had no choice but to build new relationships with its congregation whenever a regiment or battalion was replaced.

Today, churchgoers may also be lost when their expat contracts end, although vicar’s warden S.Q. Ong notes that Singaporeans now make up 60 per cent of the congregation, up from 40 per cent two decades ago.

“It started out as an ‘ang moh’, British church, but we are very multinational now,” says Mr Ong, 67.

The church’s diverse membership – President Tony Tan Keng Yam is said to be one of its 900 members – does not mean the community is any less tight-knit.

Many worshippers The Straits Times spoke to say they meet regularly in smaller groups, or serve in other church ministries such as supporting missionaries financially and through prayer.

One worshipper who has made St George’s her spiritual base is Madam Rita Wright, an octogenarian who left Britain for Singapore a decade ago to be closer to her son.

“The fellowship and style of service here – it’s almost like home,” she says.

rachelay@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 02, 2017.
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The authorities are planning to cull chickens that are running wild all over Singapore.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it will take action whenever it receives complaints about noise.

The National Parks Board is also mulling over a similar move, but for a different reason: Concerns that the chickens may interbreed with their endangered ascendants, the native red junglefowl.

“Growth in free-ranging chicken populations increases the potential of interbreeding with red junglefowl, and will adversely affect the conservation of our native species,” Dr Lena Chan, group director of NParks’ National Biodiversity Centre, told The Straits Times.

The red junglefowl is native to Singapore and is nationally endangered, she added.

On the other hand, said Dr Wee Yeow Chin, founding president of the Nature Society (Singapore), chickens are domesticated birds and have no conservation status.

Read Also: Keeping close watch on free-ranging chickens

Dr Wee, who heads the Bird Ecology Study Group, added that with rapid interbreeding, the native species will gradually be reduced and be replaced by hybrids.

Wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai said the hybrids could also encroach on the nature reserves, where they take away native animals’ foraging opportunities.

Dr Chan said NParks will be partnering the local conservation community to strengthen the protection of the red junglefowl.

“This includes monitoring the overall red junglefowl distribution and population size, studying the extent of interbreeding and managing the population of free- ranging chickens.”

Though they may look similar, the red junglefowl has a number of distinct traits that set it apart from domesticated chickens.

The purebred red junglefowl have grey legs, whereas chickens mostly have yellow legs.

While chickens sport red combs, female junglefowl do not, said NParks.

Red junglefowl, unlike chickens, can fly and are also quieter.

Their calls are high-pitched and truncated, whereas roosters – male chickens – have a recognisable call that is louder and longer.

But Dr Wee said: “Contractors should be able to tell the difference between the two and not indiscriminately cull all ‘chicken-like’ birds.”

However, the authorities said purebred red junglefowl are known to occur only on offshore Pulau Ubin and the Western Catchment area.

Read Also: Fascinating facts about chickens

Ms Jessica Kwok, AVA group director of the animal management group, said the authority has received requests to manage the free- ranging chicken population due to noise pollution.

“To address these, AVA works with NParks to conduct surveillance and control operations to safeguard public health and mitigate nuisance issues,” she said.

Last year, AVA received reports from residents of the Pasir Ris and Thomson areas complaining about the noise from free-ranging chickens.

Due to a lack of relocation options in land-scarce Singapore, the chickens will be humanely euthanised, Ms Kwok said.

audreyt@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 2, 2017.
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