Kee Lai Huat, founder of Sungai Bakap


Kee Lai Huat was known as Sinkeh in the early days. Sinkehs means new arrivals to a foreign country.  The Chinese Coolies landed in Batu Kawan, Province Wellesley in 1852 with a tongkong or junkyard with loads of other immigrants. He came with his young brother from Theng Hai, district of Shantou, Chenghai @ Tenghai, Guangdong, China. Early days, it was also know as Swatou or hilltop, swa is hill and tou is top. 

His brother Kee Lai Kee worked for a while but fell sick and passed on at 19. His date of birth and death is approximately between 1845 to 1864. I was told he was adopted into the family.

The story went like this, about nearly reaching Batu Kawan, the tongkang sank. Many lives were drown and lost. Somehow Kee Lai Huat survived, barely to a log of dead wood floating on the sea. He clung on for many days, was dead tired, lost conscious but somehow reached dry land. 

Upon waking up, he had a shock of his life as where he was, there was lots of crocodiles. And he was not eaten by them! (My late father Kee Saik Thong, for a long time would not eat beh kar kiam hu (salted horse mackerel). Tales were passed down not to eat them because crocodiles loves the smell. ha ha, how about that! I  get scolded by him each time I fry them at home as he believed crocodiles will smell me when I am at sea. I continue eating but dare not swim, ha ha.)


Kee Lye Huat, founder of Sungai Bakap and Valdor

There was a spot, I was told he will go to pray every time he needed help. My aunties and uncles repeatedly said, he 
worked very hard to give his family a good life in Sungai Bakap. His virtuous capability is hard work. His determination to lead a frugal life is commendable.

Another story I can still remember clearly was how he married the sugar tycoon Khaw Lau Hup daughter, Khaw Bee Gek. Also know as Khaw Mooi Gek.

He worked as a labourer but was earmarked to marry the daughter of Khaw Lau Hup. A certain feng shui master described  his big round face feature coming in on a certain day from China. Khaw Boo Aun, the son of Khaw Lau Hup was told to go look for him. 

One day, while resting by the river after lunch, he fell asleep. He woke up hearing his name being shouted. He thought, they caught him sleeping on the job.  He was so scared they might terminate him. He ran so fast, cross the river of crocodiles by stepping on the crocodile heads. He never came back for many days.

Khaw Lau Hup sent man to find him, bought him back. He was told that because of his dedication and hard work, he will be marrying the daughter. Hiya, what a relief, he must have felt. ha ha. I kept laughing each time they repeated the stories, you know old people when you asked for stories, they repeat every time until you can tell the story and that is me.

With the experience he gained as a sugar cane plantation supervisor, he worked very hard to toil the land.  A zinc house in Sungai Bakap was a gift from the Batu Kawan father in law to Kee Lai Huat. With that, he was told to work hard and ensure his daughter does not stuff to death. Worked hard he did, for he acquired dozens of shop houses, vast coconut and sugar plantations, town market and a theater. 


Batu Kawan Sugar Planation

My late sister told me, when she was young, they just walked everywhere in the middle of the road. Feeling like a grand lady in Sungai Bakap. Have heard the phrase, you think this is your grandfather road? I think she being high and mightly until her last days would reply, YES!

With a motto "one cent saved is a cent earn", he purchased over 1000 acres of swampy land and did what he knows best,  growing sugar cane. It was not surprising, as he was running over 2400 hectares of the Batu Kawan sugar plantation belonging to Khaw Boo Aun. 

But one wonders how he did it running over 2400 hectres of sugar cane for Khaw Boo Aun, son to Khaw Lau Hup. Then toiling on his own newly purchased 1000 acres of swampy land. Same time, he must have acquired good discipline from his strong headed brother in law Khaw Boo Aun who was the leader of Ghee Hin. 

I guessed he has too, as in 1860, the Teochiews or Teochew communities were owning over 20,000 hectares of sugar cane plantation from Province Wellesley to Perak.

As the saying goes at that time, not even a bird can't fly out of their estate as it was so vast. A generous donor to charities, Kee Lai Huat vision was to built the Sungai Bakap township. So together with his 2 friends, Lau Kuang Mia and Tan Ah Pow in the 19th century, they did. 

Kee Lai Huat first founded the Kee Poh Huat Kongsi and built it as family residence in the same replica in China. In Penang, you will see his photos or name mentioned in some old association or temples of Taochew descent, like The Taochiew Ancestral Temple and Kwong Tong Cemetery etc.

Soon words reached the Imperial Chinese Manchu Government. For his many acts of greatness the Manchu Imperial Government conferred on him the title of "Mandarin, Second Rank" retrospectively for two generations.

2nd rank and 3rd rank Mandarin Officials

Kee Lai Huat, his wife and both his father Koe Choe Imm and mother became Mandarins of the Third Rank. You can see four big portraits of them hanging in their impressive mandarin suit in the main ancestral hall in Sungai Bakap. 

The gold fram photos is Kee Lai Huat and Khaw Bee Gek. To denote the difference between ranks,  is the length of pearl necklace. It also means that when they bow, the necklace must not touch the ground. So the higher official need not bow lower.
2nd and 3rd rank Mandarin Officials

Despite the many fights where they, the Ghee Hins and Hai San secret society, red and white flag Penang Riots, Kee Lai Huat make it through some major  disaster during his life time.

Times were more settled after the signing of Pangkor Treaty in 1874, end of the Larut Wars. Chor Chor Kee Lai Huat vision materialized despite all the upheavals during 1860 till his death.
Kee Lai Huat was born in 1834 and died in 1892. His remains was sent back to China but it never arrived as the tongkang was destroyed halfway to China. 

Two years before his demise, Kee Lai Huat appointed as a member of Chinese Advisory Board. The township were prospering, money coming in from the rentals of houses surrounding the Kongsi, the coconuts plantations and a few more business he was in.

Eulogy board carrier 
Chinese screens, scrolls, eulogy boards, a set of wooden weapons and square boards on poles reminded me of the old Chinese movies I have seen on movies or television. 

These were used each time there was an official appointment. Announcements were made the same way it was done in China. The ceremonies was one of splendor. And Chor Chor Kee Lai Huat Vision came true.

Fortunately, his acquisition spirit did not extend to his personal life for he remained faithful to his wife who bore him six sons and two daughters. Kee Lai Huat vision to his six sons and two daughters were to lived frugally and to carry on the future generations and ensured that the kongsi was well maintained.
Ella, Phaik Cheen, Pearly, Ah Nui Kor, Phaik Cheen brother and Simon Kee's wife

Well, those days six to ten families could lived in a big ancestral house. My fourth generation aunt told me when she was young, they were never short of playmates. Every household had at least 10 kids and imagine 6 households, 60 kids would be out playing in the big courtyard. Those days, the courtyards have many pets and horses for the young children to ride on.

Under the matriarch Khaw Bee Gek, she single handedly raised 6 sons, Tek Thye, Tek Kooi, Tek Phang, Tek Kow, Tek Seng, Tek Leng and 2 daughter Siew Kee and Siew Sim.

The late Ah Nui Kor  (red) and Poey Chim
Three of her sons, Tek Chye, Tek Kooi and Tek Phang carried on the family tradition of public services and were awarded Justice of Peace for Penang.

Kee Yong Hee in newspaper

The matriarch Khaw Bee Gek passed on at the age late 80s in 1911. Her remains were buried in Kee Burial grounds in Sungai Bakap. Not bad at all for a simple man from Thenghai, Swatow Mainland China. Indeed a grand lady if not first lady of Sungai Bakap. Don't you think?


Yong Hee guiding Simon Kee in the Cheng Beng rituals

Ok, this are tales uncle the late Kee Yong Hee, the late Ah Nu Kor Kor, Yong Hee sister, Ah Poey Chim (still alive in her late 80s, told me when I visited them back in 2006  to 2010.

Newspaper cutting in 1970s

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