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An Article From Vicinity Perak - The Ever-Resilient Capitan Ah Kwee - Volume 3 Issue 14.
This article by Dr Ho Tak Ming is about Capitan China Chung Ah Kwee (Chung Keng Kwee) the leader of the Hakka secret society Hai Sans and one of the richest Capitans at that time.
On 20th January 1874, Capitan Ah Kwee and Capitan Chin Ah Yam, leader of the Cantonese secret society, Ghee Hin led a delegation of 26 Chinese headman at the signing of the Pangkor Treaty. This treaty was meant to put an end of the Larut War. This treaty also enabled Capitan Ah Kwee to outplay and outwit his rivals and become the richest man in the country.
Chung Ah Kwee was born as a Chen Sang Hakka in Guandong Province, China. At his late teens, he was asked to go to Malaya and look for his father and brother by his mother. Ah Kwee found his brother in Larut as a wealthy and well known man who even had a nickname – Lui Kung Seng (God of Thunder Seng). Ah Kwee later became the head of the Hai Sans and led the first batch of Chinese miners to work at Long Jaafar’s mine in Klian Pauh in 1848. Tensions arose between the Hai Sans and Ghee Hins who were mining at Klian Bharu (Kamunting). War ensued between these two secret societies and was only stopped by Captain Tristam Speedy.
Captain Speedy made the Hai Sans work the mines and live in Klian Pauh which he later renamed Taiping, which means ‘everlasting peace’. The Ghee Hins meanwhile were given Kamunting and mined a less richer area. Capitan Ah Kwee practically became the founder of Taiping and owner of the largest alluvial mine in the world employing 5000 coolies. He died at his residence in Penang on 13th December 1901 and his personal estate in Penang alone amounted to seven million Straits dollars.
To read more about The Pangkor Treaty / Pangkor Engagement, click here.
To read more about Captain Speedy, click here.