‘This is home’, for retired shop owner putting up 11th flag display in Toa Payoh to mark SG60

SINGAPORE – In one corner of Toa Payoh Lorong 1, there is a gigantic red “60” formed from Singapore flags stretched across two public housing blocks. Spanning the fifth to ninth storeys, the display of 60 flags flutters in the wind against a bright blue sky.

The display, with the number changing each year, has appeared in the lead-up to every National Day since 2015, when Singapore turned 50, and is now an integral part of how the neighbourhood celebrates Singapore’s independence.

The mammoth installation is the brainchild of a retired provision shop owner, Mr Ong Kok Chee, 63.

Helping his father run the provision shop from 1973, Mr Ong would watch him work to better the lives of those in the community as a Citizens’ Consultative Committee member of Toa Payoh East.

It was at this small shop at Block 206 Toa Payoh North that the younger Mr Ong met residents from all walks of life and heard their woes.

They started to give him a call whenever they needed a hand with something, from a lift breaking down to falling seriously ill and losing their job.

“Serving the residents was what my father did. I wanted to be like him,” said the younger Mr Ong, who recently retired and is renting out his shop space.

He followed in his dad’s footsteps, joining the Toa Payoh North Zone 2 Residents’ Network in 1998 as a grassroots leader.

Every National Day, he and his team would stick small flags around the neighbourhood to create festive cheer. But after being used for many years, the flags began to fade. So when SG50 came around, Mr Ong thought of doing something different.

Wanting something striking, he hunted for giant flags to put up, but they cost at least $800.

The former Ngee Ann Polytechnic shipbuilding and design student had an idea to create a display with smaller flags instead, and he started to make his own sketches and calculations. Then it was to the hardware store to get equipment for hanging the display between the fifth and nine storeys above his shop.

The first time he and a few volunteers put up the display, it got badly tangled in the strong wind, and had to be redesigned and rehung.

He came up with another design, and that one needed about eight people to pull the ropes with all their might from the higher storeys to hoist and tighten the installation. Bystanders passing below would call out feedback on how to adjust the display.

The first display, “50”, finally went up on a Sunday in July 2015.

The next day, Mr Ong was stacking Lianhe Zaobao newspapers when he saw a picture of his installation on the front page.

The response from residents was overwhelming.

“We had to do it again,” he said in Mandarin.

Asked if he considered himself patriotic, he was modest. “I was born here. This is home.”

Several neighbours spotted Mr Ong on Aug 8 as he led The Straits Times out to the installation.

“Closed shop already, eng eng ceng ceng (very free), now kia lai kia ki (walking here and there),” two women teased, while taking a rest from their morning’s grocery shopping.

“Good, (if you are) free, then come and keng gai (chat),” they added.

When ST photojournalist Shintaro Tay was taking pictures of Mr Ong against his flag installation, a Beatty Secondary School student appeared. “Wait, is that the guy who made that?” he asked.

“I saw it on Instagram yesterday,” the student said, delighted, as his friends came up from behind, clad in red from their school’s National Day celebrations on Aug 8.

Showing us the wall of newspaper clippings featuring the flag display in the Residents’ Network centre, Mr Ong said: “I am very happy that people appreciate our hard work. It motivates me to keep going.

“I want to continue as long as I can, to do my part to make sure this goes up year after year.”