Going to watch football with Dad at the National Stadium

Dad has left me about 15 years now, but I will always remember the occasion when he brought me to the National Stadium to watch the Singapore team play in the Malaysia Cup. I must have been 5, 6 or 7 years old then.

I vividly remember that Singapore trashed our opponents 5-0 that night. I don't remember whether it was Penang or Pahang that we were playing though.

Come to think of it, it must have been in 1977 that I started watching football, because that was the year that Singapore won the Malaysia Cup after beating Penang 3-2 (in extra-time, I believe), thanks to Quah Kim Song, one of Singapore's best footballers ever. Many years later, after I started working, I bumped into him during lunch one day, and I was really excited to see my childhood hero. Although I wanted to go up and tell him he was my hero when I was a kid, I eventually didn't as I was too shy to do so. Singaporeans have become too shy, too reserved. Scared of this, worried about that. It makes this a cold place to be in. Sigh...

Speaking of which, in 1995, just after Dad passed away, Mum and I were shopping at a supermarket in Upper Serangoon where we bumped into Dollah Kassim, another of my childhood hero from the 1977 team. Even though it was nearly 20 years since I last saw him on newspaper or TV, I could recognize him straightaway. I was very excited to see him, and I told Mum, "I saw Dollah Kassim!" I think Dollah heard me, because when I walked past him later, he gave me a smile. It's sad to know that he's still in coma...

I want to bring my kids to watch football at the stadium one of these days. Too bad they can't be watching Singapore giving Selangor or Penang a good spanking, but at least they will know what it is like to have been brought by their father to see a football match live.


Postscript

Speaking of Dollah, I just read a tribute to him here: http://blog.omy.sg/dingan/archives/428, and I couldn't control my tears reading it. This passage below sums up my feelings about living in Singapore. I love Singapore, but I think it will be difficult for the kids to live in Singapore next time. I might become an Australian one day, but I'll never stop being a Singaporean...

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A country without heroes, is a country with no need for patriotism, no need for unity,

of self sacrificing for you neighbour, and that is a very scary thought.

Dollah Kassim like all the footballers of their generation did these things

Sacrifice family time, their jobs, putting everything on the line,

to teach us what it means to be us.

to try to fight for everyone else, a world that not many people can understand

Why football is the very fabric of our nation, just like our ARTS industry.

the final missing piece and soul of meritocracy Singapore.

A country cannot live cannot breathe without legends.

Wake Up Dollah Kassim,

The Kallang Roar still needs you…