Lambarde's metaphor seems to be slipping here, as he admits that the worst enemies are 'intestine', within the walls, so to speak, or even within the 'body' of the nation.

I'll have a small coffee, thanks.

& the tide which is being urban-renewed / at bedok must go on its own tidy ways

All those days of grinding it out on the road, all those highway bumps and the hours in that vibrating cab had mismolded his body, compacting his organs down along his waist and padding that cargo with sedentary fat, so that he'd taken on the appearnace of a pear with legs.