That sounds logical. I believe samseng too. Which means hooligan
in bahasa. It must originated from Cantonese.
Sorry to say, Samseng is already well-researched before,
and it is proved to have originated not from Cantonese but
from Hokkien 三牲.
Add: Cantonese 牲 can only be pronounced as
"saang" and never as "seng", whereas Hokkien 牲 is
always pronounced as "seng"
Add 2nd time:
I found internet linkages that have some posts regarding the
etymology of Sam-Seng from Hokkien. For you to ponder:
http://hi.baidu.com/%D6%ED%B0%CB%BD%E4%CC%E1%C7%D7/blog/item/42806cd065d87bd4572c841a.html
Samseng（俗写三星，实为三牲）：指流氓、恶棍、歹徒、无赖、私会党徒。
Samseng即闽南话的“三牲”（sāmsīng）。旧时祭祀或敬神用的供品，有大三牲、小三牲之分，大三牲指牛、羊、猪；小三牲指鸡、鸭、鱼。（《普通话闽南方言词典》页668）三牲是闽南人祭祀或敬神用的供品，通常摆在前面。 闽南语中的“三牲头” sāmsīngtáo、“做三牲”zuèsāmsīng则含贬义，比喻冲在前边带头干。（《普通话闽南方言词典》页135）。三牲本为摆在前端祭神的供品，后被用于形容歹徒带头干坏事。传到我国，则演变成指流氓、歹徒、无赖、私会党徒等。如“三牲囝”（歹徒）“三牲头”（歹徒领袖）。
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish_vocabulary#S
Sam Seng
Cantonese and Hokkien or Sam Seng Kia (三牲囝, saⁿ-seng-kiáⁿ) -
gangster. From Chinese term 三牲 (Hokkien
saⁿ-seng).
(The wikipedia article is for you to ponder: Why does it
state the "origin" as Cantonese and Hokkien, when the
definition stated is from "Hokkien" explicitly and furthermore I
have mentioned above the Cantonese pronunciation for "seng" doesn't
match Cantonese pronunciation, unless a Tung-kwan variant of
the Cantonese pronunciation is taken into account, but why a
Tung-kwan variant "seng" is coupled with a Cantonese variant of
"sam" is arguably impossible, as the Tung-kwan variant should
be pronounced "sang" for 三. Whereas if the Hokkien
root is postulated, then these problems would be eliminated.
Furthermore, when large areas of Indonesia and Malaysia were first
populated by the Chiangchiu Hokkiens and only later on by the
Cantonese people, the odds against it being borrowed from a
relative small sub-clan of the Tung-kwan variant is much greater
than it being borrowed into Bahasa from Hokkien. There is no right
or wrong answer at this point of time; but rather, we often take
the possibility which is larger, into account, for explanation)
