BOOK EXCERPT On Saturday Aug 16, 1890, twenty-eight ‘prominent residents’ of Kuala Lumpur gathered on a spot somewhere in the Lake Gardens and held the inaugural meeting of the Lake Club.

This was in response to a perceived need for a club exclusively for white Europeans. The Selangor Club, formed just five years previously, was considered ‘tainted’ because it had permitted a handful of admittedly wealthy and very agreeable Asians to be admitted.

Alfred Venning, a failed coffee planter who had considerably more success in the Malayan Colonial Service, rising to becoming the Federal Secretary of the Federated Malay States (FMS), was credited with being the prime mover for this all-white exclusive club. As the architect of Lake Gardens, he had earmarked an advantageous piece of high ground for the club site.

With GW Welman, secretary to the Selangor government, as its first president, the club attracted the higher echelon of British society, comprising senior colonial, police and military officers, the successful merchants and the few expatriate professionals.

It was to remain an exclusive haven for the whites, until 1958, when the first Asian was elected into ordinary membership.

However, the first ripple on the pond appeared on June 26, 1952 when the Singapore Standard headlined a story by a Michael Davidson in the British Observer (the Sunday paper of the then-Manchester Guardian) ‘Sultan barred from KL Club’.

The report stated that Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah of Selangor and Raja Uda, the menteri besar of Selangor, had both been invited by the St George’s Society to attend its annual St George’s Day banquet at the premises of Lake Club.

However, the report claimed, the club committee informed the society that “it was not the club’s practice to entertain Asians” and so on learning this, the sultan and the menteri besar naturally declined to attend the function.

The report caused an immediate uproar in the country and in Britain. The new High Commissioner, Sir Gerald Templer, who had just months ago announced on his arrival that in addition to ending the Communist insurgency, his other task was to prepare the country for self-rule, leading eventually to political independence, was livid and deeply embarrassed.

The president of Lake Club, HH Facer, explained at a press conference that in 1949 and 1950, the sultan of Selangor, who was also a Lake Club patron, had attended the St George’s Day dinner at the Lake Club. In 1951, the sultan was unable to attend for some reason.

In 1952, the St George’s Society had written to the Lake Club asking for the Lake Club to be made available for the St George’s Day dinner on July 19, 1952. In Facer’s absence, the committee had declined to offer the club’s premises; which decision he was now reversing.

In all fairness to the Lake Club committee, the purported slight to the sultan was a figment of a creative writer’s imagination. The aide-de-camp of the sultan told the press the day after the report that he had received a feeler from the St George’s Society stating that July 19, 1952, had been chosen for the annual dinner in conjunction with St George’s Day and the society wished to invite the sultan and asked whether the date was suitable.

Only on confirmation of the suitability of the date would a formal invitation stating the time, date and place be sent. The sultan had not yet considered the matter.

Onslaught on ‘snob clubs’

The popular British press would not let the matter die but continued with the onslaught on ‘snob clubs’. A Conservative Member of Parliament, Captain R Ryder, even wanted the introduction of regulations to prohibit clubs in Malaya from barring admission on grounds of race or colour.

General Templer continued to be embarrassed by the public disclosure of the unwritten rule (since the inception of the club) that non-whites were only allowed in Lake Club as servants, waiters, gardeners, chefs and drivers in a country that he was charged with preparing for self-rule and eventual political independence. Templer refused to accept the Lake Club president’s explanation.

At an extraordinary general meeting held on July 9, 1952, attended by one third of the 1,200 members, Facer and his committee resigned. A new president, DT Waring, was voted in, together with six new committee members.

In a referendum a month later, Lake Club members overwhelmingly voted to do away with the unwritten rule barring non-European guests. The premier, all-white haven had been breached. Clubs with similar colour restrictions round the country took the cue and the race colour walls came tumbling down as each rushed to conform to the changing political environment.

Admitting Asian guests to the Batek Bar or the Orchid Room at Lake Club was one thing, admitting Malayans as ordinary voting members was another. In addition to the sultan of Selangor, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaya’s first prime minister, became a patron and Sir Henry HS Lee, the first finance minister, was made an honorary member. But the move towards Malayanisation was inexorable and such tokenism only bought time for the reality to sink in.

It is not clear who became the first Asian ordinary member of the Lake Club. According to the Lake Club Candidates Book, he was Prithir Singh, first secretary at the Indian High Commission in 1958. According to the membership number given to Club members, the Asian with the lowest number (and therefore the first Asian member) was Hau Mo Lee, member number 1,830 registered on July 9, 1958.

The first Malayan president of Lake Club was YM Tunku Mohamed Tunku Besar Burhanuddin, principal establishment officer, who took office in 1965. Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s second prime minister, was the second Asian president of Lake Club and it was during his 10-year tenure of office that membership of local prominent people and senior government officials was actively encouraged.

The club then took on the character of a Malaysian club with a cosmopolitan flavouring as opposed to its previous status of a White club with a sprinkling of Asians.

It was also fitting that at a ball given in his honour on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of his reign in September 1985, the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, father of the present sultan of Selangor, spontaneously and without prior notification conferred his royal patronage on the club that was alleged to have caused offence to his late father. That gracious act was the most satisfactory finale to an episode that led to the removal of colour bars in Malaysia.

Since then, Malaysia’s premier club has been proudly known as The Royal Lake Club.

The above is an excerpt from ‘Grandfather Stories’ by YAP YOK FOO, a friend and supporter of Malaysiakini. Readers wishing to purchase the book may click here for details.