Ang Soon Tong

Ang Soon Tong (Chinese: 洪顺堂; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: âng sūn tông) is a secret society based in Singapore and Malaysia. According to a former police officer, the society was active as early as the 1950s, mainly in the Sembawang area.^[1] In 1998, a 19-year-old youth was arrested for setting up a website dedicated to the society.^[2]

As recently as 2020, Ang Soon Tong is still active, with one of its members sentenced to reformative probation that year for clashing with members of another secret society.^[3]

The gang gain profits through illegal activities such as smuggling and trading of gun and drugs, illegal moneylending and illegal gambling.^[4]

Tan Chor Jin, nicknamed One-eye dragon, was a member of Ang Soon Tong. He is known for shooting a nightclub owner, Lim Hock Soon, to death with a Beretta Pistol inside Lim's flat at Serangoon, Singapore. After the shoot out, Tan fled to Malaysia and attempted to travel to Chiang Mai at Thailand, to escape justice. Tan was arrested by Royal Malaysia Police at a Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and was sentenced to death by Singapore's High Court in year 2007. He was hanged at dawn on 9 January 2009.^[4][5]

Sagar Suppiah Retnam, the headman of Ang Soon Tong from Taman Jurong, led a group of 14 members to wage a war with their rival gang Gi Leng Hor in Marsiling Drive in December 1990, and attacked several passers-by whom they perceived to be Gi Leng Hor gang members, but all six victims of the attack were innocent bystanders and not part of a gang. The attack resulted into the murder of Sivapragasam Subramaniam (a 20-year-old Malaysian) and the remaining five sustaining serious injuries. After his arrest in Johor three years later, Sagar was extradited to Singapore and charged with murdering Sivapragasam by using an axe to fatally hit Sivapragasam on the head, and he was sentenced to hang on 31 May 1994.^[6] Sagar was executed for the brutal murder on 7 July 1995, soon after losing his appeal and clemency plea.^[7] The other members of Sagar's gang were jailed between 31 months and seven years (in addition to caning for some of them) for lesser charges of rioting and inflicting grievous hurt.^[8]

On 27 October 1988, a 23-year-old jobless Malaysian named Sosay Sinnappen, a member of Ang Soon Tong, and his Singaporean friend and prison warden Kuppiah Saravanan confronted a 27-year-old transvestite Lim Yeow Chuan, who allegedly stole a gold chain from their friend Leo Chin Hwang at Johore Road, Bugis. Lim refused to return the gold chain and denied stealing it, and even threatened the two men with a knife. This sparked a fight between Lim and the two men; Soosay disarmed Lim in the process and stabbed Lim a few times, before he and Kuppiah left the scene, leaving Lim to die from his wounds.^[9]

In January 1991, the police managed to arrest both Kuppiah and Soosay, the latter who happened to be involved in the Ang Soon Tong incident that led to the murder of Sivapragasam Subramaniam, and they were both charged with murder. Eventually, Kuppiah was jailed for five years and given 12 strokes of the cane for robbery with hurt,^[10] while Soosay was sentenced to death for murder,^[11] but upon his appeal, Soosay's claims of killing Lim during a sudden fight were accepted and he was re-sentenced to nine years' jail for manslaughter.^[12][13] For the other case of Sivapragasam's murder, Soosay was also tried for causing violence while being a member of an unlawful assembly and given a second sentence of four years' imprisonment with caning (six strokes).^[14]

In December 1995, the Ang Soon Tong gang clashed with the See Tong gang over a funeral banner. The gang members were arrested and imprisoned.^[15]

Leong Fook Weng, a former Ang Soon Tong gang member went on to quit Ang Soon Tong and joined the Loh Kuan secret society. See Chee Keong and four other gang members decided to punish Leong for quitting the gang and assaulted Leong Fook Weng 4 times in total on 17 May 2000 in Singapore. One of the attacks was at the Upper Boon Keng Road. Another attack happened later at a petrol station near Tanjong Katong Road. The last attack on Leong happened between 4.30 a.m. to 6.30 a.m. at the vacant land. During the attack, See Chee Keong stabbed Leong's heart and neck with a 5-cm long blade hidden in a lighter, which resulted in Leong's death. A few hours later, Leong's body was discovered only in his underwear. See Chee Keong fled to Thailand on 18 May 2000, a day after the assault on Leong. In December 2000, See was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia while attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to Kuala Lumpur. See was charged in Cambodian court and sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment for drug trafficking. After serving his sentence in prison for 13 years, See received a royal pardon and was released on 26 November 2013 and was deported to Singapore. Two of See's accomplices, Robson Tay Teik Chai and William Ho Kah Wei were dealt in court in 2003 for their roles in the attack, with Tay receiving nine years' jail and caning for culpable homicide while Ho was jailed for six months for not reporting the crime.

On 20 April 2016, See was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The two other fugitives, Ong Chin Huat and Lim Hin Teck, were still on the run at that time.^[16]

In 2019, Julius Chen, a resident of Yishun, Singapore, alleged on social media that a member of Ang Soon Tong had extorted $100 from him. Chen apparently subsequently saw the member again at a coffee shop at Block 414 on 30 March 2019, where he attempted to retrieve his money. The member responded by claiming that he was an Ang Soon Tong gang member and made a phone call for backup. Six Indian men allegedly later arrived at the coffee shop, threatening Chen. The police later arrived and separated Chen and the gang, giving a warning to the gang.^[17][18]

Ang Soon Tong attempted to control areas in Klang, a city in Malaysia, by sending gang members with parangs and katanas to assault two gardening contractors who refused to pay for the gang's extortion at a construction site in Pulau Indah on 4 September 2015. The gardening contractors were fatally injured and hospitalized. The Royal Malaysia Police later arrested 12 Ang Soon Tong gang members and issued a wanted notice to search for the local gang leader.^[19]

• Secret societies in Singapore
• Secret society