FOCUS
&
The Farmer, the Patriot
the Future Politician
The gentle warrior wants
to make the world a
better place.
I am somebody
who respects
any form of life
as long as it is
not evil. I respect
homosexuals,
etc. but
unfortunately, not
everybody sees it
the way I see it.
14
Family & Life • Oct 2014
Words Farhan Shah
Photos Glenn Lim
About a decade ago, the Kranji
countryside was merely an
afterthought. It was a land of swaying
lallang, occasionally pushed to the
side by a young man in battle fatigues
trying to find a comfortable place
to rest, and roaming wild dogs who
snapped at the heels of strangers or
nuzzled up to them, depending on the
time of day. Watches ticked slower,
nature ran rampant, and the cool
breeze caressing the farmers’ backs
was the equivalent of modern airconditioning.
Then, she came – galloped into
town at the turn of the millennium
like a modern-day Clint Eastwood
on petroleum-powered, fourstroked horseback. The countryside
would never be the same again, its
landscape permanently transformed
by the sheer force of will that Ivy
Singh-Lim wielded.
The feisty and opinionated
sexagenarian never intended to
become a farmer or the face of
Bollywood Veggies, the bistro and
farm she founded with her second
husband Lim Ho Seng, former CEO
of NTUC FairPrice. She was all set
to move permanently to Australia
and retire, and “probably get my
money swindled by the white people”.
Apparently, the universe had other
plans for the self-proclaimed gentle
warrior. When the husband of a close
friend passed away, she returned to
Singapore. Then, one day, the local
newspaper beckoned her to open its
pages. She saw the open tender for
the unused piece of farmland where
Bollywood Veggies now sits and
decided to bid for it.
That was where I found myself on a
sunny Thursday morning, munching
on the bistro’s signature chocolate
banana cake while engaged in
passionate discourse with arguably
one of the most polarising woman in
Singapore today about politics, the
evil that lurks in our hearts, and the
perpetual state of unhappiness that
all of us seem to be mired in.
Why are we always so
unhappy, Ivy?
Simple. It’s because politics and
religion create fear in people. I call it
the 3Gs – the Government and Gods
create Ghosts. Every day, you hear
your government telling you that we
must defend our country, so we buy
a lot of guns and bombs and live in
fear that our neighbours are going to
shoot at us.
When we were young, our
neighbours loved us and we loved
our neighbours! We knew that we
needed each other to survive. Now,
the politicians are telling everyone
that there is a Ghost trying to shoot
them. Religions are the same –
religious groups quarrel with each
other because each of them believe
that it is the one, true belief.
I don’t understand why we are
making people insecure. The creation
of insecurity makes people fearful
and unhappy. I’m not insecure. I’m
not frightened. I’m always happy. Yet,
I see all this unhappy people around
the world, which makes me unhappy.
This problem is so entrenched in
the world and it’s very hard to do
something about it.
What would you
do about it?
If you create an environment and
a value system in which people
are treasured and loved, then the
people will not be worried, fearful
or insecure every day. It’s so simple.
Ensure that they have an education
so that they can get good-paying
jobs. Ensure that they have a good
transport system so that they can
get to work. Ensure that there is a
robust and affordable healthcare
system so that they can be fit. Why
do we confuse life so much? I am
disappointed and disgusted with
what is happening around me. If I
started a crusade, I can easily form
a revolution. It’s not about going
to arms. Rather, I want to create a