Hunt for family history turns into heritage project on Seletar village

Former residents' stories will quickly be forgotten if not recorded: Amateur historian

- Ng Keng Gene

Mr Rustam Shariq Mujtaba's patchwork heritage is a reflection of Singapore — his paternal grandparents came from Nalanda, north India, and China's Fujian province, while his maternal grandmother hailed from Semabok in Melaka.

Mr Rustam knew his maternal grandfather was born in Singapore, but for a long time, he did not know where exactly on the island he grew up.

"I couldn't point to a village in Singapore and say, 'this is where (he) came from'," he said.

This matter drove the 28-year-old data analyst to start a heritage project to trace his family's roots and tell stories of that kampung.

Mr Rustam would find out from a distant relative that his maternal grandfather came from Kampong Pos, a village that even his mother had not heard of.

Located in Seletar, its residents were displaced by a British Royal Air Force camp in the 1900s, said Mr Rustam.

Some would go on to settle in Kampong Tongkang Pechah, located around today's Fernvale neighbourhood in Sengkang. The village existed from around the 1930s to the 1970s and was taken over for pig farming after that, according to Mr Rustam's research.

The village — believed to be named after a broken vessel in Sungei Punggol, which ran near the village — inspired the name for his heritage project, Project Broken Barges.