Cold Blooded Murders (23 page)

Daniel Dutton believed sincerely that his
purpose in life was to make good citizens out of thugs. He was almost a
fanatic, but he was not a fool. He knew some could never change, but these he
considered sick men. Dutton was not a sentimentalist; yet he had a carefully
concealed soft side and was genuinely proud that seven of the warders on the
prison island were men he had helped back to society after working 18 months on
Pulau Senang. One ‘old lag’ from the island had gone to the University of Singapore
to study social science. In effect, he had matriculated on the island.

In less than two years, 255 tough criminals
passed through Dutton’s care on Pulau Senang. Of these, no more than 23 had got
into trouble again. This low rate of recidivism caused Devan Nair, by then a
leading trade unionist believing in democratic socialism, to claim that the
‘social therapy of Pulau Senang makes the island one of the most successful
penal experiments anywhere in the world’. Alas, Nair spoke too soon. The settlement
was just about three years old when Dutton was murdered and the settlement
destroyed.

Yet Nair had grounds for his optimism. For
when gangsters in the streets were arrested, taken to jail, and not brought to
trial, they knew that their only hope of getting back into normal society was
through Pulau Senang. After about a year in jail, they could volunteer for
manual work on the island. Most of them expected to be there for six months.
Upon arrival, the ‘Laughing Tiger’ saw to it that they were taught the
rudiments of a trade: anything from pig-keeping, poultry farming, carpentering,
haircutting, bricklaying, book-binding, sign-writing and boot-making to
furniture-making and plumbing. Every month, Dutton reviewed their work. If he
was satisfied they were making progress, Dutton would recommend their release
to the Work Brigade. If he was dissatisfied, he would recommend they be taken
back to jail. Dutton was powerful and the men knew this. He was respected and
feared.

Organised on semi-military lines, the Work
Brigade had been set up by the government to cater for the unemployed, and for
men and women seeking rehabilitation. Usually, men from Pulau Senang were put
into the Work Brigade for six months and then released into society, but they
could be released earlier if they could satisfy the authorities that they had a
job to which they could go.

“Creative work in healthy surroundings. That
is what reforms men,” asserted Daniel Dutton, pointing to a group of men
working on the farmland. Everyone was paid $0.30 a day and given a ration of
five cigarettes. They had to save half the money they earned. On their own,
they made a collection and asked Dutton to buy them a cinema projector. He did
and then arranged for a weekly English-language action film show in the
community hall. Not all of them could follow the English dialogue, but to
Dutton’s amusement, they all seemed to understand the usual message in these
carefully selected films: that, in the end, the bad man always got his
come-uppence. Dutton told me that most of the 63 murderers he had on the island
when I called in, enjoyed the ‘cops and robbers’ films.

Daniel Dutton was the only European on the
island. His deputy then was of Ceylonese origin and his two assistants of
Chinese origin. Dutton believed in the minimum of supervision: he believed in
encouraging prisoners to work hard, in their own way, at their own pace. Dutton
had faith in the experiment. At the same time, he normally slept in his
uniform, jungle boots handy by the bed. In spite of his ulcers, he was
contented. He got a great deal of satisfaction from his job. He had informers
on the island. When they told him the gang leaders were plotting to kill him,
he laughed at the informers. Right till the end, he could not believe that the
people he was trying so hard to rehabilitate would want to destroy him. In any
case, he thought he could cope with the situation. Too late he realised the
extraordinary power of secret society leaders.

There have always been gangsters and
secret societies in Singapore: they came with the immigrants from China, where
the first secret societies were said to have been formed at 3,000 bce. In 1644,
the Manchus overthrew the Ming Dynasty, and behind the fortified walls of the
Shaolin Monastery, 108 monks plotted to restore China to the Ming emperors.
They failed, having been betrayed by a traitor. Five survivors formed the Triad
Society to carry on their work. Over the years, the high principles were
blurred and the society degenerated into a protection racket. Eventually, the
Triad Society broke up into different gangs, each with its own area of control
and sphere of protection. In China, these secret societies had a considerable
influence on the ordinary people, almost equalling the importance of the family
unit. Secret societies were abolished in China in 1949 when the communists took
over, but they continued to exist in Malaya and Singapore where gangsters still
claim that their societies are directly descended from the original triad. One
big gang in Singapore is called the 108 gang, in remembrance of the 108 monks
of Shaolin.

In Raffles’ days, and for a long time after,
secret societies in Singapore helped new arrivals from China. In effect, they
were benevolent societies which provided for needy members and ensured that
they had a decent burial (of singular importance to persons of Chinese origin).
In consequence, one historian felt that secret societies might with fair
accuracy, be described as ‘Pirates and Robbers Co-operative Associations’.

Secret societies have always been bitterly
hostile to one another, and their rivalries, usually over territory,
periodically culminated in bloody street fights. Rival mobs would often suspend
operations to allow Europeans to pass through their midst unscathed. Members
were forbidden to give any assistance to the police. The penalty was merciless
flogging, mutilation and painful death. In 1854, 400 Chinese were killed in 10
days of street fighting among secret society gangsters in Singapore.

In 1881, 11 secret societies were registered
in Singapore with a collective membership of 62,376 people. Six years later, in
1887, the British decided they had enough. They decided to suppress them.
The simple argument of the British was that the Government must be the
paramount power in the island. So long as secret societies existed, this was
not so in the eyes of many Chinese. The effect of the suppression order was to
drive secret societies still further underground. Brothels were deregistered in
1895, but secret society gangsters kept up the protection racket, and rival
groups—the 108 gang, the Low Kwan gang, the Tai Hok gang, the Hung Khwan
Society, and all the others—struggled for monopoly of extortion, as they still
do today, from prostitutes, hawkers and small shopkeepers.

During the Japanese occupation of Singapore
in World War II, all secret society activities were suspended. The Japanese did
not jail gang suspects: they chopped off their heads and exhibited them on
poles. Immediately after the Japanese surrender when the more tolerant British
returned, triad societies sprang up throughout Malaya and Singapore with such
rapidity that their membership soon reached scores of thousands. Sometimes over
a thousand people would turn up to watch a single initiation ceremony. The
result was that in certain areas in Malaya, and in some districts of Singapore,
the civil government was almost powerless to check the growing numbers of
murders and extortions, robberies and piracy.

When the People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore
achieved self-rule in 1959, the newly elected government, headed by Lee Kuan
Yew, zealously and determinedly decided to wipe out gangsterism. They had no
alternative if they were to become an effective, corruption-free government.
Gangsterism was beginning to dominate everyday life. In 1959, there were 21
gangland murders. There were 416 known gangster fights, mostly over territory.
The PAP knew they must tackle this problem without delay. At the same time they
decided to humanize prison conditions. They did. Today, Singapore claims to
have an enlightened and efficient prison system. All prisons are open to
inspection by the International Red Cross. But the PAP failed to eliminate the
secret societies, though they have managed to restrict their activities almost
completely.

On 24 October 1959, the Minister for Home
Affairs broadcasted an explanation why the Government, a few days earlier, had
offered an amnesty to gangsters. “Why did we offer them a chance to reform and
become law-abiding members of society? Because we believe that not all secret
society gangsters are bad men. Many, through foolishness, got entangled in the
web of crime and did not know how to free themselves.” It was to such people,
the Minister said, that the offer was made. All they had to do was to go to the
Advocate-General and make a full statement about their past association with
secret societies and declare their intention to break away. If the amnesty was
ignored they would suffer, for the Government was determined to crush gangsterism.
“We will relentlessly pursue every gangster and gang until they are utterly
destroyed.” Backed by the people, the Government would move against the
gangsters in force ‘to crush those who think that they can defy the organised
might and anger of society’. The gangsters were given two weeks to make up
their minds.

It was
estimated that there were then 10,000 gangsters in Singapore belonging to 120
gangs. Close to 1,000 suspects were in jail. Altogether,
816 gangsters took advantage of the amnesty. As soon as the amnesty
ended, the police began rounding up suspects. Among them were the all-girl
Ang Hor Tiap
(or Red Butterfly Gang). Formed by prostitutes and bargirls, they
offered their services for the protection of those in the crime trade, as well
as to housewives suffering from unfaithful husbands. For a small fee they would
beat up any woman who had enticed away the husband of a client. The gang-girls
were identified by a tattooed red butterfly on the upper part of a thigh. Most
of the gang were soon arrested. The remnants of the gang surfaced again in
1967, but they were finally smashed with 17 arrests in 1968.

By then, not every secret society had an
initiation ceremony. Singapore’s industrialisation and the building of new
towns with high-rise flats meant that lonely woods, temples and old houses in
which these illegal ceremonies could be organised had become scarce. When the
ceremonies were held they followed the usual pattern: terrible oaths were
sworn, a finger pricked, blood was mixed with rice wine and drunk from a bowl.
Gang clashes continued and traitors were executed.

In 1960, gang fights dropped to 241 and only
11 gangsters were killed. The following year there were fewer collisions, but
18 murders. In 1971, from 700 gang fights in 1959 the number had fallen to less
than 70. But the killings were even higher in 1971 than they were when the PAP
came to power 12 years before. From these figures, it was fair to conclude that
the gangs had become wiser, knowing that the police would actively intervene in
gang fights. So they avoided open clashes, but continued to kill one another, a
happening that did not cause the police much unhappiness.

In 1972, more than 800 secret society
gangsters were under detention. They belonged to gangs such as the
Sio Koon Tong
, the 08, 24, 36, the
Sio
Gi Ho
,
Sio
Loh Kuan
, or the triads (the societies with
initiation ceremonies) such as the
Tiong
Neng Tok
. There were five or six main groups to
which lesser gangs were associated. The average age of a gangster was between
15–21 years old; they were mostly school drop-outs. Why did they join gangs?
The police did a survey and found that of 87 picked up, one said he joined for
excitement, 48 joined through friends, and 23 were forced to join. In 1972, it
was estimated that there were perhaps 20,000 gangsters in Singapore, about half
of them active. Most of them were either Cantonese or Hokkien.

Two years later, the Home Minister told
Parliament that the secret societies were under control, but he admitted that
gangs still existed and the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, first
introduced in 1955, was still needed. He told Parliament that in 10 years,
1,000 suspects had been arrested on an average every year. Five months later,
the New Nation reported that secret society members were still responsible for
more than half the daily crime in Singapore. The police reckoned that 10,000
gangsters belonged to 161 secret societies, both active and inactive. The most
powerful group, the paper said, was the
Sri
Tong
independent group which was ‘controlling
all the major bars, brothels and gambling dens’. Next on the list were the Loh
Kuan and
Sio Loh Kuan
groups. Of the 50 murders that year in Singapore, 20 were gangland
reprisals.

After 20 years in office, the PAP government
was forced to admit that gangsterism still existed, though on a much reduced
scale. Gang suspects continued to be jailed without trial,

Probably one reason why gangsters can
survive in Singapore is their pragmatic approach to the extortion racket. They
seldom make ‘unreasonable’ demands. They are content to extort comparatively
low dues for their protection. They work on a low-profit margin, and try to
involve as many prostitutes, hawkers, bargirls, small traders, taxi-drivers, as
possible. The gangsters’ reasoning is that victims prefer to pay a small fee
rather than be bothered about reporting the matter to the police, thus risking
either physical injury from the gang, or a day’s loss of earnings by going to
the police station. The gangsters rely on victims believing that it is safer
and cheaper, in the long run, to pay up.