People The Sultan's Confidant The story of an opium king Part 1

South to Kedah CHOONG CHENG KEAN WAS BORN ON 16 June 1857, in Xiang Lu village, in the suburbs of Xiamen (Amoy), Fujian Province. The village is a neighbour of  the famous and the earliest Qiaoxiang, called Sandu, situated in Haicheng county (Zhangzou prefecture under the Qing dynasty, now under Xiamen city). His father was Choong Chuo, his mother,  Wang Neoh (or Ong in Hokkien). l Choong Cheng Kean was  the only son of this poor family. It was said that his parents starved their daughters to death in order to feed Cheng Kean.2 It was probably this same poverty that drove Choong Cheng Kean to try his luck in Southeast Asia. Choong Cheng Kean came to Southeast Asia at the age of nineteen, which suggests that this occurred around the mid-1870s. 3    This is confirmed by the stone inscription in the Choong Temple established by Choong Cheng Kean in 1907. It states that after thirty years in Nanyang, he had come back to his home village. Cheng Kean worked first as a shop assistant in Tongkah, southern Siam, but before long, he emigrated to Kedah. It should be pointed out that this emigration route was not an exceptional one, as other singkeh Chinese had also followed the same pattern before they arrived in Kedah. 4  It was said that Choong Cheng Kean was helped in establishing his business by his father-in-law, who was already an established businessman when Choong Cheng Kean arrived in Kedah. 5 In about the year 1881, Cheng Kean married Lim Gek Kee, a local Chinese woman in Alor Star, Kedah, although he was engaged to a girl in China. Like other classic stories, it was said that Mrs Choong Cheng Kean sold her jewellery to help Cheng Kean to start a business. 6 In short, Choong Cheng Kean was born in China, emigrated to southern Siam, made his mark in Kedah, then moved to settle in Penang, later paying several visits back to China. This mobility was clearly reflected in his family life, in which at least four women were closely involved. The first of these was Teoh Khuan Neoh, the wife in China.  This lady adopted several children and lived with Cheng Kean's parents. The second was Lim Gek Kee from Kedah. She was the principal wife. She had two sons by Cheng Kean, Choong Lye Hock and Choong Lye Hin, who continued to carry on the family business after Cheng Kean's death. The third was Lim Gaik Teen Neoh, from Tongkah, Siam. She was said to have married Cheng Kean according to Chinese custom about 1900. This might be related to the fact that Cheng Kean initially had emigrated to Tongkah and had a business there (a pawnbroking shop as far as we know). This lady moved to Penang with Cheng Kean in 1901. Her son by Cheng Kean was Choong Lye Teong. The fourth lady was Ong Bee Gaik Neoh, also from Kedah. She had been attached to Cheng Kean since 1890. As a singkeh, Cheng Kean maintained  strong links with his home village. To the best of our knowledge, after he had made it a success, Cheng Kean went back to China at least four times. Probably the first time was around 1894. We assume that Cheng Kean took his principal Kedah wife, Lim Gek Kee, with him too. It is said that she did not like China because Cheng Kean's relatives there kept asking them for things. 7 Cheng Kean built a magnificent house during the visit. The date and the owner were inscribed in the stone column at his home in China, which still exists. The second time was 1907 when he built the Choong clan temple. The third time was 1912 or 1913 for a four-month stay.8 The last time visit  was in the lunar 8th month of 1915. It was to visit  his mother who was advancing in years. His Kedah secondary wife, Ong Bee Gaik, accompanied him on all these three occasions. 9   They stayed in China for six months and returned to Penang on the 29th of the lunar first moon, 1916. He caught a cold during the rainy season in China in December. On his return, Cheng Kean was already very ill and died on 23 June 1916. But he had already built a solid base for the family business and the family has continued to prosper down to the present fifth generation. [singkeh  - "new guy from China" - Ed] [Qiaooxiang - so-called because they are the villages from which people emigrated in large numbers - Ed]

Choong Cheng Kean and the Raja Muda "A tall, strong, regular man, healthy, capable, hard-working and quiet-living," Dr Hoops, the Kedah State Surgeon since 1906 and acting British Adviser, so described Choong Cheng Kean. "He was a very successful man of business, powerful [ly] built, strong, energetic and abstemious; he had made most of his money in Kedah," wrote a British judge, Woodward.  Or, to borrow from Sharom, "...Lim [Choong] Cheng Kean, one of the biggest revenue farm operators in Kedah who, in previous years, had tremendous influence over the Sultan." 12      How then did  this  singkeh    come to build a powerful economic empire in late nineteenth century Kedah, a state in which the Sultan exerted absolute control over the economic resources and internal administration, where Malays comprised more than 90% of the population, and where Chinese did not enjoy the same advantage of tin-mining and cash crop planting activities as in the other Malay States? We have already mentioned that Cheng Kean was helped by his father-in-law. There is also a legend concerning his connection with the Malay royal family, transmitted from generation to generation in the Choong clan in Penang, which explains how Cheng Kean came to make his mark in Kedah.  It is said that Cheng Kean found work as an assistant in a grocery store (kedai runcit)  after he emigrated to Kedah. Initially Cheng Kean worked simply for his room and board, and it was only after two or three years that he received a salary, which was very little. Cheng Kean's boss was a friend of the younger brother of the Sultan. This prince frequented the grocery store to chat and drink with his old friend. He noted that Cheng Kean was a good man so he rallied to Cheng Kean's side when the latter was in need of help. One fateful day Cheng Kean's luck turned, setting him on the path to prosperity. On the eve of the Chinese New Year, while he was out on his daily routine of carrying water for his boss, his pole struck down a traditional Chinese lamp,  a symbol of  prosperity and good health for the family. The angry boss  sacked Cheng Kean. The prince happened to come to the grocery store and pleaded with his friend to spare Cheng Kean, but to no avail. The prince took pity on Cheng Kean and offered him a job as his gardener at his mansion. Cheng Kean worked conscientiously for his new boss. The prince took a liking to Cheng Kean and encouraged him to set up his own grocery store. After two years, the prince gave him some capital to start his own business. Cheng Kean did so and became successful as well. The prince then gave him another challenge, granting him the monopoly of the opium and gambling farms in Kedah. This prince was the Raja Muda, Tunku Abdul Aziz, who actually administered the state, the Sultan having fallen ill in 1895. 13 Although this oral history may contain some exaggerations, it is still plausible, for the following reasons: First, there was no mains water available in Alor Star until the beginning of the twentieth century. Water had to be carried  quite a long distance. Some Chinese even made a living selling water. So it should come as no surprise that Cheng Kean worked as a water-carrier in a Chinese grocery shop. Second, it was true that members of the  Malay royal families frequently visited Chinese shops to drink or for amusement. For example, it was known that even the Sultan had a great passion for the games locally called " pok " and "chap ji kee", and indulged in these regularly with the Chinese revenue farmers and merchants.14 Third, it was quite possible that royalty had Chinese gardeners. In November 1883 when a French missionary visited Alor Star, he mentioned that "To beautify his garden the Regent has huge Chinese flower-pots". 15       And, it was the custom for the upper class in colonial Malaya to keep several domestic servants. This of course applied even more to the royal family. Every household had a minimum of three servants - a cook, a table boy, and a sweeper known as "tukang ayer" (water carrier). To these were often added a gardener and a syce for the horse or a motor car..  16

Choong Cheng Kean and the Sultan The Sultan of Kedah developed clear and different strategies for dealing with the Chinese in  Penang and Kedah. On the one hand, whenever it was a requirement of the Penang authorities, the Sultan of Kedah was very careful to place Kedah's larger farms under Penang control only if the Penang Chinese appointed their own Chinese agents in Kedah. This might have stemmed from considerations of security because most prominent Chinese businessmen were British subjects, who could easily escape the control of the Sultan by turning to the British whenever necessary. On the other hand, the Sultan regarded himself as the patron of the Chinese community , patron at least in the symbolic sense of using the interests of Kedah Chinese as a pretext to decline the requirements which British in Penang tried to impose. The pretext might also have been a result of the first round in the competition between the Penang Chinese and Kedah Chinese towkays, with the latter achieving a victory with the Sultan. The Sultan preferred the Kedah Chinese as his agents both in Kedah and Penang. He invariably insisted that the Kedah farms must be held in the names of residents of Kedah. This was reflected in the linking of the Kedah opium farm to the Penang syndicate, which involved both Cheng Kean and Lim Leng Cheak (a Penang British subject), and is quite evident in his reasons for letting the Kedah paddy farm as well. For example, when discussing leasing the Kota Star rice farm to Lim Leng Cheak, the Sultan was very hesitant and reluctant, even though the applicant was the Sultan's old friend. The Sultan had once declined the British Resident Councillor's request to rent this farm to the Penang Chinese. The Sultan mentioned that the Kedah paddy farm was usually granted to Chinese from Kedah who also had families there, as there were no other major means for these Chinese to make a living in Kedah except by renting the paddy farm. The paddy farm was never granted to people from another state. So, in June 1889, when the Siamese consul in Penang wrote to the Sultan asking that the name of Lim Leng Cheak be added to the list of those tendering, the Sultan still insisted that Lim Leng Cheak should select his favourite person from Kedah and tender for the farm in that person's name. This was a matter of principle. The Sultan asked the Siamese consul to pass this message on to Lim Leng Cheak in the hope that Lim would not be upset with him for this. 17 Two reasons might explain this manoeuvring. One was to ensure effective control over Kedah farms by Kedah Chinese. The other was to protect the interests of Kedah Chinese farmers. The Sultan disclosed that most Chinese revenue farmers in Kedah generally had either inherited from their ancestors, or had managed on their own. If a Kedah Chinese was well-behaved and had won his towkay's confidence, his towkay would help him to secure the farms. Therefore in July 1891 when Swettenham, the British Resident in Perak, informed the Sultan that the lease on the border opium farm had expired and that he was prepared to send a notice to call for tender, it was interesting that the Sultan also replied that he did not think the Kedah Chinese would be interested in the tender on the Perak side, or that the Kedah Chinese would allow the people from other states to come to Kedah to secure farming contracts. 18      # (to be continued) from "A Prominent Penang Chinese Towkay From Kedah 1857-1916: A Case Study of the Entrepreneur Choong Cheng Kean" by Wu Xiao An Visiting Research Fellow Kyoto University Centre For Southeast Asian Studies

ENDNOTES 1 Under the guidance of Mr Lin Si Chong, I visited Choong Cheng Kean's father's tomb on 12 January 1996, when I conducted my fieldwork in his native village in China. As his father's tombstone had been stolen, there is little information concerning him. As for his mother, we visited her tomb, which is maintained well by her descendants in China. His mother died four years later (1920) after Choong Cheng Kean predeceased her in 1916. 2 Information from Mrs Ong Chua Suat, Penang. Mrs Ong had an interview with her mother, who was the grand-daughter of Choong Cheng Kean, on 16 August 1977. 3 Lim Bo Ai, 1923, Vo1.11, Part One, p.81. 4 For example, Choong Thean Teik had emigrated to Tongkah first before he came to Kedah in around 1920. 5 Interview, Ms. Khoo Salma Nasution, Penang, 28 March 1996. But, it is impossible to identify who was his father-in-Iaw. 6 Information from Mrs Ong Choo Suat's mother, 16 August 1977. 7 Information from Mrs. Ong Choo Suat's mother, 16 August 1977, Penang. 8 PGSC 8 February 1818. 9 PGSC, 5 February 1918. 10 PGSC, 31 January 1918. 11 SE, 10 December 1918. 12 Sharom,1984,p.117. 13 Interview Choong Wah Thean and Choong Chin Guan, Penang, I May 1996. 14 Sharom, 1984, p.62. I5 James F. Augustin, "Alor Star-1883", In Kedah Dari Segi Seiarah (Kedah in History), Vol.2, No.1, 1967, pp.15-16. 16 CO 882/10/134, "Life in Malaya: Notes Based on Information Supplied by Officers of the Malayan Government Services", April 1920. 17 SC, No.3, The Sultan to the Siamese consul, Penang, 9 Syawal 1306 (8 June 1889). However, Lim Leng Cheak got this farm two years later for an annual rent of $25,000. The sultan needed money badly to travel to Bangkok. The sultan asked Lim Leng Cheak to bring a $12,000 deposit to Kedah, promising that the grant (Surat Kechik) would be issued in a few days. See ~, No.5, The Sultan to Lim Leng Cheak, 19 Rabiulakhir 1308 (I December 1890). 18 SC No.5, The Sultan to Resident Perak Swettenham, 15 Zulkaedah 1308 (21 June 1891).

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