Health Minister Ong Ye Kung’s promise to explore the possibility of setting up a physical Naval Base Kerala Library (NBKL) in Sembawang has come as a boost to the Malayalee community, who celebrated the NBKL’s 70th anniversary on Sept 7.
Speaking as the guest of honour at the NBKL’s Onam festivities and anniversary celebrations at the Singapore Expo, Mr Ong, who is also an MP for Sembawang Group Representation Constituency, suggested the possibility of the NBKL co-existing with a library planned to be built at Bukit Canberra Hub.
Bukit Canberra is an integrated sports and community hub next to Sembawang MRT station. It houses, among other facilities, an indoor sports hall, a polyclinic, a senior care centre and a hawker centre.
“For a long time we have been looking to set up a physical library,” said Mr V. Bimel Ram, 57, adviser and former NBKL president. “We were looking to do it at a void deck.
“The minister’s support for our endeavour has come as a tremendous boost. We want to bring back the glory days of the NBKL when it was a centre for the Malayalee community in Singapore to meet during the 1950s to the 1970s.”
The NBKL was started in 1954 at the British Naval Base in Sembawang by a group of Malayalees who wanted to find a space to share and exchange books, magazines and newspapers.
The British Naval Base was then known as Kochu Keralam, or Little Kerala, as it had a very large number of Malayalees who lived and worked there.
The founding group was led by Mr Poravankara Narayanan Nair, the late father of former The New Paper editor P.N. Balji.
The NBKL quickly grew from a cosy hub for Malayalee literature lovers to a library boasting thousands of books (more than 2,000 of them are currently held by different members who are waiting for a physical library to open). It also became a nucleus of drama, culture and sports for the Malayalee diaspora.
For its 10th anniversary, the NBKL marquee Ona Ravu event featured an array of cultural performances and attracted distinguished guests, including then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
“My memories of NBKL are hazy,” said Mr Balji, 75. “But I remember the rare occasions my father used to take me there. Looking back, I realise there were people who would die for language and traditions.”
Cardiologist V.P. Nair, 83, has vivid memories of the NBKL at Sembawang. “Those days, there were very few Indian associations,” he said. “One was the Singapore Kerala Association, which later became the Singapore Malayalee Association and is now 107 years old. The other was the Naval Base Kerala Library.
“Many from the community, like my parents, came over from Kerala to work at the Naval Base. And they did not have Malayalam papers or books to read. So they started a library.”
However, the British military withdrawal from Singapore in the late 1960s led to a Malayalee migration, prompting NBKL to relocate its vibrant cultural activities to the Victoria Theatre and other more central venues.
In 1986, it moved in with the Seletar Sports Club at Durban Road. But in 2001, the building was taken over by the Singapore Land Authority, forcing the NBKL to work with community centres in Sembawang and Yishun.
Soon after, the support for the NBKL dwindled, and it became an organisation that did not have a physical space.
Over the past two decades, it has been the likes of Mr Bimel who have kept it going.
“The NBKL remains a library of cultural, social and sports activities for the Malayalees,” said Mr Bimel. “It is something we call the NBKL spirit, to punch above the weight and remain relevant. The many volunteers and kind sponsors have given strength to our determination.”
The NBKL now has about 30 life members. Its executive committee is led by president Sudheer Govindapillai, 50, who works in the oil and gas industry and came to Singapore in 2003 for work.
Other prominent members are vice-president Rekha Vasupurath, secretary Loshy Balan and treasurer Pushpachandran Pillai.
“It has been a struggle for us to keep the NBKL active because of a lack of funds and membership,” said Mr Sudheer. “So, we have taken to organsing cultural activities, with Ona Ravu our major event of the year.
“We make great efforts to give Malayalees a stage to show their talents. Our aim is to find a permanent place to make our activities more regular.”
Many members of the Malayalee community support this move.
Said Mr Rajeshkumar Gopalakrishnan, a documentarian and publisher: “During my interactions with several senior individuals while working on the History Wall project during SG50 and the documentary about Malayalees’ contributions in Singapore for the National Library, I gained a deep appreciation for the rich heritage of the Naval Base Kerala Library.
“I’m thrilled to see the new generation of NBKL working hard to bring a physical library to life once again, preserving its legacy for future generations.”
