Alex Josey - Pulau Senang: The Experiment that Failed

2020 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited

First published in 1980 by Times Books International

Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions

An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name(s): Josey, Alex.

Title: Pulau Senang : the experiment that failed / Alex Josey.

Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, [2020] | First published in 1980 by Times Books International and subsequently compiled under Cold blooded murders in 2009 by Marshall Cavendish Editions.

Identifier(s): OCN 1150779364 | e-ISBN 978 981 4893 58 9

Subject(s): LCSH: Dutton, Daniel. | Trials (Murder)--Singapore. | Prison riots--Singapore. | Criminals--Rehabilitation--Singapore. | Senang Island (Singapore)

Classification: DDC 345.595702523--dc23

Printed in Singapore

It happened in the 1960s in the newly self-governing state of Singapore, a small tropical island of some two million people. Having thrown off the shackles of British colonialism, the democratic nationalists confronted the communists and narrowly defeated them in a bloodless battle. Almost at once, the new government had to face a serious secret society menace. Hundreds of gangsters were arrested and thrown into jail without trial. Hopefully believing that most men could change their way of life if given a chance, the Government bravely experimented with a scheme to rehabilitate these gangsters, all of whom had sworn oaths of loyalty to their secret societies. The idea was to make an islet off the main island a prison without bars, to be supervised by Daniel Dutton, a God-fearing, fist-swinging, wild Irishman devoutly dedicated to the belief that mans inherent evil could be exorcised by hard work. Under his active direction, the gangsters created an island paradise. But they soon turned on Dutton and murdered him and his assistants, and in less than an hour, savagely destroyed all they had sweated so long to build. Why? The question has never been satisfactorily answered.

In a massive trial before an Australian-born judge and a seven-men jury, more than 60 gangsters were charged with rioting and murder. Never before in Asia, or since, has there been such a trial. Eighteen criminals, most of them in their 20s, were found guilty and hanged.

Many decades later, remnants of secret societies still exist, but Singapore has become a state where law and order is firmly established. The Government practises its own form of socialism which works well. Free enterprise is encouraged. The State subsidises healthcare, education and housing. Drug addicts are patiently helped, so are selected secret society gangsters. But the bold experiment that failed was never repeated. Once was enough.

This is the true story of an idealistic belief, translated into actuality for a short while in the early 1960s, that violent, lawless men could find their own way back to decent society were they given a proper chance to work and create. The argument was that these men had drifted into crime because theyd never had an opportunity to know disciplined creative work.

Hundreds of them in Singapore were given this chance in 1960. Inside a few months, hitherto work-shy gangsters (hardened criminals most of them, unproven murderers, extortioners, callous robbers, psychopaths, rapists), transformed a deserted tropical island into an attractive, busy settlement with roads and water supply, huts, workshops, canteen, dormitories, laundry, community hall. Practically all the criminals were members of secret societies. Having built a comfortable settlement with their own hands, within 40 minutes one sunny afternoon, they deliberately destroyed it and murdered the man largely responsible for making the scheme possible. With him died three of his assistants.

The island was called Pulau Senang. In the Malay language this means the island of ease. As a rehabilitation settlement, it was a noble experiment that failed. Why? Why did the gangsters destroy it, having toiled and sweated in the tropical sun to build it? No completely satisfactory explanation has been forthcoming. One belief is that the leading secret-society chief on the island ordered the destruction of the settlement to prove that he was more powerful than the Government. During the trial of this man, Tan Kheng Ann, alias Robert, alias Robert Black alias Ang Chuar (and 58 others), witnesses said that the decision to kill the man in charge, 39-year-old Prison Officer Daniel Stanley Dutton, was because Dutton had tormented them beyond endurance. Breaking point had been reached when he ordered 13 carpenters to work overtime to complete the construction of a pier which could be worked on only during certain tides. When the carpenters refused, Dutton ordered them back to Changi Prison, thus blighting their hopes for rehabilitation. Witnesses said this decision inflamed the rest of the men and triggered off the revolt. Another belief is that the secret-society chief had tormented the opposition to Dutton and had been waiting for just such an opportunity before giving the order to attack and burn the settlement to the ground.

Pulau Senang Rehabilitation Settlement originated in the mind of a political prisoner of the British. Though he admitted that he was well-treated himself in detention as a pro-communist subscribing to the violent overthrow of colonialism, Devan Nair was horrified at the conditions in the prisons for convicted criminals, and for criminal suspects detained indefinitely without trial. He was determined one day to do something about this.