As a Singaporean born and raised in the country, I heard so much about the Bukit Ho Swee fire from my maternal grandmother, who used to stay in one of the urban kampongs in the Tanjong Pagar area, yet knew so little about this calamity and its place in Singapore's history. Squatters into Citizens is the first academic study of this “unprecedented inferno” that destroyed 2200 dwellings, left 15,694 people homeless, cost an estimated two million Singapore dollars in damages, and claimed four lives (pp. 148–151). However, this book is not merely an account of the fire and the subsequent rehousing program in the aftermath of the disaster. Rather, this study presents a “more complex and nuanced story” (p. 1) of the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee fire. It argues that the “inferno tipped the balance in a protracted struggle not between modernity and backwardness, but between two forms modernity” (p. 1) – namely, that of the People's Action Party's (PAP) vision of modernity based on well-planned public housing estates versus the kampongs’ progressive and semi-autonomous alternative form of modernity. This disastrous fire, as Loh Kah Seng suggests, altered the relationship between the state and Bukit Ho Swee dwellers, and resulted in the rehousing of so-called ‘squatters’ and slum-dwellers into Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and the transformation of the urban margin.
The book is divided into ten chapters and can be broadly divided into three sections. After the introductory chapter, the first section, which consists of chapters 2–5, discusses the origins and development of the urban kampong in general and Kampong Bukit Ho Swee in particular. The second section, which includes chapters 6–8, narrates the residents’ experience of the unprecedented inferno, the PAP government's emergency response, and the building of Bukit Ho Swee housing estate. The final section, which consists of chapters 9 and 10, highlights the tensions of modernity in Bukit Ho Swee estate. In chapter 10, Loh suggests that the Bukit Ho Swee fire produced three myths, namely, (1) the official story that frames the inferno as a ‘blessing in disguise’, (2) a nostalgia for the harmonious and idyllic kampong life, and (3) rumours of government-inspired arson.
Squatters into Citizens is an important contribution to the field of Singapore studies, and the historiography of post-war Singapore in particular. On one level, this book tells a people's history of Singapore (Lim Reference Lim2013; Loh Reference Loh2009; Warren Reference Warren1986, Reference Warren1993). Loh presents a compelling story of daily lives in ‘squatter’ communities, the dwellers’ experience of the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire, their housing relocation, as well as their memories of the fire and the rumours surrounding the calamity. At a broader level, this study adds to the burgeoning literature on the historiography of post-war Singapore (Barr and Trocki Reference Barr and Trocki2008; Loh et al. Reference Loh, Edgar Liao and Guo-Quan2012). Loh convincingly critiques the ‘official’ myth of the 1961 Bukit Ho Swee fire that has become a “celebratory account of success, which forms the template for the official narrative of the city state's history, the Singapore Story” (p. 244).
One of the great strengths of this fascinating book lies in the use of oral history. Loh conducted about 100 interviews between 2006 and 2007 to obtain insights into “both the perspectives and experiences of wooden house dwellers” (p. xxiv). His impressive range of informants comprises of “males and females; English, Mandarin and Hokkien speakers; and former civil servants, shop owners, hawkers, shipyard cleaners, factory workers, construction workers, general laborers, and homemakers” (p. xxiv). These oral history interviews allowed Loh to reconstruct aspects of the everyday lives of the squatter communities – such as the pail toilet system, the use of graveyards as playgrounds, and secret society activities – in vivid detail. In addition, Loh interviewed other individuals, including architects, public officials, firefighters, artists, grassroots leaders, rural activists, and social workers “whose li[ves] and work were bound up with the 1961 fire” (p. xxiv). Taken together, these oral accounts provide a comprehensive picture of Bukit Ho Swee before, during, and after the inferno.
Loh has done a commendable job of situating the Bukit Ho Swee fire in the broader context of state-society relations and the dynamics of political transition in post-war/post-colonial Singapore. At the same time, he is also aware of the fact that oral history interviews cannot tell a ‘total history’ of this unprecedented inferno. After all, as Loh points out in his preface, the HDB, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Internal Security Department denied him access to classified government records. The lack of access to the archival records “affected particularly the part of history [Loh] wanted to tell after the disaster, while the cause of the fire remains in the realm of social rumors that the inferno was caused by an act of arson by the state to clear the kampong for public housing” (p. xxvi). In other words, the cause of the fire remains a mystery.
Squatters into Citizens significantly advances our understanding of this disastrous yet momentous episode in Singapore history. It will be particularly useful to those who are interested in the social history of post-war Singapore, Singapore's housing policy, and disaster studies. Furthermore, Loh's writing style is such that it allows you to step into the lives of the Bukit Ho Swee dwellers. Despite being a book on Singapore's most destructive fire disaster, I must say that it is enjoyable to read.
