Memoir set in MÁLAGA
Memoir set in 1960s SINGAPORE
19th June 2025
My Father is Police, Lah! by Rowena Hawkins, memoir set in 1960s SINGAPORE
“Lah” is a typical Singapore-English (‘Singlish’) suffix used for “added effect”.
It has no specific meaning.
This memoir is a peek into life in Singapore in the 1960s. It is the story of a privileged family: “My parents…were among the precious few Asians in colonial Singapore who fell under the category of Double Income parents“, who had a good income and lifestyle, living in a colonial bungalow. Hawkins’ father was a Malay prince, with a difficult history of exile in Ceylon and who then eventually trained as a DI in Singapore. He had an arranged marriage with a former ballerina. The family lived at 409 New Bridge Road and the eight colonial buildings on that road have now been replaced by a police complex.
Early on the author sets up a vision of life at home and introduces readers to Zubaidha and Kebun, a husband and wife team. The former ruled over the house and kitchen, the latter toiled in the garden. The author’s older sickly sister was taken by her Ayah to Surathani in Thailand, to consult with a monk, well-versed in tackling supernatural afflictions in children – and there they remained for many years. Her brother, being born in Snake Year, had a very vindictive streak with which the author had to contend on many occasions. However, the two siblings were often up to mischief as a double act and undertook capers at school, right under the noses of her parents and teachers (whom she considered “well past their use-by date“).
There are insights into daily life, and the author conveys a real sense of the mix of nationalities, ethnicities, religions and cultures that exist together. There are trips to the Magnolia Milk Bar on Orchard Road, where her father gathers tip-offs, there are birthday parties, outings, and a trip back to Ceylon.
This is clearly an informed and personal look at life in Singapore in the 1960s, written in a measured, crisp and concise style, mirroring perhaps the more formal way of speaking and writing of the era. There are value judgements referencing, for example, modern day children screaming for what they want and being indulged, in contrast to the much lower expectations amongst the largely well-behaved children in the latter-day Singapore. There are some inclusions of humour that sound maybe just a little forced “…mobile phones had not yet been invented and the mention of the word WhatsApp could have easily been regarded as some form of condiment“. Overall there is a good sense of the footsteps past and this memoir is a nice way of connecting with Singapore as it once was in the 1960s.
A fun cover for the book.
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