Singapore Bicentennial 2019 – The Johor Connection

A cheeky thought – one group of non Singaporeans who should also be celebrating 1819 are the current Johor Royal Family.

It was these few days, between 31 January and 6th February 1819 that the ancestor of the current Johor Royals sealed the deal of the century that eventually led them to become the new Sultans of Johor.

When the British arrived in Singapore, it was Temenggung Abdul Rahman, the de facto chief of Singapore, who greeted them.

To me, Temenggung Abdul Rahman was the first master deal maker of Singapore .

The Sultan of Johor when the British arrived was Sultan Abdul Rahman, descended from the old Sultans of Melaka. He was crowned over his older half-brother, Tengku Hussein when their father died.

Tengku Hussein, after having lost his throne, went into exile on Bintan.

When Raffles arrived, Temenggung Abdul Rahman sensed an opportunity and told the British that they had a chance to obtain Singapore, and outdo the Dutch, if they backed Tengku Hussein for the throne.

This draft agreement was signed between Temenggung Abdul Rahman and the British on 31 January 1819.

From February 1st, Temenggung sent men to Bintan to retrieve Tengku Hussein and inform him of the deal, and brought him back to Singapore.

This resulted in the Treaty of Singapore on February 6th 1819, when Tengku Hussein was crowned Sultan of Johor-Riau.

Furious, the Dutch took Sultan Abdul Rahman, the half-brother, to Bintan and crowned him Sultan of Lingga-Riau.

From this point forward, the Sultanate of Johor-Riau was split in two, between a British-backed Sultan of Johor and a Dutch-backed Sultan of Lingga-Riau.

But the real winner was Temenggung Abdul Rahman.

Having been the deal-maker, he became the British-backed de facto leader of Johor, and Sultan Hussein was merely a puppet king.

Eventually, his grandson Abu Bakar, would be crowned Sultan of Modern Johor, and the old line of Johor Sultans, descended from the Bendeharas (grand viziers) of the royal house of Melaka, were exiled to Istana Kampong Glam in Singapore, where their descendants remained, until LKY kicked them out in the early 1990s.

The descendants of Temenggung Abdul Rahman continue to rule Johor to this day, as one of the richest, most powerful royal houses in Malaysia.

The current royal family of Johor is thus intimately linked to 1819, the Treaty of Singapore, and Singapore.

Their ancestor, Temenggung Abdul Rahman was the chieftain of Singapore and ruled from Istana Lama in Telok Blangah. Today, it is the Temenggung Mausoleum where Abdul Rahman and his son Daing Ibrahim are buried. It is also the Temenggung Mosque, the only Mosque not managed by MUIS but by Johor.

The father of modern Johor, Abdul Rahman’s grandson Sultan Abu Bakar (and the first Sultan of Johor of his line), was also born there in Telok Blangah. The current Royal Family still visit their ancestors’ mausoleum frequently.

That is why I think Singapore, will always have special place in the hearts of the current Johor royals, for this is the place in 1819, where their ancestor, the ruler of Singapore, did a masterful deal, traded Singapore with the British, and eventually became the rulers of all of Johor, and arguably the strongest royal family in modern Malaysia.

And it all began in 1819 in these few days 200 years ago on these shores.