The islanders of Pulau Bukom would be familiar with petroleum giant Shell – their presence on the island since 1891. It set up Singapore’s first oil refinery in 1961 and till today, Bukom Refinery remains Shell’s largest refinery in the world.
Islanders we spoke to from Pulau Sudong, Seking or Semakau would have family or relatives who earn their livelihood working labour intensive jobs – some moving away from fishing as their only source of income.
Having worked on Pulau Bukom with Shell since 1969, Leng Ng Tai has seen tremendous change on the island even till today. He shares his experience of working, and even living, on the island of industry.
Leng Ng-Tai has worked and lived on Pulau Bukom for over 45 years for Shell, a leading multinational oil and gas company. Here he stands in front of the well-known swimming pool, now unused, with a sea view – having lived on the island for close to a decade. His son too works for Shell on Pulau Bukom. They still go to work together today, in a journey that takes an hour – first by car to the jetty, then across the sea by Shell's chartered ferry.
Besides Leng, there were others too who worked on the island like Ahmadi Bin Mukasan, born and bred on Pulau Bukom. He was better known as Madi on the island, or Fireman 18.
His father was from Banyumas region in Java. He decided to seek a better life by migrating to Pulau Bukom Besar, before it was reclaimed with Pulau Bukom Kechil to what the island is today.
Madi’s father managed to find work as a cleaner at the open-air cinema where he got the chance to watch movie stars such as P. Ramlee and Saloma perform.
As Shell started to have a bigger presence on the island, Madi’s family – like many others – was resettled in 1961 to a kampong house at Kaki Bukit. “We didn’t want to leave initially,” he said.
Ironically, it was only after he left that he managed to work as a fireman back on Pulau Bukom. So with his wife and children, they moved in the quarters – known to many as rumah putih (white houses). Meanwhile, the rumah merah (red houses) were all for the officers, engineers, doctors and high ranking officials.
The only thing on my mind was death.
Ahmadi Bin Mukasan, when facing the 1989 Pulau Bukom fire
The threat of a major fire on the island was real for Madi. On 21 February 1989, he faced a raging fire – as high as 10-stories he claimed – at the oil refinery in the early morning.
“The only thing on my mind was death,” Madi said when his jacket got stuck on the firetruck as his team wanted to leave the scene of the fire by foot. Six of his teammates had left.
Luckily he managed to escape somehow, only with major blisters on both his arms. A photograph of him on a stretcher entering the ambulance made to the pages of the Berita Harian the following day.
Madi and his family finally left Pulau Bukom in the 1990s, and like many others left behind many memories on the island.
Recently, some of these islanders organised an event titled Bukom Kenangan Manis (Sweet Memories of Bukom) on August 2014 at the Institute of Technical Education College East. More than 300 people attended this gathering – some have not seen each other for more than 50 years.
With their children and grandchildren attending this event, three generations came together for an afternoon of nostalgia. As they walked through the main entrance, old photographs glued onto cardboard frames were open for order. You simply needed to indicate – G17 or J15 – which photographs you were interested. Soon after, a copy of that photograph is available for you to take home.
And all that these former islanders were left with in the end, were photographs.
Cover photo courtesy of Abdullah Lasiman.