Kapitan China Kee Kim Swee (or Kee Kim Sui, also known as Kee Abdullah after he converted to Islam) was one of the prominent and important Chinese nationality (

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese ...

) who settled in

Tawau Tawau (, Jawi: , ), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is located on the Semporna Peninsula in the southeast coast of t ...

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

. He was appointed as the first customs examiner and revenue collector by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company in Tawau, 1894. A year later, Tawau development was entrusted to his hands by the British administration. He became the first ''Pengulu'' or ''Orang Kaya'' (OKK) in Tawau, Sabah. Tawau (also known as Tanjung) became a modern town under Kee Kim Swee's lead, as he engineered Tawau into a business and commercial area in the early 1900s. After he died, his son OKK Kee Abu Bakar became his successor as the ''Penghulu''.

Early life and career

Kee Abdullah (Kee Kim Swee) was born in 1863. Little is known about his biological mother. He had a step-parent known by the name Kipas, a Dusun Tidong woman from Brunei. In 1883, at the age of 20 years, as the courteous and respected Agent of the Company in Brunei,

Kapitan Capitan and Kapitan are equivalents of the English Captain in other European languages. Capitan, Capitano, and Kapitan may also refer to: Places in the United States *Capitan, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Capitan, New Mexico, a villag ...

Kee Kim Swee was appointed as Datuk Temenggung over the Chinese community by Sultan Abdul Momin. In 1885, while on a trading journey with his father to Sandakan, their

Tongkang Tongkang or "Tong'kang" refers to several type of boats used to carry goods along rivers and shoreline in Maritime Southeast Asia. One of the earliest record of tongkang has a background of 14th century, being mentioned in Malay Annals which wa ...

boat encountered a mishap and capsized at the Marudu Bay. His father of Hainanese origin died in the incident and was buried in a Chinese cemetery in the district of

Kudat Kudat ( ms, Pekan Kudat) is the capital of the Kudat District in the Kudat Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 29,025 in 2010. It is located on the Kudat Peninsula, about north of Kota Kinabalu, the state ...

, Sabah. Kee Kim Swee survived and was rescued by villagers. He settled in the residence of a Suluk man named Dato Husin until his recovery. In 1894, Kee Kim Swee was recruited by the British North Borneo Chartered Company as a customs examiner and revenue collector in Tawau. One of his many tasks was to collect a one-dollar

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...

from the residents. His unique ability to converse in Arabic, and also Jawi literate, served as a link between the native and Chinese groups with the government. Thus, he was often called upon for his view and to provide representation.

Family

He converted to Islam when he married a Mindanao girl of Sulu Parang Tapol, Jumaatiah Ame Maidin, and later changed his name into Kee Abdullah.Malaysian Chinese and Nation-building: Historical background and economic perspective, Hua she yan jiu zhong xin
/ref> His marriage with Jumaatiah gave him 18 children, 13 boys and 5 girls. His children with Jumaatiah Ame Maidin: * Kee Sulaiman (1897–1977) * Kee Othman (1898–1970) * OKK Kee Abu Bakar (1899–1953) * Kee Abdul Aziz (unknown) * Child name not recorded * Kee Aishah (1906–1985) * Kee Sidek (1909–1945) * Kee Hatifah (1910–1969) * Kee Ali (1913–1975) * Kee A. Kamaruddin (1915-unknown) * Kee A. Omar (1916–1931) * Child name not recorded * Kee Abdul Jalil (1919–1990) * Kee Dzawiyah (1920–1921) Some of the children's names were not recorded. His early marriage with a Chinese woman from Kudat gave them 3 children, 2 boys and 1 girl. Both of his sons went back to China, while the girl changed her surname into "Chin" by marriage.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kee, Kim Swee 1863 births Sabah History of Sabah Tawau British North Borneo Year of death missing People of British Borneo Malaysian people of Chinese descent Kadazan-Dusun people Kapitan Cina