25The red and white sign with the outline of a house was the Housing and Development Board’s symbol of home and hope, a symbol that Chong Suk failed to appreciate as he and Weng edged past the crowd in the lift lobby. He was wary of entering the government building, and of the government officials. The housing rules and regulations were incomprehensible to him even though he could read them in the Chinese translation. Everything here was written first in English, then in Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Fair enough, he thought, we have many who can’t read the English.
“Excuse me, excuse me, don’t push!” a woman shouted.
The lifts were packed. Most people were heading for the department that handled rental flats, rented out to families like his who could not afford to purchase a Housing Board fl
