GANGSTERS MENACE THE NEW STATE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 10

GANGSTERS MENACE THE NEW STATE

Singapore Already Has Its Problems [By JACK PERCIVAL] SINGAPORE, November 23. JVEXT week a new flag will be raised for the first time in south-east Asia.

It will flutter over one of the world’s smallest States, and over an area where up to 25,000 people are crammed in a square mile.

With the flag will also appear a new coat of arms and a new national anthem. The appearance of the symbols and song will mark the end of Singapore’s colonialism.”

But the new State, a mere 224 j square miles, is facing problems. The new flag, red and white with a crescent moon sided by five stars in a circle at the top of the hoist, represents universal brotherhood and equality of man.

The anthem, now being rehearsed in schools throughout the island, calls for unity among the polyglot populations—Malays, Chinese, Jndians and Eurasians—and a march to prosperity. But already there are clouds on the “merdeka” (“freedom”) horizon—towering thunder-heads of political, social and economic turbulence.

On the eve of Loyalty Week, when the flag will be unfurled for all to see, there is a flight of capital over the Johore causeway to Kuala Lumpur, capital of the Federated Malay States, which recently became the eleventh sovereign member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. British and other investors consider that Malaya is a more stable area, and, if necessary, they can build up a new entrepot port at Penang, Port Swettenham or Malacca. Such a new port, they think, will be safer and freer from industrial troubles and the “squeeze” they feared from Singapore’s Leftist Government, which will require large funds to implement its plan for socialisation.

Already the big international airlines are using Kuala Lumpur airport and there are plans to make it the air hub of Southeast Asia.

Labuan, a few hundred miles across the China Sea in Borneo, strategically placed between Manila, Hong Kong, Saigon, Djakarta and Darwin, is proclaiming itself “The new free port for South-east Asia.”

The spectre of unemployment is growing in Singapore, and if he British Forces move, 40,000 more will be out of jobs. The authorities are embroiled in a life and death struggle against the worst outbreak of crime and violence in the city’s history.

The police and administration are determined to break the grip of the Chinese secret societies which have caused an alarming growth in organised gangsterism. The secret societies, which reap a rich extortion harvest from 900 opium dens, merchants, pedlars, shopkeepers, tricycle drivers, taxi-drivers and hotels, have been engaging in street fighting to divide territory and loot. According to police specialising in secret-society suppression, there are more than 300 secret societies in Singapore with a membership of about 12,000. “Killer Sections” Most of the active societies are equipped with arms and have “killer sections.” These “killer sections” are headed by a “Red Rod” or executioner who has available a number of armed guards who take part in initiation ceremonies and gang fights. The killer sections are directed by “Tiger Generals” who implement the wishes of the societies. No official estimate is available of the annual tribute collected by the societies.

At the height of the Hung Min Society’s postwar power in the Penang area, big importers and exporters paid as much as £2OOO a month for the provision of “guards” for their cargoes. At one stage this society’s monthly income was estimated to be more than £20,000. The origin of secret societies in Malaya and Singapore is traced to the Triad Society (Hung League or Heaven and Earth Society) brought from south China about 100 years ago. At one stage the British governed the Chinese population using the secret societies as intermediaries. The earliest Triad headquarters were in Thailand and were later established in Malacca and Penang. They began originally as mutual aid and protection societies, but degenerated into criminal organisations which imposed their own form of “government” on the Chinese community. , Secret society activity, the

Singapore police say, is encouraged by an ignorant and terrified community which has been paying one or several sides for protection.

The extortion money goes into the pockets of the headmen and strong-arm sections, and pays out bribes and legal fees, gratuities for the wounded and pensions for the relatives of those killed in gang clashes.

Different societies have various political leanings. In the Malayan emergency the Chi Kang Party was deputed to carry out murders for the Malayan Communist Party, and the Hua Chi and Hung Min societies were used by the Kuomintang (Nationalist China) against* the Malayan Communist Party. •According to Singapore police officers the existing strength of the force is not large enough to smash the secret-society gangsters who have emerged from underground subversion to a “shooting war” with acid, chilli powder, flick knives, bicycle chains, clubs and parangs. Powers Of Police The alarming growth of secretsociety violence has made it necessary to introduce emergency regulations allowing the police to arrest without warrant any person suspected of connections with such societies and to detain suspects without trial for periods up to six months. At the moment the secretsociety menace appears to be the greatest threat to the island’s independence. Civil discipline and orderliness in the past have contributed to the building up of a great port and warehouse serving the whole of the Far East.

If independent Singapore becomes a “sore spot” in Southeast Asia, I am told, the merchants will depart for a nearby safe area and leave it to its own devices.— Associated Newspapers Feature Service.