THE majority of Malaysians grow up not knowing or learning about the pioneers of the country’s history. They may see the names of some of these giants of national development engraved in a building. Or perhaps in a little street in some of our towns and cities. But whatever information on our early leaders is becoming more scanty by the day and is unlikely to be recognisable to whoever is walking along the street or is looking at an old building bearing an unfamiliar name.
At the same time even this diminishing testimony of their contribution is being lost. Old buildings are bulldozed and streets are renamed by a post-colonial authority bent on reconfiguring the nation’s history to have it accord with an official version that is marginalising or excluding the role and contribution of some of the leaders and communities who helped build the country to become what it is presently.
Today the name of Chung Keng Quee does not feature in any school history textbook. Fortunately it survives in the name of two streets in Penang – Lebuh Keng Quee and Lebuh Ah Kwee.
Fortunately too the story of this remarkable larger than life figure, who was founder and administrator of modern Taiping, secret society head, Chinese community leader, tin mining innovator, versatile businessman, architecture connoisseur and perhaps most interesting of all, philanthropist extraordinary, can be pieced together by reading the records of Malaysian history that are now available online.
A well-researched and lengthy synopsis of Keng Quee’s life and career in colonial Malaya can be found in Wikipedia. From it are details of a boyhood journey from China to Malaya around the year 1841 to look for his father who had migrated earlier as an indentured labourer to seek his fortune. His subsequent involvement in the tin mining industry, and in the socio-political strife of that period in the 1860s and early 70s known as the Larut Wars, in which rival Chinese factions and their Malay allies fought over mining rights and territories and provided the conditions for the introduction of British colonial rule in Perak and the other Malay states, makes for essential reading for those bitten by the history bug.
But for others less concerned with knowing what happened in history and who are more interested in who contributed what in our history – or the bottom line approach – the philanthropic contribution alone of Keng Quee makes him stand out well above the deeds and achievements of others.
One researcher has noted that Keng Quee was “indisputably the century’s biggest patron of all” and estimated that he alone accounted for about 92% of the charitable contributions made by the three key members of the Cantonese-Hakka economic elite between 1850 and 1910.
Among his most notable contributions were in the field of education. These included support for poor scholars; a school for all Chinese dialect groups in Penang (Five Luck Villa or Ng Fook Tong); erection of buildings for St Xavier’s Institution and donations to the Penang Free School and Brothers School; and a free private school, Chong Wen Shi Institute.
As with other prominent community leaders of his time he gave generously to religious causes including to prominent Chinese temples and cemeteries in Penang and Perak. Community associations such as the Penang Chinese Town Hall numbered him as among their biggest donors. It was not only Chinese and local causes that benefited. Notable too is his generosity to international causes including the India Famine Relief Fund, the Transvaal War Fund for orphans and widows, the Franco-Annam War Fund and to various causes in China. He is also recorded to have given land and building grants from his property for civic purposes, and donations to erect buildings for various bodies, including the European dominated Engineers Institute.
Lastly, but not least, land from his mining pools in Taiping was donated for public use by his son, Chung Thye Phin. Today the over 60ha Taiping Lake Gardens still stands as one of the finest public gardens in the country.
The greater part of Keng Quee’s wealth undoubtedly came from the blood, sweat and tears of the Chinese community. Besides his lucrative mining activities, Keng Quee was regarded as the biggest revenue farmer of his time with his ownership of the tobacco, liquor, opium and gambling monopolies of his time providing much of the basis of his fortune.
But he also gave back in many ways to the Chinese community and society in general in Malaya. These are not only important to not forget but also to remember and learn from.
The Perak Pioneer & Native States Advertiser noted in its Dec 14, 1901 issue that: “By the death of Capitan Chang Keng Kwi, which occurred at his residence in Penang on Thursday night, one of the most picturesque figures in the history of Malaysia has been removed.”
Lim Teck Ghee’s Another Take is aimed at demystifying social orthodoxy. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
