In Singapore’s trial of the century, 59 men stand accused of rioting and murder at the open-air prison of Pulau Senang. After opening in 1960, this idyllic prison is lauded as a progressive beacon of hope for the rehabilitation of society’s most feared gangsters. Three years later, these detained secret society mobsters burn the prison to the ground and slaughter four servicemen. The death sentence now hangs over these accused men. But is all that it seems?
The slain Superintendent Daniel Dutton oversaw Pulau Senang and was hailed as a visionary, but questions grow around his tough rehabilitation methods. With rumours that Dutton was a sadistic taskmaster, does this penal paradise hold shocking secrets?
WATCH MORE of Riot Island
Part 1: https://youtu.be/PQP3zRWCBvU
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About the show: A near-deserted island is transformed into a prison without bars, holding Singapore’s most hardened gangsters. Three years later, a violent riot leaves the island in flames and prison guards murdered.
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39 Comments
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Great documentary by CNA! A really interesting story that sadly doesn't garner much media attention these days, and is also quite neglected in Singapore's history
One-third of Singaporeans speak Mandarin. Majority of them are from freedom-loving nation, Taiwan 🇹🇼 not China.
Of those from China, most have negative impression about the authoritarian surveillance regime.
Why is the rest of ASEAN doing well, except Singapore 🇸🇬?
– A close relationship with China may hurt Singaporean reputation.
Very informatic video
Over the next three years, the number of detainees rose to 320 from 50 before the detainees rioted and burned down most of the buildings. Pulau Senang was declared out of bounds for the next 5 years and was later used by the Singapore Armed Forces for military exercises. Today Pulau Senang is one of three islands used for military 'live-firing' exercises.
Al Fatihah to Mr Dutton
Brilliant documentary indeed.
Nice documentary but the lady with the flower headband also looks crazy enough to be one of the rioters. Hehe 😂
Colonialism on riot island died with those people, truly tragic indeed. I'm very sure the prisoners were mistreated in such horrible ways that had lead to the murderous act from those detainees. I like how he (Mr. James) indicated those detainees were scums and can't be rehabilitated, also being treated like second rate slave-dogs. Such an unfortunate event. May they all rest in peace. Fascinating historical documentary, CNA Insider. 10/10
Consumed by his own ego and vision? Thinking you can change or fix people is delusional behavior.
No matter whom you are managing, the fastest way to lose them or frustrate them is to try to change them. Perhaps, finding what drives them and position them in a way to win at the highest level could be a better approach.
There’s always 2 sides of the story. Sgt Dutton was not innocent in this story and his death was the result of his own inhumane brutality towards the detainees. You keep pushing people to their core, you’ll face a wrath in the end. Doesn’t excuse the detainees actions but Sgt Dutton was no innocent soul.
I was a kid then,5-6 yrs.old, I did read the news as I was learning to read..however as I grew up hanging around with the neighbour hood thugs,I heard that they (vardens)were cruel to the detainees ; they were forced to work early in the mornings, no breakfast brutally beaten. Finally they all got what they deserved. Good for them! 😏
There is always a cause-and-effect situation. The right concept and wrong approach can spell trouble.
The last Scene Was very sad
Should make this historical event as a movie
i guess there's an irony here in that, even though Dutton may have mistreated them, even though they revolted against him and even though they killed him in the end, if he truly believed that anyone can be rehabilitated, he would not have wanted them to be hanged
it's a shame honestly because look at how successful Norway's rehabilitative system is. maybe in another universe Singapore could have had the same
Barbie's Abortion "Urban Riot Control"
https://youtu.be/X8GAuaLE7aM
I read Alex Josey 's Pulau senang , Experiment that failed . I think it was told in diffrent angle here from what was narrated in the book .
Everything happens for a reason. Try not to be part of that reason.
It's obvious the prisoners were treated like slaves to the point to inhumanity. They rather die they would drag the white devil with them.
Imagine the following come to picture during this riot :
Predator, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface
No comment God knows we don't
Law: You kill someone who killed someone, to teach others not to kill someone. Ironic isn’t it?
Great documentary CNA!!! 👍🏻Heartbreaking to see how it all ends. Alfatihah and RIP to all. God bless your souls.❤🩹
Lol flower girl maybe if you grandad wasnt a slaver he wouldbt have met that end.
As much as I feel sorry for how brutal Dutton was killed, I also believe there's reason why those detainees had retort to murderous act.
The ang mohs, British that's in sg during 50's and 60's aren't really saint, often because they thought they rule sg and had the power to control or been a big bully towards chinese and malay.
no wifi?
Hope such happens again since we have CECA and FTs
So much for innovation and thinking out-of-the-box! Stick to the conventional prison of locked cells and chains!
OMG Major Peter James looks like Andrew Lloyd Webber! lol
In my opinion, this event was all done by how Dutton refuses to acknowledge that the detainees are also human. Imagine getting tortured every day, slowly killing you mentally and didn’t even show any respect to what little rights that the detainees had. In response to what Michael said, the time to “talk” is when he summoned those 13 carpenters. Imagine the scene for a moment, you are already tired from weeks of overwork, abuse and torture and now being forced to over-overwork.
As the documentary suggests, these detainees remain silent despite all that, does it not come to Dutton that this form of silent is also a form of respect for him? Yet he decided to apply the punishment that all detainees deemed to be the harshest for them. All of this for what? A day earlier to see a goddamn jetty?! It’s awful that this tragedy happened, but it’s even more insane when you think that the root cause of such event is sourced from a man’s lack of empathy.
With the island run like well-oiled machine, with iron hands having passed its "pioneering stage".. it allowed time for "discontent, complaints, and conspiracy".
Yes Dutton was an iron-handed men. But don't we forget that putting criminals with same ideals were dangerous. Putting members of secret society alongside each others, where they can communicate and conspire with each others is dangerous. These secret society leaders ultimately killed Dutton to prove/to send message that they were the ones who could controlled their members.. not Dutton or the government (outsiders of the secret society). These men of organized crimes were indeed beyond redemption. They had oaths. There was reason why mafia members in USA were not put into such open-space prison.. instead they were put into a high-security prisons like Alcatraz. There is reason why you isolate terr*rist members in isolated cells, rather than allowing them to interact freely.
Yes, there are two sides to every story. This is a sad ending to something that started out beautiful, but i believed that it failed because something was wrong with the system. It was something that was pioneered and there weren't any other examples to fall back to .
Dutton being the main protagonist in the story, there will be blind spots that would be missed. You would tell that he had a really good heart. He truly believed in and tried to pioneer change, it was a huge challenge and not many will take it. His beliefs of having no weapons and working along the other prisoners, that spoke of what kind of person he was, a kind and charismatic leader.
His other beliefs however, that were mentioned, such as of the carrot and stick system and his harshness or firmness, were what I felt was necessary to be a military leader. Do not forget that these are society members, young, impulsive and ready to prove themselves without consideration of repercussions. He believed that he could win people over by his nature alone (therefore the guards did not have weapons) and it was probably successful with 50 detainees.
Were he pushing the prisoners too hard? Perhaps so, maybe he wasn't in touch with what happened on the ground and took the incident lightly. Other officers could have also incited the wrath of the prisoners which they could have attributed it to Dutton.
Perhaps his only mistake was his overconfidence in his own abilities, that led to his demise. That being said, I was wondering as well why there were so many detainees but so little officers? 320 prisoners, how many officers? Not really sure what the ratio was , but if they didn't have weapons, or other forms of protection, this was a tragedy waiting to occur. Do not forget this was an island and backup would take a while to arrive. Was there insufficient manpower or was it kept low due to Dutton's overconfidence?
Finally. it was only 2 years since the launch of the program so obviously systems could not have been properly set in place yet. The proper path route for prisoners to return back to civilization was not communicated properly , or perhaps it was not even set in place. If so, this was a great lack of foresight for a group of people who advocated for a return to society rehabilitation program.
I won't be surprised if dutton had a "slave" concept in his mind. At that time, slavery was close to being a norm
Ending was sad, knowing your blood brother died on the other side of the world.
Why some of crew and actors are Thai?
system is a failure and runnin thru the skins of diplomatic racism of money and class system. imagine if they grow erb non will ni like thos
Mr Dutton was a big strong angmoh who probably thought he was invincible, but he nvr knew they would splash kerosene on him first and they even dug out his eyes cos he didn't know in gangsters world staring is very very rude!
Dutton kena mutton chop siol