Prison Island

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Lore & Background

In 1960, an experimental-type offshore penal colony was established on Pulau Senang by the Singapore government, after the proposal was made by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair. On the island, the secret society members were allowed to roam freely and were put to manual labour, as part of a rehabilitation programme to allow them to rejoin society. The settlement was established as a countermeasure to resolve the issue of prison overcrowding, as attributed to the large number of suspected gang members being arrested and detained without trial per the government's tough crackdown on secret societies in Singapore. The prison-settlement was started on 18 May 1960, when about 50 detainees, sent from Changi Prison, arrived with Irish-born Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, the appointed chief of the penal settlement; another 20 officers and attendants were appointed to the island. Over the next three years, the number of detainees from the mainland rose to 320 and together they transformed the island into an attractive settlement, and there were bouts of success from the results. By September 1962, about 200 offenders had been deemed sufficiently rehabilitated and suitable to return to society. Dutton was known to be a largely benevolent and lenient leader of the island prison, as he believed that not all humans are born evil and believed that reformation is possible for them through hard work. He also did not allow guards to carry arms as part of the need to build trust between the guards and inmates. However, despite such an outlook, he was also a strict enforcer of discipline and would not tolerate any rule-breaking or defiance of orders from any inmates, and often harshly penalized those detainees who broke the rules. Hence, while he was held in high regard by many detainees and guards, he also earned an unfavourable opinion and dislike from others. Also, the abuse of detainees by some of the prison wardens add to the displeasure the detainees harboured against the authorities who operated the Pulau Senang settlement. Out of the detainees, Dutton shared the closest bond with Tan Kheng Ann, a high-ranking member of the underworld and one of the few gang members who was English-educated. Tan, also known as Robert Black or Ang Chuar (meaning "Red Snake" in Hokkien and so-named due to his birth in 1941, the year of the Snake), was said to be a charismatic man who mixed well with others and deeply trusted by Dutton. However, when the riots happened on 12 July 1963, Tan was ironically the ringleader who led more than 70 detainees to kill Dutton and cause a revolt.

In Their Own Story

On the afternoon of 12 July 1963, after lunchtime, the guards escorted the 320 detainees to their workplace, where they would carry out their work as usual according to their routine. It was at this point, about 70 to 90 detainees, armed with parangs and changkols, began to attack the prison guards, as well as the other detainees who refused to join the riot, which lasted for forty minutes and led to a severe destruction of the settlement on Pulau Senang. During the unrest, 39-year-old Daniel Stanley Dutton escaped to the radio room, where he called for help, calling for the assistance of the Marine Police. However, soon after sending the distress signal, Dutton was attacked by the rioters, who poured petrol on him and set him on fire, and he was subsequently slashed and chopped to death by the rioters, who mutilated his body. Three other prison guards - Arumugam Veerasingham, Chok Kok Hong and Tan Kok Hian - were also killed by the rioters in midst of the uprising. Several other people, including Deputy Superintendent John William Tailford, were grievously hurt but they later survived with timely medical intervention. According to Low Ah Kok, a settlement guard, the hospital and petrol station on Pulau Senang was not spared from the damage inflicted by the rioters. Later, police reinforcements arrived at Pulau Senang, and they all arrested the rioters, who were seen dancing and singing in rejoice at their spoils and destruction of the settlement. Prior to the arrival of the police, one of the rioters Tan Yim Chwee (later known as Accused No. 27), whose shirt was stained in Dutton's blood, used it as a flag mast per their celebration of succeeding to kill Dutton. The arrested rioters were all charged with rioting and murder.

Reader's Guide

On 18 November 1963, after several preliminary hearings, about 59 alleged rioters stood trial at the High Court for the murders of Dutton and three other guards. The number of accused was reduced from 71 to 59 after the preliminary hearings ended with the discharge of 12 defendants from the case. Till today, the trial was known to be the largest ever conducted in the legal history of both Singapore and Malaysia (since Singapore was still a part of Malaysia at the time of the trial), given that there was a high number of defendants being charged with murder. For easier identification, the 59 accused were to wear number tags: the ringleader Tan Kheng Ann was labelled as Accused No. 1, while his two trusted henchmen Chia Yeow Fatt (alias Botak) and Cheong Wai Sang (alias See Jap Kau Sian), who were also among the principal perpetrators of the riot, were labelled as Accused No. 2 and 3 respectively. A special courtroom dock was designed to accommodate the 59 defendants. The trial prosecutor was Francis Seow, who was notable for prosecuting law student Sunny Ang and bar hostess Mimi Wong for murder. The trial judge was Murray Buttrose, who was best known for sentencing the aforementioned killer Sunny Ang to death for killing his girlfriend. A special jury of seven members was selected to hear the case, and back then in Singapore, jury trials were conducted to hear capital cases up until 1970, before the abolition of the jury system. Major Peter James, a retired British army officer and director of the Singapore Prison Service, testified that he received a phone call from Dutton on the morning of 12 July 1963 before the riots happened, and he stated that Dutton told him there were signs of people who wanted to oppose him, but despite Major James' concern and his pressing demands for a reserve unit to be dispatched to Pulau Senang, Dutton maintained that there was no need for reinforcements, as he was assured that a majority of the detainees would be at his side. However, James went ahead with the dispatch of the reinforcement, but it was too late since the riots had happened. Although the nine defence lawyers of the rioters accused Dutton of torturing and oppressing the detainees into working overtime and became a slave driver who abused his authority, Major James defended Dutton and stated that Dutton was the "kindest of men" he ever knew, and that he was a naturally born leader whom he felt suitable to run the island. Allen Tan Kiat Peng, a detainee who was serving the remainder of his seven-year sentence for robbery on Pulau Senang, stated that the treatment of the detainees were generally "okay" and there was little to no abuse coming from the officers, despite conceding that there was indeed excessive workload on the island. Chong Sek Ling, a former gang leader who spent time on Pulau Senang, testified that after an event in July where thirteen carpenters were sent back from Pulau Senang to Changi Prison due to their refusal to repair a jetty during nighttime, he overheard more than ten high-ranking gang leaders discussing about their plan to kill Dutton and the other officers of the settlement, due to their dissatisfaction of the treatment they faced and hatred against Dutton for his supposed iron-fist rule and discipline. Among these people, Chong identified Dut

Did You Know?

• The settlement was proposed by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair.
• The ringleader Tan Kheng Ann was also known as Robert Black or Ang Chuar (meaning 'Red Snake' in Hokkien) because he was born in 1941, the year of the Snake.
• The trial of 59 rioters was the largest ever conducted in the legal history of both Singapore and Malaysia.
• One rioter, Tan Yim Chwee, used his shirt stained with Dutton's blood as a flag mast to celebrate the killing.
• Superintendent Dutton did not allow guards to carry arms, believing it was necessary to build trust between guards and inmates.