My Father's Kampung. Shawn Seah
produce to Town by the Serangoon Road”.10
Back then, Aukang was a lawless place. In fact, my father once told me that an old Teochew saying went, “Lao Aukang, bo cheng hu”—which translated into English means, “Old Aukang is a lawless place” (literally: a place with no government)!
No one would say the same about Hougang today (or Sengkang, or Buangkok, or Punggol, for that matter).
Newspaper reports before 1860 clearly show that Aukang was a lawless area just as my father had suspected. There were murders, robberies, gambling problems, secret societies, kidnappings, tiger attacks, riots (anti-Catholic riots and interracial riots), and massacres (at Punggol Road). For example, on 9 July 1850, The Straits Times reported:
MURDERS—In the afternoon of the 23rd Ultimo as two Malays were proceeding in their boat with three passengers (two Klings and one Chinese) from Poogal [sic] to Serangoon they were met near the entrance of the Serangoon River by 14 Malays and a large sampan, who asked them for Tobacco; they replied they had none, when 13 of the Malays, 2 or 3 being armed with spears, jumped out of their boat into the water (which was about three feet deep) went to the other boat, and demanded their clothes, &c [sic]. One of the Malays, a Kling and the Chinese immediately jumped into the water and made for the shore, but were overtaken and stripped entirely naked with the exception of the Chinese, whose trowsers they took off and also his jacket; the other Malay and Kling were stripped near the boat and speared: the Malays then took all the articles that were in the boat, consisting of a little Rice and a few old Parangs and Chunkuls and went off towards Pulo Obin [sic].11
And in 1851, The Straits Times reported:
On Wednesday morning last Eyo ah Toh, a gambier and pepper planter, residing at Passier Ries [sic], left that place in a boat with a quantity of pepper for sirangoon [sic] where a cart was to be in waiting to convey the pepper to town; he was accompanied in the boat by Eyo Long Soon, his cooly, and Eyo Teng You, a son of the owner of the boat: they reached Serangoon about 9 o’clock the same morning, and there Eyo Ah Toh met, as expected, his partner Eyo Ah Tung, with the cart; the pepper was removed from the boat to the Cart, and two bags of rice (above two piculs) were put in the boat as also four dollars in silver brought from town by Eyo Ah Tung. Eyo Long Soon and Eyo Teng You then started for Passier Ries, but not reaching that place by the afternoon their friends became alarmed, and made a search for the boat, but in vain… the following evening the boat was discovered drawn up and empty on the beach up a small creek between Serangoon and Passier Ries [sic], and near it was found the body of Eyo Long Soo, covered with what appeared to be kris wounds; the other body was found close by also wounded.”12
1851 was a tumultuous year. It was also the year that the infamous anti-Catholic riots occurred, mainly at Kranji and Bukit Timah, but Aukang was not spared. After all, it was settled by Teochews working on the gambier and pepper plantations in the interior of Singapore, and there were Catholics among them.
Grim news:
The interior of our Island is in fire and flame. The disturbances, robberies and burglaries have never before reached such a height…
In the present case, there appears to exist a determination on the part of the heathen and secret societies to expel the christians from all the rural districts of our island. Everywhere, at Serangoon, Bukit Timah, Bookoh Khan, Lauw Choo-khan, Nam To-kang, Chan Chwee-kang, even at Kranjee, Propo and Benot the bangsals and plantations of the christians have been attacked by sets of 20 to 50 heathen, who rob all the property and destroy what they cannot carry away. The christians come to town from all parts of the country as to a place of refuge, and people yesterday in flourishing circumstances are to day reduced to the greatest misery. Not less than twenty seven plantations have been attacked and the list of planters ruined by these vagabonds on the same day…
— Free Press, February 21.13
Another attack took place at the mouth of the Serangoon River in 1855. Shopkeeper Tan Joo Hok, who lived near the New Market in New Bridge Road, fortunately survived the attack.14 As Tocksing’s Pauper Hospital (today’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital) stated:
We regret to notice the frequency of murderous attacks made by small parties of Malays on the Chinese in the interior, or coming from Johor, under circumstances which scarcely warrant the supposition that plunder is the object of the attack. On the 26th [of] April no less than four wounded men were conveyed to the Hospital, who had been attacked between Changee [sic] and the Johore river. On the 16th an unarmed Chinese and his two companions, coming from Johore, were set upon by Malays. We subjoin the deposition of one of the unfortunate men who was dangerously wounded; the wound laid the chest quite bare, as broad as the palm of the hand, and another on the side from which the breath escaped at each respiration, yet strange to say the man bore his suffering in the best humour, and is in a fair way of recovering, although after being wounded he remained in the water the whole night.
TOCKSING’S PAUPER HOSPITAL
April 17th, 1855 10 min. to 1 P.M.
Aukang in the 19th century, just like many parts of rural Singapore, was a dangerous and uncertain place then.
Endnotes
1 Housing & Development Board, “Hougang”. Source: http://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/history/hdb-towns-your-home/hougang. Updated 4 October 2017. Accessed 15 August 2019.
2 According to the Marina at Keppel Bay website, Captain Henry Keppel discovered a sheltered, deep water harbour in 1848. It was known as New Harbour until April 1900, when Keppel, then the Admiral, visited Singapore again. To honour him, the Acting Governor, Sir Alexander Swettenham, renamed the harbour Keppel. The development of the harbour in mid-19th century in Singapore led to the prosperity of the island.
3 James Tann posed an interesting riddle on Facebook on 8 September 2019. The GPO was built in 1929. Where was Mile Zero, where the milestones were measured from, before the GPO was built? According to him, before 1929, milestones were measured from the Main Gate of the Balai Police Bahru, or the New Police Station, located on North Bridge Road, opposite St Andrew’s Cathedral, where Capitol Piazza stands today.
4 This section is based on Pang Cheng Lian, “Lee pays respect to PAP stalwart”, in New Nation, 29 June 1971, p. 2 and The Singapore Free Press, “The Big Vote Trek”, in The Singapore Free Press, 19 March 1955, p. 7.
5 Bryan Goh, “Hougang: Diversity in a Teochew Enclave”, in Muse SG, No. 38, Vol. 11, Issue 02, p. 6.
6 This section is based on Gillian Pow Chong, “A feast before the farewell”, in The Straits Times, 12 November 1985, p. 13.
7 This section is based on Punggol Community Club, Punggol Community Club (Official Opening) Souvenir Magazine, 13 March 1993, Singapore, p. 9.
8 This was reported in Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, “The Free Press”, in Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 12 April 1855, p. 2.
9 These statistics are from a survey. The Straits Times, “Untitled”, in The Straits Times, 15 May 1855, p. 5.
10 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, “Municipal Committee”, in Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 13 November 1856, p. 3.
11 The Straits Times, “Untitled”, in The Straits Times, 9 July 1850, p. 5.
12 The Straits Times, “Untitled”, in The Straits Times, 28 January 1851, p. 5.
13 As reported in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, “Untitled”, in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile