Urban Legends from BMTC in Tekong

​Confession by KK Heng

The Old Granny and the Child
There’s a popular rumor of the ghost of a granny with her grandchild walking the grounds of BMTC in Tekong. According to it, this old granny and the child would point out whoever was still awake after lights out. Most of us understood that this was just a cautionary tale told by our sergeants to scare us into sleeping after lights out.
 
But there was one incident that happened to a buddy of mine that made us rethink that there could be some truth to the tale.
 
I was in Hawk Company and we stayed on level six of the barracks. My buddy had a high fever and he was given Pes C Bunk status, meaning he could rest in his bunk instead of the medical centre, and it wasn’t serious enough to release him from camp.
 
It was in the evening right after sundown. The company was downstairs at the company line cleaning our rifles; my buddy was the only one in the bunk resting. In his half conscious state, he was awoken by a hunchbacked granny who spoke to him in hokkien asking him why he was the only one in the room? Still a little groggy from sleeping the whole day, he replied in his limited Hokkien that he was sick and that the others must be outfield or at the parade square.
 
The old granny acknowledged and walked away. It was only a few minutes later that he realized what had just transpired. He jolted awake and found that he was alone in the bunk. The sun had set fully, and the room was in total darkness. The only light source came from the fluorescent ceiling lamps along the corridor.
 
Could she be the ghost that people had claimed to witness previously?
 
No Pork Allowed on the Island.
 
It was well known that the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) was built atop a Muslim cemetery in Tekong and consumption of pork was not allowed anywhere else other than the cookhouse. This incident happened to a recruit from the company beside ours.

The recruit was also given Pes C Bunk status. His buddy, looking out for him, brought back food from the cookhouse for him. It didn’t occur to the buddy that there was pork on the menu that day. So nice of him to tapao a packet of dinner up to the bunk.

That night, while in the midst of slumber, this particular recruit was woken up by 3 green faces peering through his mosquito net but he brushed it off as his imagination. After that incident, it seemed like bad luck followed him throughout camp. A few days later during training, he felt like he had been pushed and was hurt so badly that he had to drop out of the course.
 
Was this punishment for consuming pork on camp grounds?