Secret societies in Singapore

Secret societies in Singapore have been largely eradicated as a security issue in the city-state. However many smaller groups remain today which attempt to mimic societies of the past. The membership of these societies is largely adolescent.

Despite fading from contemporary Singaporean society, these secret societies hold great relevance to Singapore's modern history. The founding of the city-state in 1819 saw the arrival of thousands of Chinese, thereby transplanting to Singapore social systems already present in China itself. Although the secret societies were commonly associated with violence, extortion and vice, they also played a part in building a social fabric for early Chinese migrants in Singapore. They were given leeway to control the Chinese populace due to the hands-off policy adopted by the British colonials, who hoped to create stability.

The secret societies formed in Singapore can be traced to mid-18th century Fujian province in China, with the local offshoots adopting an organisational structure mirroring the parent organisation. The Hongmen, the first secret society to be established in Singapore, traced its origins to the Tiandihui in Fujian.

Despite their founding principles of mutual assistance and bonding, secret societies have, over time, come to conjure up impressions of violence and disorder. This association, perhaps exaggerated, has been encouraged by law enforcement officers since their formation in the colonial era. This perception was strengthened by several factors, including the inability of the colony's administration to control their activities, the branding of arrested society members as "criminal gangsters" by the media and an upsurge in violent crime in the 1960s sparked by a few society members. These factors came together during the same period in which the country was trying to gain a foothold fresh from having attained political independence it did not foresee.

Several important riots in Malayan history had prompted the colonial government to respond umambiguously. These riots include the Penang Riots of 1867 (which involved the Ghee Hin) and the Post Office Riots of 1876. The Societies Ordinance of 1889 was introduced as an attempt at suppression.

In the early 19th century, secret societies posed a significant threat to law and order in Singapore. The early Chinese immigrants' clandestine activities and occasional turf wars proved too much of a problem for the British authorities. The British authorities were therefore obliged to curb the growing problem. They employed a number of methods, both on purpose and not, to check the growth of secret societies. This resulted in the decline of secret societies.

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Wikipedia