The Mystery and Mastery of Tan Yeok Nee (Part 6)
The Flight From Johor The last post saw Tan Yeok Nee scaling heights of affluence and power that few newly arrived immigrants in the region could have ever dreamt of. Within only a couple of decades Tan had risen from being a door-to-door peddler of fabrics to perhaps the most wealthy and influential figure within the Singapore and Johor business and political elites of the time. All the more perplexing then that in 1875, only four years after his elevation to the highest echelons of power, including leadership of the Great Opium Syndicate, Tan apparently vanished from the Johor scene. It was a supposed disappearing act made all the more mysterious by the lack of any kind of explanation as to why. At least that is how some accounts of the events that transpired would have us believe. The Singapore National Library Board’s Infopedia site says: “In 1875, Tan fled from Johor to Singapore and gave up all his connections in Johor.” Considering Tan’s staggering accumulation of po...