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Creating ‘Family’ Networks across Time and Space: The Alsagoffs in Singapore, 1824–2009

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2018

STEPHANIE PO YIN CHUNG
STEPHANIE PO YIN CHUNG*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China Email: [email protected]
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 458 - 491
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

1 Day, T., Fluid Iron: State Formation in Southeast Asia, University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2002Google Scholar. Sutherland, H., ‘Geography as destiny: the role of water in Southeast Asian history’, in A World of Water Rain, Rivers and Seas in Southeast Asian Histories, Boomgaard, P. (ed.), KITLV Press, Leiden, 2007, pp. 27–70.Google Scholar

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8 See also N. Yahaya, ‘Courting jurisdictions: colonial administration of Islamic law pertaining to Arabs in the Straits settlements and the Netherlands East Indies, 1860–1941’, PhD thesis, Princeton University, 2012; Gilsenan, M., ‘Possessed of documents: hybrid laws and translated texts in the Hadhrami diaspora’, in Ethnographies of Islam: Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices, Dupret, B., Pinto, P. G., Pierret, T., and Spellman-Poots, K. (eds), Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2012, pp. 181–92.Google Scholar

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11 In his instructions to a Singapore town committee in 1822, Raffles stated that ‘the Arab population would require every consideration. No situation will be more appropriate for them than the vicinity of the [Malay] Sultan's residence’, cited in Morley, J. A. E., ‘The Arabs and the Eastern Trade’, Journal of Malayan Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 22, no. 1, 1949, p. 165Google Scholar.

12 Other significant Arab families include the Alkaffs and the Aljuned. See Freitag, U., ‘Arab merchants in Singapore: attempt of a collective biography’, in Transcending Borders: Arabs, Politics, Trade and Islam in Southeast Asia, Jonge, H. and Kaptein, N. (eds), KITLV Press, Leiden, 2002, p. 119Google Scholar; Frost and Balasingamchow, Singapore, pp. 101–3; Wright, A. and Cartwright, H. W. (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources, Lloyd's Greater Britain Pub., London, 1908, pp. 705–12.Google Scholar

13 Alsagoff, Syed Mohsen, The Alsagoff Family in Malaysia A. H. 1240 (A.D. 1824) to A.H. 1382 (A.D. 1962), The Author, Singapore, 1963, pp. 28–30Google Scholar. See also Transcript of interview with Professor Syed Mohsen Alsagoff, Pioneers of Singapore series, Oral History Centre, the National Archives of Singapore (hereafter, Alsagoff Transcript, NAS).

14 Davidson, G. F., Trade and Travel in the Far East or Recollections of 21 Years Passed in Java, Singapore, Australia and China, Madden & Malcolm, London, 1846Google Scholar; William, R., The Origins of Malay Nationalism, Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1994, p. 36.Google Scholar

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16 The name Alsagoff was adopted by the father and son as the English translation of their Arabic name, and their way of adapting to the colonial setting; from then on, this standardized British version of the family name was widely used in Singapore.

17 The company diversified to include shipping and retailing, and extended its trading to include rubber, coffee and sugar. See Raja Siti's will enclosed in this law report, ‘Syed Abbas bin Mohamed Alsagoff and Another v. Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura)’, SGHC, 2009, p. 281; ‘Descendants of Arab family lose bid to oust Religious Council as trustee in Singapore’, Straits Times, 25 December 2009.

18 Transcript, Oral Interview of Mdm Sharifah Aishah Alsagoff, 2010, Singapore Memory Project, National Library, Singapore.

19 Singapore Preservation of Monuments Board, Report 1972–1973, Preservation of Monuments Board, 1973, Singapore, p. 15.

20 In an interview in 2007, Syed Mohsen Ahmed Alsagoff stated that ‘if you married a non-Arab descendant those days, you were considered an outcast’, in R. Silva and A. Dermawan, ‘Search for roots continues relentlessly 500 years on’, New Straits Times, 9 October 2007. See also L. S. Lim, ‘The Arab of Singapore: a sociographic study of their place in the Muslim and Malaya World’, BA thesis, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 1986/87, pp. 51–72.

21 Manger, The Hadhrami Diaspora, p. 27; ‘Alsagoff Arab School’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 4 March 1913, p. 7; ‘Dato Alsagoff re-elected’, The Straits Times, 23 April 1952, p. 8; ‘Engku Aman was a philanthropist and strict patriarch’, The Straits Times, 20 August 1994, p. 29.

22 Miller, M. B., ‘Pilgrims’ progress: the business of the Hajj’, Past and Present, vol. 191, no. 1, May 2006, pp. 189–228CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roff, W. R., The Origins of Malay Nationalism, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1967, pp. 37–8Google Scholar. See also Bianchi, R. R., Guests of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World, Oxford University Press, New York, 2004, pp. 175–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 ‘The mudaraba was an arrangement in which a principal entrusted his capital or merchandise to an agent, mudanb, who was to trade with it and then return to the investor the principal and a previously agreed-upon share of the profits. As a reward for his entrepreneurship, the agent received the remaining share of the profits. Any loss resulting from unexpected dangers of travel or from an unsuccessful business venture was shouldered exclusively by the investor. The agent was in no way liable for a loss of this nature, losing only his expended time and effort’. Cizakca, M., A Comparative Evolution of Business Partnerships: The Islamic World and Europe, Brill, Leiden, 1996, p. 5Google Scholar; ‘The Alsagoff estate’, The Strait Times, 19 June 1917, p. 7; ‘Alsagoff litigation’, The Strait Times, 19 November 1917, p. 10.

24 In the 1890s, his properties included about 1,000 acres of plantation land in Geylang Serai (inherited from his maternal grandmother Fatimah), Paya Lebar, and many houses and shophouses around Jalan Sultan, Kallang Road (Malay communities in Singapore). Lee, E., The British as Rulers Governing Multiracial Singapore, National University of Singapore Press, Singapore, 1991, p. 165Google Scholar. See also Freitag, ‘Arab merchants in Singapore’, pp. 115–16. ‘The municipality’, The Strait Times, 13 January 1883, p. 2; ‘Municipal Election’, Strait Times Weekly Issue, 24 November 1883, p. 12.

25 Mills, L. A., ‘The Malacca Land Problem 1825–1884’, JMBRAS, vol. I, no. II, 1925Google Scholar; Simpson, B., History of the Land Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Milner, A., The Malays, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2008, p. 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 S. K. Mandal, ‘Finding their place: a history of Arabs in Java under Dutch rule, 1800–1924’, PhD. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1994.

27 Van den Berg, L. W. C., Le Hadhramout et Les Colonies Arabe, Imprimérie du Gouvernement, Batavia, 1886, pp. 146–7Google Scholar; see also Newbold, T. J., Political and Statistical Account of the British Straits Settlements on the Straits of Malacca, vol. 1, John Murray, London, 1839, pp. 29–30Google Scholar.

28 Braddell, R., St. J., The Law of the Straits Settlements: A Commentary, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1982Google Scholar; Hooker, M. B., The Personal Laws of Malaysia: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1976.Google Scholar

29 Ibrahim, A., ‘Muslim wills in Penang’, JMCL, vol. 6, no. 1, 1979, pp. 126–8Google Scholar; Sheridan, L. A., Malaya and Singapore: The Borneo Territories—The Development of Their Laws and Constitutions, Stevens and Sons Limited, London, 1961, p. 354Google Scholar; Chung, S. P., ‘Law and its impact on diasporic philanthropic institutions: the practices of Sinchew and the Waqf in the Straits settlements’, in Chinese and Indian Immigrants: Comparative Perspectives, Bhattachaya, J. and Thadani, C. K. (eds), Anthem, London, 2015, pp. 167–85.Google Scholar

30 Chua, B. L., ‘Land registration in Singapore and the federation of Malaya’, Malaya Law Review, vol. 1, 1959, p. 318Google Scholar. By 1885, the estimated value of Arab real estate in Singapore was 4 million guilders, or a quarter of the estimated total value of Arab-owned real estate in the Malaya Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies. Ingrams, W. H., A Report on the Social, Economic and Political Conditions of the Hadhramaut, HMSO, London, 1936, p. 150Google Scholar; Van den Berg, Le Hadhramout et Les Colonies Arabe, pp. 146–7; Mattar, Y., ‘Arab ethnic enterprises in colonial Singapore: market entry and exit mechanisms 1819–1965’, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 45, no. 2, August 2004, pp. 165–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 W. Clarence-Smith, ‘Hadhrami entrepreneurs in the Malay world, c. 1750 to c. 1940’, in Freitag and Clarence-Smith, Hadhrami Traders, pp. 297–314.

32 Mahamood, S. M., Waqf in Malaysia: Legal and Administrative Perspectives, University of Malaya Press, Kuala Lumpur, 2006, pp. 27–38Google Scholar; Murat, C., Islamic Capitalism and Finance: Origins, Evolution and the Future, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2011Google Scholar; Kozlowski, G. C., Muslim Endowments and Society in British India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, pp. 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 J. Nagata, ‘The changing perceptions of Waqf, as social, cultural and symbolic capital in Penang’, paper presented at the Penang Story Conference, Penang, 2002; Nasution, K. S., ‘Colonial intervention and transformation of Muslim waqf settlements in urban Penang: the role of the Endowments Board’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, vol. 22, no. 2, October 2002, pp. 299–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar; V. Dharmalingan, ‘The British and the Muslim religious endowment in colonial Malaya’, MA thesis, National University of Singapore, 1995.

34 Brown, R. A., ‘Islamic endowments and the land economy in Singapore: the genesis of an ethical capitalism 1830–2007’, South East Asia Research, vol. 16, no. 3, 2008, pp. 343–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yahaya, N., ‘British colonial law and the establishment of family waqfs by Arabs in the Straits Settlement, 1860–1941’, in The Worlds of the Trust, Smith, L. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, 2013, pp. 167–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 The Rule ‘provides that no contingent or executory interest in property can be created unless it must vest within the maximum period of one or more lives in being and twenty-one years afterwards’. For details, please refer to Stebbings, C., ‘Roman Catholic, Honorary Trusts and the Statute of Mortmain’, Journal of Legal History, vol. 18, no. 3, 1997, pp. 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Katz, P. R., Divine Justice: Religion and the Development of Chinese Legal Culture, Routledge, London, 2009, p. 121Google Scholar; M. Chionh, ‘The development of the court system’, in Essays in Singapore Legal History, K. Tan (ed.), Singapore Academy of Law and Marshall-Cavendish Academic, Singapore, 2005, pp. 93–138.

37 Harper, T., ‘Globalism and the pursuit of authenticity: the making of a diasporic public sphere in Singapore’, Sojourn, vol. 12, no. 2, 1997, pp. 261–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Chung, S. P., ‘Understanding Chinese customs: the Irish judges and the Sinchew disputes in the Straits Settlements, 1830s–1870s’, in Legal Histories of the British Empire: Laws, Engagements and Legacies, McLaren, J. and Dorset, S. (eds), Routledge, London, 2014, pp. 141–56Google Scholar.

39 Ibid. This verdict was re-affirmed in Yeap Cheah Neo v Ong Chen Neo, Law Reports, Privy Council Appeal Cases (1875) 6: 381.

40 In the United Kingdom, the preamble to the Statute of Charities in 1601, also known as the Charitable Uses Act of 1601 or Elizabeth Statute (Statute 43 Eliz. C. 4), limited the classes of legal charities. The list included (1) the relief of aged, impotent and poor people, (2) the maintenance of sick and maimed soldiers and mariners, (3) the maintenance of schools of learning, free schools, and scholars in universities, (4) the repair of bridges, ports, havens, causeways, churches, sea-banks, and highways, (5) the education and preferment of orphans, (6) the relief, stock, or maintenance of houses of correction, (7) marriages of poor maids, (8) the support, aid, and help of young tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and persons decayed, (9) the relief or redemption of prisoners or captives, (10) the aid or ease of any poor inhabitants concerning payment of fifteens, setting out of soldiers, and other taxes. In Choa's case, the performance of Sinchew was not considered a charitable activity, since it only involved members of a particular family and any benefit of the performance was not extended to the public.

41 In the SS, in a series of cases, including Fatimah v. Logan & others (1871) and Ashabee v. Mohammed Hashim (1887), the British court had consolidated the view that a trust for kandoories was not charitable and therefore void as tending to perpetuity. See Chung, ‘Law and its impact’, pp. 167–85.

42 For details, please read ‘Mohamed Alsagoff, Syed Ali bin & others Mohamed Alsagoff, v. Syed Omar bin & others’ [Singapore Suit No. 1917, Appeal No. 12 of 1918], Straits Settlements Law Report [hereafter SSLR], vol. 15, 1918, pp. 111–25.Google Scholar

43 Ibid.; see also ‘Two judgments: Alsagoff will case’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 20 November 1917, p. 10.

44 Raja Siti's will is enclosed in ‘Syed Abbas bin Mohamed Alsagoff and Another v. Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura)’, p. 281.

45 ‘Notice by H.M. Alsagoff’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 11 July 1916, p. 10.

46 ‘Syed Ali bin Mohamed Alsagoff & others v. Syed Omar bin Mohamed Alsagoff & others’, p. 123.

47 Ibid., p. 126. See also Lim, ‘The Arab of Singapore’, pp. 78–80.

48 Freitag, ‘Arab merchants in Singapore’, p. 11; R. D. Pepler, unpublished reports from Royal Tropical Research Unit, Singapore, to Med. Res. Co.’s R.N. Personnel Research Committee, 1951.

49 These records can be found in ‘Legal documents of well-known trading and landed families’, Koh Seow Chuan Collection, National Library of Singapore. About 100 legal documents are in deposited in this collection. Numerous of these legal documents attest to the importance of the Alsagoffs, along with other famous Arab families in Singapore, as property agents for clients in the Middle East. Their power of attorney under British law included: (1) selling and buying properties in Singapore, or in Java and Johor; (2) collecting the rental for the properties/shops; (3) representing the owner in court in the event of a dispute; (4) settling any debts or loans on behalf of the owner; (5) paying taxes in Singapore on behalf of the owner; (6) selling and converting all or any part of properties into money and transfer all or any part of properties. Once a document had been translated into Malay and English, it was stamped by local authorities in Hadhramant and in Singapore.

50 ‘In the Supreme Court of the Strait Settlements, Settlement of Singapore, Suit No. 273 of 1916: Auction Sale’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 3 July 1917, p. 3. ‘Public notice paragraph’, The Strait Times, 22 December 1917, p. 10; ‘Alsagoff and Co.’, The Straits Times, 1 March 1918, p. 7.

51 ‘The Alsagoff estate’, pp. 7–11.

52 ‘Syed Ali bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others v. Syed Omar bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others’, SSLR, vol. 15, 1918, p. 126; ‘Alsagoff will case: Mr. Justice Sproule's decision upheld’, The Straits Times, 31 January 1920, p. 9; ‘Alsagoff litigation’, p. 10; ‘Two judgments’, p. 10; ‘Appeal will case: the Alsagoff Estate’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 4 December 1919, p. 356; ‘Singapore Appeal Court: Alsagoff Affairs again being discussed’, The Straits Times, 4 December 1918, p. 7.

53 ‘The Alsagoff tangle: judgement in a complicated suit’, The Straits Times, 3 May 1918, p. 10; ‘Syed Ali bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others v. Syed Omar bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others’, pp. 109–20.

54 ‘Syed Ali bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others v. Syed Omar bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others’, pp. 109–26.

55 Ibid.; see also ‘Appeal will case’, p. 356; ‘Singapore Appeal Court’, p. 7.

56 ‘Alsagoff will case’, p. 9.

57 ‘Syed Ali bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others v. Syed Omar bin Mohamed Alsagoff and others’, pp. 102–10; ‘Alsagoff case’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 12 May 1921, p. 296; ‘The Alsagoff bone: more bickering for it’, The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 21 April 1921, p. 244.

58 ‘Alsagoff appeal: arguments on the Talak and divorce’, The Straits Times, 8 November 1921, p. 9.

59 ‘Legal documents of well-known trading and landed families’.

60 In 1875, for instance, Arabs in British Singapore petitioned the British governments for more intervention into family law. A Mahommedan Marriage Ordinance V of 1880 was introduced. A British Registrar was appointed in 1880 in the SS to record and ratify Muslim marriages and divorces in the colony. Hooker, M. B., Islam in South-East Asia, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1988, p. 171.Google Scholar

61 Before the 1880s, there was a grey area regarding how British would deal with Muslim waqf in India and in the SS (which was under the Bengal government from 1830 to 1867). At this stage, adjudication was preferred over legislative codification as a mode of governance and rule making. To trace these policy changes, please refer to Zubair, A. M., ‘Colonial state and Muslim institutions: history of regulatory framework for awaqf (religious endowments) in British India’, in Charities in the Non-Western World: The Development and Regulation of Indigenous and Islamic Charities, Brown, R. A. and Pierce, J. (eds), Routledge, London, 2013, pp. 310–32.Google Scholar

62 Nagata, J. A., The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1984Google Scholar; Roff, W. R., ‘The Malay-Muslim world of Singapore at the close of the 19th century’, Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, 1964, pp. 15–90.Google Scholar

63 Aljunied, M. K., ‘The role of Hadramis in Post-Second World War Singapore: a reinterpretation’, Immigrants & Minorities, vol. 25, no. 2, July 2007, pp. 163–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ameen, T., ‘Hadhramis in Singapore’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, vol. 17, no. 1, April 1997, pp. 89–97Google Scholar.

64 Between 1960 and 1979, the percentage of land owned by the Singaporean government rose from 44 to 67 per cent. By 1976, more than 50 per cent of the population was living in Housing and Development Board flats—a significant increase from the 8.8 per cent in SIT flats in 1959. Ling, O. G., Siddique, S., and Cheng, S. K. (eds), The Management of Ethnic Relations in Public Housing Estates, Institute of Policy Studies/Times Academic Press, Singapore, 1993Google Scholar; Siddique, S., ‘Administration of Islam in Singapore’, in Islam in Society in Southeast Asia, Abdullah, T. and Siddique, S. (eds), Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1986, pp. 315–31Google Scholar; Tan, K., ‘Singapore: a statist legal laboratory’, in Law and Legal Institutions of Asia: Traditions, Adaptations and Innovations, Black, E. A. and Bell, G. F. (eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 330–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 On the history of MUIS, please refer to Anthony Green, Muslim Religious Council of Singapore, Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future: The MUIS Story: Forty Years of Building a Singapore Muslim Community of Excellence, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, Singapore, 2009.

66 After a series of legal disputes among Syed Ahmed's descendants in the 1920s and 1930s, the court ruled that Ahmed's estate was preserved as a ‘trust’, as set out in Ahmed's English will. As a trust, it had an expiry date. Ahmed's estate was finally dissolved in 1961—about 21 years after the death of the last grandchild born during Ahmed's lifetime. Transcript, Alsagoff, NAS, ‘Re Syed Ahmed Alsagoff, Deceased’ (originating summons no. 56 of 1962), The Malayan Law Journal, vol. 1, 1962, p. 360Google Scholar.

67 ‘Estate of Syed Ahmed bin Abdulrahman Alsagoff, deceased’, The Straits Times, 12 June 1946, p. 6; ‘Estate of Syed Ahmed bin Abdulrahman Alsagoff: auction sale of’, The Straits Times, 6 July 1961, p. 12; ‘Auction sale of valuable Singapore properties’, The Straits Times, 6 July 1961, p. 16; ‘Notice: estate of Syed Ahmed bin Abdulrahman Alsagoff, deceased’, The Straits Times, 24 July 1961, p. 14.

68 ‘1.4 million for Raffles: it stay with an Alsagoff’, The Straits Times, 16 May 1963, p. 7; Alsagoff, The Alsagoff Family in Malaysia, p. 439.

69 ‘A mother's ambition is fulfilled’, The Straits Times, 16 January 1962, p. 12.

70 Ibid.; see also ‘Notebook of an Asian woman’, The Straits Times, 18 August 1950, p. 10.

71 ‘Alsagoff trustee wrangle: main beneficiary and trustee say: we intend to sell, it would be too expensive to develop it ourselves’, The Straits Times, 18 June 1964, p. 11.

72 ‘Don't wait for a fire: government urged to buy crowded areas for resale to residents’, The Straits Times, 14 December 1961, p. 4.

73 ‘$6 mil. offer for Geylang land’, The Straits Times, 16 June 1964, p. 1; ‘Alsagoff estate home plan: beneficiaries are likely to form a limited company to build shops, low-cost flats for sale to Malay families’, The Straits Times, 17 June 1964, p. 11; ‘New low-cost homes scheme: 850 acres in Geylang Serai to be developed for housing’, The Straits Times, 11 March 1965, p. 5.

74 ‘Development project at Alsagoff Estate’, The Straits Times, 14 April 1965, p. 9.

75 Alsagoff, Syed Mohsen, The Alsagoff Family in Malaysia: A. H. 1240 (A.D. 1824)—A. H. 1382 (A. D. 1962): With Biographical and Contemporary Sketches of Some Members of the Alsagoff Family, The Author, Singapore, 1963.

76 ‘Alsagoff Estate: minister meets the trustees’, The Straits Times, 15 April 1965, p. 13; ‘Development project at Alsagoff Estate’, p. 9.

77 In December 1966, for instance, they still told the press that, should their proposal be approved by the Singapore government, Geylang Serai would be transformed into a big housing estate with low-cost houses, shophouses, and factories. ‘Buy your land off: Geylang Serai Homes Plan’, The Straits Times, 2 December 1966, p. 8.

78 ‘“Don't buy” advice in parliament’, The Straits Times, 16 December 1966, p. 8; ‘Alsagoff trustee wrangle’, p. 11.

79 For instance, the PAP government adopted policies to set maximum proportions for the various ethnic groups in each HDB block. Ling et al., The Management of Ethnic Relations.

80 ‘Alsagoff family vs Singapore Islamic Council’, SGHC, 2009, p. 281. See also ‘Descendants of Arab family’.

81 M. Gilsenan, ‘Topics and queries for a history of Arab families and inheritance in Southeast Asia’, in Tagliacozzo, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, pp. 199–234.

82 Gilsenan, ‘Possessed of documents’, pp. 181–93.