Kangchu System - Role of The Kangchu

Role of The Kangchu

The Temenggong of Johor (later Sultan of Johor) conferred upon the Kangchu with a large degree of administrative autonomy within the plot of land which each was granted. These included the right to collect taxes on behalf for the Temenggong, as well as for the welfare needs among the Chinese coolies living within the plot of land. The Kangchu generally granted tax exemption for the basic consumption by workers within the settlement. Some coolies took on new jobs such as shopkeepers and traders to serve the needs of other coolies within the settlement, and the Kangchu granted tax exemptions to these shopkeepers and traders on the sale of pork, opium and alcohol as well. The Kangchu reserved a portion of the land for the construction of a settlement for the coolies, from which small towns were formed and became the administrative centre of the Kangchu. These administrative centres were generally established within the coolie settlements located at the foot of the river, and were known as Kangkar (literally "Foot of the river", Chinese: 港脚, Pinyin: Gáng Jiǎo, Teochew: Kaang6 Caar8).

The Kangchu acted as the middleman in the bulk purchase of the settlement's commodities through suppliers based in Singapore. In particular, opium was highly popular among the coolies, although frowned upon by the British who took strong measures to suppress its distribution. The Kangchu formed illegal opium syndicates which had links to Chinese leaders from Singapore and other Malay states in the north, particularly Selangor. British contempt for the Kangchu was also fuelled by the coolies' preference for gambling and prostitution, both of which were seen as social vices by the British colonial government. The Kangchu maintained friendly relations with the Temenggong (later Sultan), and worked closely with the Ngee Heng Kongsi in administrative matters. In particular, the state government attempted to forge close relations with the Kangchu by the appointment of a Malay official who was conversant in Teochew and literate in Chinese characters, Mohamed Salleh bin Perang, as the liaison officer between the Temenggong and the Kangchu. Several years later, in the early 1870s, the state government worked closely with the Ngee Heng Kongsi to draft the Kanun Kangchu which had legal clauses that defined the powers of the Kangchu in Johor. The Kanun Kangchu contained 81 clauses in total, and was implemented in 1873.