by Alex Josey
Dr Goh Keng Swee, then Minister for Finance, poured ridicule on Marshall’s suggestion that detainees should be paid the rate for the job. He accused Marshall of trying to make political capital out of Pulau Senang. His suggestion that the government was employing slave labour in Pulau Senang, the Minister described as ‘completely sanctimonious humbug’. Pulau Senang was a scheme to rehabilitate secret society gangsters. “It is not a matter of the wicked government catching innocent people and putting them to do some slave work for the benefit of the party or the government.”
Were the government ‘so absurd, so ridiculous’ as to accept Marshall’s proposal that the detainees should be paid the rate for the job, this surely would be an invitation to the public to join secret societies and thereby get a remunerative career in Pulau Senang, with food and everything thrown in. The Minister insisted that the main thing was to impress upon the detainees that work is creative and is of value to society, and to inculcate in these unfortunate young men pride in work, and a sense of social responsibility.
Marshall was stung to reply. “Who can speak of pride in work, being paid $0.30 a day whilst your family starves on social welfare pittance,” he thundered, “ … whilst their families starve, they sweat at hard labour in the sun with pick and shovel and get paid by this beneficent government $0.30 a day. Mr Speaker, what kind of self-respect do you think you can build in a human being like that? What kind of attitude do you think you can build in a human being like that towards a society which treats him in that fashion?” Not one of these men, he reminded the House, had been convicted by an impartial judge.
The Prime Minister intervened to recall that he had spent a ‘rather exciting evening’ at the Aftercare Association, when the Superintendent of Pulau Senang had provided a concert consisting of ex-detainee performers. He urged Marshall to lend his patronage to this very deserving Aftercare Association. The Home Minister made two further points: all detainees were paid $0.30 a day, which was higher than the rate paid to convicted prisoners. In about three years, nearly 400 detainees had been successfully rehabilitated at Pulau Senang. Up to the end of 1962, the total cost of the upkeep of Pulau Senang was $1,110,495. Some $30,677 had been paid to the detainees for work done.
Destruction
ON THE MORNING OF 12 JULY 1963, the tragic day of the Pulau Senang uprising, Major Peter L. James, a retired regular British army officer, then Director of Singapore Prisons, got to his office in (Upper Pickering Street about 12:30 PM. He had spent the morning on inspection in Changi Jail. He was told that Dutton wanted him urgently on the radio. Pulau Senang was linked to the main island by radio telephone. James rang Dutton at 12:40 PM. Dutton told him that ‘there is a rumour here that there is going to be trouble, that they are out to get me.’
James asked Dutton what action he had taken. Dutton said he had arrested the ring-leaders and was trying to contact the Marine Police. James told Dutton he would get in touch with the police in Singapore right away. Dutton protested that this was not necessary. As Dutton continued to argue, James broke the connection. Then he telephoned the police. James got through to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cheah Teng Check, and Cheah said he would send a troop from the reserve unit there without delay. James then telephoned Dutton to tell him to expect the police at about 2:00 PM. Button’s reaction was to grumble ‘there is no need for that’. At the trial of the ringleaders, James gave evidence that he told Dutton to carry out Standing Instructions. This meant that if there was trouble, Dutton and his staff should get off the island. Dutton replied: “Good God! There’s no need for that. There are always plenty of them who will stand by me.” James told Dutton that he would ring again at 2:00 PM.
On the island, the situation worsened rapidly. Dutton realised, too late, that he needed help, urgently. His frantic and belated call for help was received by the Marine Police at 1:12 PM. They recognised Dutton’s voice. Dutton kept saying: “Situation very bad. Please inform Coastguard.” The message was repeated three times. A police boat was instructed to proceed to Pulau Senang from Tanjong China. All marine officers at sea were informed. Lance-Corporal Abdul Aziz bin Saji was patrolling off Pulau Sebarok. He received a message at 1:14 PM. that there was rioting at Pulau Senang. He was ordered to proceed there immediately. He went in as close to the island as was possible with the low tide. Through binoculars he saw a lot of people on the beach. Five minutes later, he saw a prison boat heading towards Indonesian waters. The police boat set off in pursuit. He indicated for it to stop, but the boat continued on its course. The corporal fired two warning shots. He then fired at the engine, but missed. At 2:00 PM
a Customs boat joined in the chase, overtook the police boat and rammed the escaping boat which sank. The seven occupants were picked up by the police boat. Just before the collision, Marlow, a mechanic, who had been kidnapped, jumped into the sea. He, too, was rescued. His real name was Chan Seng Onn. At Pulau Senang, where he was known as Marlow, he was in charge of outboard motors and their servicing. A group of gangsters had surrounded him and ordered him into the boat.
James knew nothing of this dramatic development. Just before 2:00 PM, he again rang Pulau Senang, but could make no contact. Almost at once the Master Attendant telephoned with the news that there was trouble on the island; fire was burning.
At once Major James made arrangements to get over to Pulau Senang. He arrived at about a 3:45 PM. The island was aflame as he approached. The police were already there and had rounded up the rioters. James was told that Button and two others were dead, and 75 per cent of the buildings were destroyed. Total damage was estimated, in financial terms, at about half a million dollars.
At the trial, the Public Prosecutor, Mr Francis Seow, said that Dutton had died a terrible death, ‘having blundered by under-estimating the size of the uprising’. Mr Seow reckoned that ‘quite a sizeable section’ of the 316 detainees on the island that day were involved in the rioting. He said that trouble had begun when 13 carpenters were sent back to Changi Jail on 9th July for refusing to work on the 400-foot jetty on a Saturday afternoon. Major James later told Dutton that he had been ill-advised to do this.
But even before Dutton had sent the carpenters back, some of the detainees were already plotting to kill him. Informers reported this to Dutton. On 10 July, some of the leaders of the riot drew up a death-list of six prison officers. This list was later amended to include known, or suspected, informers. Men were allocated their respective responsibilities in the uprising. Dutton heard about this the same day. He refused to treat the threat seriously. One of the detainees, the informers said, boasted that the riot would shake the whole of Malaysia (of which Singapore was then part). Dutton was given the latest intelligence reports and also informed about the plot to kill him. Dutton brushed them aside: he preferred to believe that the majority of the detainees would stand by him if there was trouble.
James did not share his optimism. To start with, the Director of Prisons doubted whether any long-time secret society gangster could ever be rehabilitated. He had also opposed the appointment of ex-Pulau Senang detainees as settlement attendants. In his opinion, to employ ex-prisoners in a position of authority in a prison system was wrong. It was quite possible that a detainee could find that he was being supervised by a settlement attendant who was, or had been, a member of a rival secret society. Dutton on the other hand sincerely believed that a man’s salvation came through hard work. He was anxious to retain the services of freed detainees on Pulau Senang who had showed peculiar talents for building, laying pipes, and so on. Dutton had argued that detainees set free would be grateful to be given a ‘government job’ on the island, and would never again turn to a secret society. James, a most experienced prison officer, disagreed. He later told the Court that he thought that ‘government circles’ agreed with him, but he added, ‘certain people’ in the end decided that ex-detainees could be employed as settlement attendants. He felt it to be a mistake.
At the time of the riot, there was
a staff of 45 on the island. There were no firearms, no tear gas. There were wicker-shields and batons. In Court, at the trial, James gave his opinion that had Dutton been surrounded by regular prison staff, ‘we might have seen some of the rioters injured. I saw none.’ He added: “If you want my opinion I should say that the staff might well have given a better account of themselves.”
Major James told the Court that it was his decision that there should be no firearms on the island. “We were always out-numbered: if we had firearms there was always a real danger of these arms being taken from us, falling into the hands of the detainees.” The whole question had been discussed at great length with the police. There were no firearms in British prisons. It would have been psychologically wrong for prison staff to walk about Pulau Senang with firearms. “It was our intention to have firearms on the neighbouring island of Pulau Pawai where we were building an armoury. In the event of trouble the orders were to evacuate to this island. The armoury had not been completed by 12 July.” James was asked whether it wouldn’t have been a good idea to have smuggled a Sten-gun into Pulau Senang and hidden it somewhere where Dutton could have had ready access to it. James opposed the idea.
“Would a Sten-gun in that radio room at 1:00 PM on the 12th of July have saved the situation?” asked Mr C.H. Koh, one of the counsel for the defence.
Major James said, “That is debatable.”
Because of what James considered to be Dutton’s misplaced trust in the detainees, he decided to go over to Pulau Senang on 11 July (the day before the uprising) to tell Dutton to take seriously the reports of the plot to kill him, and to take precautions. That was when he told Dutton that he had been ill-advised to send the carpenters back to Changi. James told Dutton that he did not think the work on the jetty was urgent enough to insist upon work on Saturday afternoons. James told Dutton that he would probably send them back again to Pulau Senang within a reasonably short space of time.
The jetty was 400 feet long, and, as Major James explained during the trial, it was necessary to work on it at various odd hours because there is a straits between Pulau Senang and the neighbouring island of Pulau Pawai. There is an extremely strong tide between the two islands, and in building the jetty, Dutton was dependent entirely on the state of the tide. With improvised equipment, the men could only work at low tide. If the tide was low at night, they would work at night. It was not work that could be done at regular working hours. Work depended entirely on tide. Besides, Dutton believed in work.
James felt that Pulau Senang had reached the stage when the detainees had the best amenities that he had ever seen in any prison anywhere, and in 21 years of service, he had been to many prisons in various parts of the world. They had cinema, educational facilities, recreational facilities, good accommodation, laundry, workshops and canteen. James felt that the need for long working hours was over. The original enthusiasm for building could not be the same: the men could no longer see any reason for long working hours.
Dutton thought otherwise. Pulau Senang was not built to be enjoyed. That was not the purpose of the open-prison settlement. Dutton believed fervently that the men’s salvation was hard work.
A defence counsel got Major James to admit that he had ordered Dutton to reduce the working hours. The detainees knew this (there were few secrets on the island). The defence counsel asked James whether Dutton was setting a proper example to those he was trying to teach to respect law and order when Dutton himself disregarded orders. James denied the suggestion that Dutton flagrantly disobeyed orders. He had given Dutton considerable discretion. Dutton was the man on the spot. Pulau Senang was a place where time and tide waited for no man. Things had to be done. Chickens had to be fed, emergency work done. But the type of man on Pulau Senang was a man not liking work. Many people were in prison because they were lazy. Some joined secret societies because they were lazy. James said that no detainee had ever protested or complained to him about working hours, and every prisoner knew he had the right to approach the Director of Prisons with serious complaints.
At 11:30 AM on 12 July, the detainees stopped for lunch. Shortly after the start-work gong struck at 12:40 PM, they were mustered for gardening and issued with cangkuls and parangs. On an arranged signal, the riot began. Some of the rioters attacked the warders. Others made for the radio room where Dutton and his chief officer, J.W. Tailford, had stationed themselves. By now, the warning siren was blaring. By the time the riot squad arrived, inside the hour, Dutton and two others were dead and a third fatally injured. The settlement was in ruins. The final drama had come when the rioters beseiged the administrative block, the settlement’s nerve centre. Outnumbered, the prison staff were overwhelmed. Soon buildings were ablaze. Dutton, seriously injured, alone and helpless, was cornered in his office. Rioters tore a hole in the roof and poured petrol on him and tossed in fire to set him alight. Dutton rushed outside, his clothing in flames, and four rioters with axes and cangkuls finished him off. A rioter’s shirt, stained with Dutton’s blood, was set up on the mast, and as the body of Dutton burned, the rioters played music on a guitar and sang and danced.
None of the detainees was killed during the riot. In fact, only six suffered superficial head injuries. They received attention at the prison hospital. All six had previous records of misconduct on the island.
During the trial, Major James disagreed with the defence’s contention that violence on the island had been an outburst of human intolerance. He denied Dutton was a slave driver. He was one of the kindest men James had ever met. He was a natural leader. If there was any good in a man, Dutton would bring it out. He was an extremely humane person. He often called upon James to help men released from Pulau Senang. If a detainee had trouble at home, Dutton would seek James’ help in sorting it out. Defence counsel asked James whether it was not a fact that the outburst had been a demonstration of personal hatred of Dutton.
James denied this. He said: “Dutton had to be, had the misfortune to be, the living embodiment of a system affecting their lives on Pulau Senang. He represented the authority of the Singapore Government, and, in my opinion, that holocaust was directly directed against the Singapore Government and the system that detained them.” Dutton represented a system, a better way of life to which these men, ‘the scum of Singapore’, were antagonistic. “They couldn’t stand a system which took them out of their unpleasant habits.”
Major James’ explanation of the savage riot was that the rioters knew that prison accommodation in the State of Singapore was at an absolute premium. They knew that a prison with accommodation for 2,000 prisoners was being pulled down (Outram Road Prison). They knew that one man, and one man alone, in the State Prison Service could build Pulau Senang. They thought that if this man, Daniel Dutton, was done away with, and the place destroyed, the Singapore Government would find it extremely difficult to contain them. They might have to release them.
No proof was ever forthcoming that this was in fact the motive behind the revolt, but during the trial, a former secret society leader and a detainee, both prosecution witnesses, revealed that a meeting of seven secret society leaders on 6 July decided that Dutton must be liquidated and Pulau Senang razed to the ground.
Among those at the meeting of seven was Tan Kheng Ann. Dutton spent long hours in the evening with him. Dutton believed Tan had reformed. An informer warned Dutton against Tan, but Dutton laughed. He rather liked Tan. In the end Tan was one of the men who killed him.
Retribution
When the riot squad arrived, they met with no resistance. The rioters threw aside their weapons and obeyed orders. They were taken away to Changi Prison. Six weeks later, on 26 August 1963, 71 detainees stood before the Fourth Magistrate, Khoo Hin Hiong, each charged with four counts of murder, one of attempted murder, and one of mischief by causing fire. Forty-seven photographs of damaged buildings and bodies of the murdered officers were produced. One picture showed a guitar among a pile of tyres. “Evidence will show,” said the Public Prosecutor, �
��that these people were singing and celebrating the holocaust.” Lee Meow Cheng, a settlement attendant, told the Court that the rioters had held a victory celebration. “Some of them changed into new clothes for the celebration. They strutted about like conquerors of Pulau Senang,” said Lee.
Low Ah Kow, a settlement assistant, gave the Court a detailed account of what happened. He said that at 12:15 pm that day, he and other officers fell in outside the guard room and were informed by Tailford, the chief officer, that trouble was expected. They were instructed that when the siren sounded, they were to fall in again outside the guard room. Tailford then dismissed them. Low went off to the mess room, where he was detailed to look after Halls, A, B, C and D. Another settlement officer was told to look after Halls E, F, G and H. Low heard the work-gong sound at 12:50 pm and then shortly after, while standing outside Hall A, he heard the three short blasts of the alarm siren. He saw a large group of detainees approaching him: they were armed with cangkuls, parangs, pipes and other weapons. They were led by the gang leader, Tan Kheng Ann, alias Robert. His prison number was 860/60. He had a parang in his hand. They charged towards the mess room, but made no attempt to assault him.
A group of rioters had surrounded Choo Ah Kim, another settlement assistant. He looked as though he was suffering from shock. Then Low saw an unarmed group of detainees rush into the armed mob to rescue Choo and carry him into the administrative block. Low himself went with them as far as the prison hospital to get some medicine. While he was inside the hospital, he saw, across the road, three armed rioters smash the petrol pump lock and draw some of the fuel, then run off towards the store. While still in the hospital grounds he heard a voice yell: “Bobby! Cut the radio wire!” Later, he saw Bobby (whom he identified as Lim Tee Kang) running towards the radio wire and cut it with an axe.
