Armenian Park

The lawn and paths of Armenian Park occupy a place known in the middle of the nineteenth century as Kampung Che Long—the village of Che Long. Che Long led the Red Flag Society, a Muslim secret society, and sought to retain protection and influence for his people in a trading town where the police force was small.

The society collected an initiation fee of one dollar and sixteen cents. Part of the money went to the gatekeeper and the mentor who taught the secret sign; the rest went into the common fund. Members helped their own in trade disputes, arranged weddings and funerals, and were responsible for religious processions. If a fight broke out, a person could count on the entire organization standing up for him. In return for this protection, he also accepted the obligation to support the others.

At first, Che Long's people fought members of the Chinese society Khian Teik Tong on Acheen Street. Then Che Long and Khoo Thean Teik, the leader of Khian Teik Tong, agreed to settle mutual grievances and united their supporters. Thus Kampung Che Long, the leaders' houses, and the neighboring temple became the base of the Red Flag Society's alliance with Hokkien Chinese merchants. Opposing it were the White Flag Society and the Chinese society Ghee Hin. These were mixed coalitions: Malays, Indian Muslims, and Chinese stood on both sides.

In the summer of eighteen sixty-seven, the leaders of Khian Teik Tong accused their opponents of stealing dyed cloth. Later, the British head of Penang acknowledged that the accusation had been a prearranged pretext. On August third, Che Long's allies began coordinated attacks. Armed detachments set out from the neighborhood around Kampung Che Long; volunteer police erected barricades on Armenian Street. Houses were set on fire, trade stopped, and the clashes continued for ten days.

The fighting ceased after soldiers arrived. Each coalition was required to pay five thousand Straits dollars. Six participants were sentenced to deportation for twenty-one years; four others had their death sentences for murder commuted to imprisonment. Sheikh Omar Basheer, the imam of Acheen Street Mosque, sought to have Muslim families leave the feuding societies. After the unrest, the heads of many families swore before him that they belonged to neither the Red Flag Society nor the White Flag Society.

The present open space appeared later. At the end of the nineteenth century, a fire destroyed several buildings here, and residents began using the vacant plot for recreation. In the nineteen nineties, it was laid out as a garden and named Armenian Park after the neighboring street. Then an evening flea market occupied the site, and in two thousand sixteen its paths, lawn, places for rest, and public events were restored.

Between the garden and the sports ground, the decorative wall Sky and Earth has survived. Its designers dedicated it to the former Malay settlement. Che Long's name has disappeared from the map; the wall stands inside that very Kampung Che Long.