There are those who are two-faced, changeable, and deceitful, and who are always sitting on the fence. As far as all such are concerned you can secretly inquire after their welfare, reward them liberally with gold and silk, and so tie them to you.
– Sun Tze, The Art of War
At the height of the Malayan Emergency, Penang’s secret societies ruled supreme.
In the olden days, China-based secret societies were organised socio-economic groups with noble ideals and were protectors of the ordinary folk.
But it was a matter of time before these societies came under the influence of the criminal elements called ‘triads’.
A great influx of ‘Nanyang’ Chinese to the Malayan peninsula came in the 19th century when business was booming in the Straits Settlements of Singapore and Penang.
However, during the Japanese occupation the society’s activities were almost wiped out; the Japanese launched an anti-Chinese putsch which included the infamous Sook Ching massacres of 80,000 people (Feb 18-March 4, 1942) in Singapore.
After the war, it was ‘business usual’ where Penang boasted 22 secret societies.
Its ‘mafia’ was controlled by underworld chief Ooi Ah Sow who was the legendary Robin Hood.
Dato Sri John Ritchie, who was a young officer at that time, said: “We received information that Ooi was hiding in one of the squatter huts and guarded by armed terrorists with Sten guns and grenades. But it was a botched operation because instead of confronting Ooi in a gunfight, we ran into a cowshed.
“It was pitch dark and the sudden appearance of policemen in uniforms and weapons frightened the cattle causing a stampede. Next thing we knew was our leading party running out at breakneck speed with a herd of cows behind.
“Those of us providing backup had difficulty in suppressing our laughter in the presence of our boss, the head of CID.”
Ooi, who lived in the Penang Hills, fled to a secret society enclave of Semeling in Sungei Petani in Kedah where he was arrested.
After a banishment enquiry, my father was tasked with escorting him to Singapore before he was banished to China.
Another interesting incident was the ‘body in a sack’ murder where a taxi driver with arms tied behind his back was shot in the head, put in a sack, and thrown in the river.
Known as ‘death by submarine ride’, he was involved in a love affair with a secret society double agent.
Initially, there were no clues as to who the killer was except for a photograph of an attractive woman which was in my father’s possession.
Interrogating the suspect, Ritchie wanted to catch the double agent by surprise when he suddenly produced the woman’s picture.
“When I whipped out the photo and thrust it before the eyes of the informer and asked him who she was, he promptly (not suspecting he was incriminating himself) answered, ‘My wife’.”
Further investigations led to the man’s confession!
In the meantime, my father had to deal with the increasing influence of the communists on the Penang Chinese.
In his memoir ‘The Adventures of Johnny Ritchie (1999)’ published by Pelanduk Publications, he said a group of about 60 communist terrorists were operating in the Penang Hills.
“When the Emergency started in 1948, the government did not have a jungle force such as the Police Field Force of Sarawak and we had no real effective group to fight these terrorists.
“To counter this situation, I formed the first ten-man police units comprising police regulars and detectives, to comb, control and dominate the hills as much as possible.”
As soon as the terrorists heard of these jungle police squads, they took immediate counter-measures and seized a number of shotguns from the civilian population.
Consequently, these jungle squads, commanded by British police lieutenants began to curb the activities of the terrorists.
But they were ineffective because the CTs initiated a ‘reign of terror’ starting with the murder of two informers at the village market at Balik Pulau about 20 miles from Georgetown.
Once my father’s jungle squads were fully operational, they went on long missions in the jungle.
On one strange occasion, a squad, which spent the night in the remote jungle, were sleeping when there apparently translocated by ‘spirits’.
“Next morning when the men woke up, they found they were no longer in their hammocks. Some were lying in bushes while others were found sleeping in the surroundings valleys.
“None of the men were able to explain what had happened so they decided it could have been a supernatural experience.”
Later the police learnt that the communists had also avoided visiting this particular haunted location.
As the Penang jungle squad became more experienced, they were able to curb CT activities.
Constantly on the run and always short of food supplies, they found supporters deserting the societies.
In another episode, (Inspector Johnny) Ritchie was told that the secret society ‘boss’ wanted to meet him alone.
As a rule, Ritchie always refused to meet the enemy alone but since this was urgent he had another police office to replace him.
Fortunately, my father did not turn up; the ‘mafia’ boss had set up a trap to kill two people at one go — Ritchie and a suspected double agent named ‘Ah Lee’ working with the police.
Unfortunately, ‘Ah Lee’ turned up at the scene thinking he was meeting Ritchie; he was detained and taken to Penang Hills and buried alive.
In the 1950s murder, robbery and burning incidents in Penang continued to give the impression that police were ineffective, incompetent and weak.
There was the sensational murder of prominent Chinese school headmaster, creating fear because it was carried out in broad daylight.
As it transpired, two gunmen on bicycles had waited at a coffee shop for the headmaster to arrive in his car at a meeting.
As soon as the car pulled up at a kerb, one of the gunmen calmly walked across the road to the car and shot him in the head.
The case remained unsolved because there wasn’t any information on the killers!
However, a breakthrough came when a CT surrendered and was questioned about the shooting of the headmaster.
Slim as the information was, it gave the police something to work on.
In December 1952, one of the suspects who turned out to be one of the murderers, was arrested at his house and from information gleaned from him another arrest was made in Bukit Mertajam.
Eventually, four men who were found to have been involved in a number of murders and other acts of terrorism were arrested.
Another case closed!
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
