My Father Is Police, Lah! and the Realities of 1960s Singapore
Rowena Hawkins is a Malaysian-based writer born in Singapore to a Ceylonese family linked to exiled sultans of the Dutch East Indies. Her memoir My Father is Police, Lah! recounts her childhood in 1960s colonial Singapore, focusing on life inside a privileged police officer’s household. Told from a child’s perspective, the book combines humour and observation to depict a year of everyday incidents, family dynamics, and cultural intersections.
After studying in Singapore, Hawkins became Miss Singapore and later worked with the Red Cross and UNHCR during the Indochinese refugee crisis. She has since held corporate roles in Hong Kong and now lives in Kuala Lumpur. The memoir will be published by Earnshaw Books on 24 June 2025.
What prompted you to start writing this memoir, and how did you decide which stories to include?
My father’s passing in 2014 made me think a lot about his life and career achievements and how he, like many other military and government servants of his pioneer generation, was an ‘unsung hero’. As a seconded British Colonial military officer from Ceylon to Singapore, he was granted several colonial “perks” unavailed to local military and police officers in the Colony at the time – one of which was a Colonial Bungalow residence. Most of my narrative focuses on the children living in this huge colonial bungalow. As children, we paid no attention to our privileged background and upbringing. We saw all the other people around us and their children, especially my parent’s servants and their offspring, as belonging to the one family. Ours. As such, the events and incidents related to my parents, and our experiences during that one year, 1965 – 1966, as best as I could recall them.
How did you go about reconstructing the events, characters, and dialogues from your early childhood—did you rely on diaries, family conversations, or other sources?
I recall most of the events verbatim, from my memory and some conversations with my father, before he passed away. I have always been blessed with a powerful memory – I was a musician for 10 years in my childhood, and had to train to remember a lot of musical notes when playing piano pieces by heart, so that must have contributed towards my memory training.
How would you describe the atmosphere of 1960s colonial Singapore from a child’s perspective?
Children know no fear. Even during the political crises in Singapore – racial and civil – the then Government handled the situations very well so as children we did not really have to deal with the turmoil. However, I expect the less fortunate children growing up in kampongs and small villages might have had to tighten their belts somewhat and cope with whatever was thrown at them. We had a happy childhood.
How did your father’s dual identity as a Malay prince and a senior colonial police officer affect his standing in society?
He never lauded his royal heritage at all. Within the Ceylon-Malay community in Ceylon, the royal exiles from the Dutch East Indies Archipelago were not recognised outside of their own Community. So there was no cause, no occasion for pomp and circumstance. But being a senior military officer of the British Colonials allowed him to integrate with the upper echelons of Colonial society in Singapore, particularly amongst his Freemason Brethren who were mainly from the Colonial Government Uniformed Groups or Auxiliary Services.
What role did Singlish and multilingualism play in your everyday childhood interactions?
English was our mode of communication between us siblings when communicating with our parents and in School. However, we spoke Malay to my parents’ servants and their children. So we were already bi-lingaul from the very start of our communication process. “Singlish” was coined by the local races of people in Singapore, who spoke their dialects of Chinese, Malay and Indian, and interposed these with English words, thereby creating “Singlish”. As children, our communication process was always peppered with “Singlish” words and phrases, as our servants and blue-collar workers used this.
You describe racial and class tensions in several episodes—how aware were you of these dynamics as a child?
Not as seriously as we ought to have done, as we were well protected, since my father was a senior officer in the Colonial Police. But this would have been a grave concern for children and families of others at the grassroots levels.
What emotions did you experience when you were finally reunited with your sister Yuwari after so many years?
More surprise than shock. It took a while to sink in, and since that reunion compounded with several visits later, she and I have become extremely close. She became more of a mother and mentor to me, than did my own mother.
Looking back, how do you feel the privileges and contradictions of your childhood in colonial Singapore influenced your adult life?
Contrary to expectations, it grounded me to understand that people less fortunate than we have to be handled with sensitivity and caring. It has turned me into a giving, compassionate, and kind person, characteristics which I have adopted and carried from becoming an adult to this day. A good sense of discipline and community spirit nurtured into all Singaporeans in those times, by the then PM Mr. Lee Kwan Yew, has made most of the Singaporeans of my generation and probably the following two generations, who care for our Community and our Island Republic.
Beyond memoir, are there other genres or themes you’re interested in exploring in your future writing?
I have started on the Sequel to this book, which covers the teen until the Married year. Following this will be the final trilogy of the married years until retirement. I have also written some short stories and a play, based on two young girls travelling from Johore, Malaya, to Singapore post WWI, looking for their British Colonial father, who was feared to be incarcerated at Changi Prison by the Japanese. The Play, “Secrets of the Rising Sun”, has yet to be produced and performed on stage. I also enjoy whodunnits – Agatha Christie is my favourite, and I shall endeavour to dabble with murder mysteries after the two Sequels are completed.
Photos courtesy of Rowena Hawkins
Topics: My Father is Police Lah, colonial Singapore memoir, 1960s Singapore childhood, Earnshaw Books release, police bungalow Singapore, Ceylonese family history, autobiography Singapore
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