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The Teos were the only Chinese family there, but felt totally at home. He says: "Neighbours dropped by to chit-chat even if they had nothing to buy.”

He and his brothers did not fish, but their fishermen neighbours often shared their catch.

During Malay weddings and Hari Raya, the brothers exchanged gifts - usually something from their provision shop or a hongbao - with their neighbours, who gave them kueh and nasi briyani.

Although the islanders mostly interacted among themselves, with some inter-marrying, they also caught up with those from other southern islands, where they had relatives.

There was an annual sports meet called the Pesta Five S, drawing participants from the five islands of Sudong, Semakau, Sakijang Bendera (now known as St John's Island), Seking and Seraya. Pesta is the Malay word for carnival.

The islands took turns to host the games, which took place over a few weekends. There were land games such as tug-of-war and soccer, as well as water games such as sampan races.

Mr Rosli Manan, 51, a constituency support executive who was born in Pulau Sudong, recalls turning up with other village children for these meets. "It was a very lively time for the islanders," he says. Life was austere then, as most of the islands lacked running water and sometimes, electricity.

Mr Teo of Pulau Seking remembers using kerosene lamps at night. To get fresh water for cooking and drinking, his brother took 15-minute motor boat rides to Pulau Bukom, returning with big covered pails of water.

Pulau Bukom was one of the more developed islands in the south because Singapore's first offshore oil refinery opened there in 1961. It also had a hospital where Mr Teo's brother was sent to when he got a sharkfish bone stuck in his foot while walking on the beach.

Living so near the coast also made them more vulnerable to the elements. A big storm once blew off the roofs of a few attap houses, including that of the Teos’.

Despite these challenges, Mr Teo has fond memories of his island life. He says: "The air was fresher and we had fresh fish to eat every few days.””

A grim collection of 14 skulls which were unearthed from unmarked graves on the pleasure island of Sentosa in April and May last year will keep their macabre secret for the time being at least. 

The skulls now line a wall shelf in the Pathology Department at Outram Hospital.

Police have closed their files on the investigation of the remains and classified the case as “unsolved”.

Bullet found

The investigation will be re-opened if new facts or developments come to light, police said. 

At a recent coroner’s inquiry into the case, the State Coroner, Mr. Chee Wai Pong, recorded a finding of “murder by person or persons unknown” in the case of one skull which had been split into four by a bullet. Open findings were recorded against the other 13 skulls and broken-up skeletons. 

Dr. Chao Tzee Cheng, head of the government pathology department, told the court that the skulls and skeletons belonged to person whose ages ranged from 20 to 60 years old.

Of the 14 skulls and skeletons, two belonged to women, he said. 

The court also heard that two of the skulls bore fractures but how they were caused could not be ascertained, he added.

Apart from this, no other evidence on the cause of death of the 13 was put before the court. The Coroner returned open findings. 

Personal belongings, including two ladies’ canvas shoes were also shown in court.

These were of a type not found in Singapore and the inference was that they were of Indonesian make.

The first skeletons were found when a construction worker was digging at a site for the Sentosa Coralarium on April 26 last year. 

He found two human skeletons in the sand and later notified the police.

Burials

Subsequently, 12 more skulls and skeletons were uncovered in the same area. All of them were found buried within an area of 0.45 sq metre and in depths of a metre or slightly more.

From this, police were convinced that the skeletons had been buried and not washed ashore.

The Pathology Department established that the burials took place over a period of ten years from the date they were found. 

Sentosa skulls keep their grim secret [ARTICLE] 

(19) “What might be the cultural motivations behind such a house construction? From the above description fo the house, what tends to stand out as important are two areas - the verandah and the kitchen, which are connected by a narrow passage way. Geoffrey Benjamin’s historical analysis of the evolution of what he calls ‘Malay’ type societies has suggested that in such societies because of their early preoccupation with trade, the men tended to dominate the extra-domestic public sphere, whereas the domestic sphere became the special concern of the women. This is a different social orientation from the other societal types in the peninsular, namely the Semang who were hunter and gatherers and the Senoi who were sedentery farmers. Given that collecting for trade necessitated the men establishing relations with domains outside the village, domestic and village organisation normally tended towards a matrifiliative bias and the sister-sister links became the conjuctive components. In a personal discussion, he made the plaustible suggestion that such an ideological orientation towards division in spheres of activity could then have been manifested in their house construction - the physical separation between the verandah and the kitchen. The verandah then, as observed in Malay villages - is the place where the men usually sit around and interact in a relatively formal, etiquette-ruled manner, can be thought of as the ‘public’ domain of the house. The women on most occasion gather together in the kitchen - the ‘domestic’ domain of the house. There are usually two doors, as mentioned above one leading right into the verandah and the other just besides the kitchen door. This again seems to mark the separation of the public and ‘domestic’ domains of the house. The passage-way at the exterior of the house then (as the door leading to the kitchen) among other things of course provides for the women’s easy access to their domain, the kitchen. There is thus no interruption to whatever that is going on in the verandah. The other significant characteristic about most of the houses on Seking is that the doors are at the side of the house, thus facing the neigbouring house along its side. Having doors at the front of the house would mean on the other hand, facing the open ground of the island, or the various community structures, or just the hilll-side for the peoiple at Sebelah Sebong. This preference to face one’s neighbours is to my mind a reflection of something fundamental in Malay culture - that is the need to extend social relations to others.”

“Chou (1988) surveyed four of Singapore’s southern reefs, including cyrene reef and Pulau Hantu which are studied here, and found between 25.3% and 62.0% live coral cover at 3m depth with a range of 15 to 28 genera.” (Study area, para 1)

“Raffles Lighthouse (Pulau Satumu), Located 15km from the main island of Singapore, Raffles Lighthouse is the furthest offshore of the southern islands.

Pulau Hantu is predominantly made up of land reclaimed in 1974 and the island is now used for recreational purposes. Although most of the original reef flats have been covered, the reef slopes are still intact. However, these were delteriously affected by sedimentation from the reclamation project and are still subject to sedimentation from similar work and dredging in the vicinity, making the levels here slightly higher than at Raffles lighthouse” (Study area, para 2,3)