The MPPP (or Penang city or municipal council) does not know its history or it chooses to forget those who had contributed to the state. Ranong Grounds located next to the Esplanade and the Town Hall is just one of them. Before Dewan Sri Pinang was built on it....it was usually the site of fun-fairs...anyway we had always called it Ranong....
The name "Ranong" is important because it has historical significance to the people of Penang and should serve as an inspiration to all of us....of guts, tenacity, entrepreunership of Khaw Soo Cheang...if not also to the descendents of Khaw Soo Cheang who is amongst us in Penang...please do not descreate the memory of the name.
From the website http://www.ranong.go.th/english/khaw.html....we find this written about Khaw Soo Cheang...
In the year 1810, Khaw Soo Cheang, a young native of Changchow-fu (about thirty-five miles north-west of Amoy) in Fukien Province, China, arrived in Penang by junk. Penang was then the new, twenty-four year old, trading outpost of the British East India Company.
Penang island at that time was largely undeveloped, and virgin land for agriculture was easily obtainable from the then government. Khaw Soo Cheang applied for and obtained and eight acres plot of land at Sungei Tiram, near the present Bayan Lepas airport which is used for vegetable gardening
Yet, despite his hard work and his frugality he could not prosper. So, after six hard years in Penang, he decided to try his luck elsewhere.
He travelled by junk, following the coastline, to Takuapa in south-west Siam. Here he invested what little money he had made in Penang in a small sundry goods shop, which he name Koe Guan ("High Source"). Later he entered the coastal trade in which cloth, muskets, etc., were barter for tin, areca nut (pinang), birds' nests, copra and pepper. He received financial aid from a wealthy lady, Thawathep Suntorn, in his business dealings and he prospered. In time he found that Phang-nga had much more business potential than Takuapa and he moved his business concern, Koe Guan, there. His business activities increased in Pang-nga and he purchased a large sailing boat to convey hia goods between Penang and the small village ports of south-west Siam.
Khaw Soo Cheang traded from Penang to as far north as Ranong, a little coastal village in south-west Siam, opposite Victoria Point (the southernmost tip of Burma). The Ranong region is very hilly and, at that time, it was thinly populated because it was not suitable for agriculture. He found that Ranong was rich in tin deposits and he went into tin mining.
In 1844 (B.E. 2387) he applied for and was appointed Royal Collector of tin royalties for the Siamese government in the Ranong area, and he was given the title Luang Ratanasethi. He was also given the sole right to operate the tin mines in Ranong.
During the fourth year of the reign of Rama IV (King Mongkut) 1854 (B.E. 2397) he was appointed Governor of Ranong, with the title Phra Ratanasethi. As Governor, he was among other things, responsible for the defence of Ranong Province, and, at that time, he was also responsible to the Governor of Chumphorn.
The King was so pleased with the manner in which he performed his duties that he elevated Khaw Soo Cheang to Phraya Ratanasethi in the year 1864 (B.E. 2405) and upgraded Ranong Province by making the Governor directly responsible to the central Government in Bangkok.
The hardships he had encountered in his early years also made him a philanthropist. In 1862 he gave a big donation to the Kuan Yin Temple in Pitt Street, Penang, for major repairs to the temple. To Penang, which had given him a new start in life, he gave a large piece of land next to the old Esplanade - known as Ranong Ground - for a playing ground. To-day, Ranong Ground is the site of Dewan Sri Pulau Pinang.
He lived to be the grand old man of his day; acknowledged as a noble and a strong "pillar" of the Throne in the Siamese Court, and well known in business circles in both Siam and Penang.
He died on 25th May, 1882, (the 9th day of the 4th moon of the Horse Year of the Chinese calendar) when he was in his mid-nineties. The seventy-two years he had spent in Penang and Siam had been hard, but his lasting achievements were satisfying and outstanding.
His remains were buried on a hill in Ranong given to his family by Rama V (King Chulalongkorn). The hundred and fifty acres piece of land, on the outskirts of Ranong Town, was given by the King to the Khaw family in perpetuity for use as its own private burial ground, in appreciation of Khaw Soo Cheang's loyal and meritorious service to the Rayal House of Chakri.
Following his death, his second son, Khaw Sim Kong assumed the title Phraya Damrong Sucharit Mahisornphakdi and became the second Raja of Ranong. His other sons were also enobled by the King and appointed governors of three of the southern provinces of the country. Khaw Sim Khim, his fourth son, became Governor of Kra; Khaw Sim Teik, his fifth son, was appointed Governor of Langsuan; while his youngest son, Khaw Sim Bee, was made Governor of Trang. In 1892 Khaw Sim Bee was appointed High Commissioner of South Siam.
In 1916 when the Chinese in Siam were required to have Siamese names in order to be citizens of that country, Rama VI (King Vajiravudh) issued a Royal Decree on 1st July, 1916, giving the surname "Na Ranong" ("of Ranong") to all the descendants of Khaw Soo Cheang living in Siam. Thenceforth all the Khaws of Ranong in modern day Thailand are known by that name.
According to an old Chinese proverbs:-
"A tiger dies and leaves a skin;
A man dies and leaves a name."
A hundred and three years have gone by since the death of Khaw Soo Cheang, and the House of Ranong, which he founded, has withstood the winds of changed reasonably well. To date, it has lasted much longer than most other well known old wealthy families in this part of the world.
In fact it can be said that Khaw Soo Cheang had done the best he could for his House , and as a result of his efforts the Khaw of Ranong still have a place in the sun, in and out side of Thailand. Many of them, particularly those from the second and fifth branches of the family, still serve in the Thai civil, military,and diplomatic services, and "Na Ranong" is still an honoured and respected name in Thailand.
His Trust, Koe Guan Kong Lun, based in Penang, is controlled by his male descendants from the second, fourth and sixth branches of his family, and it is now his family centre. It is the meeting point for the Na Ranongs of Thailand and the Khaw of Koe Guan living in Malaysia.
In Ranong, Khaw Soo Cheang has become a legend. The people there consider him to be the patron saint of the province. Every new Governor, and all the new senior officers of the province pay their respects at his tomb when they assumed their new appointments their. Politicians running for Parliament make offerings at his grave during their election campaigns, and business men pray to him for success in their business ventures.
The poor immigrants from Changchow-fu had not only risen from rags to riches and power in the land of his adoption, but he had set a shining example for all his descendants to emulate, and also left behind a very distinctive mark in the history of south Thailand.
Please MPPP....correct your mistakes....
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