The Kedah sultans’ longing and Light’s greatest illusion

ALOR STAR – One of the more intimate lores that has been undauntingly passed down among the sultans of Kedah is the sultanate’s decades-old yearning of its pillaged heritage – the island called Pulau Pinang.

It is a collective memory etched deep in the royal conscience as it has endured an unquenchable thirst borne of an irrevocable compromise to free Malaya from its colonial shackles.

The Malays have an apt phrase to describe this lasting mental torment: “Ibarat makan tak habis.”

“I have knowledge of the Kedah royalty’s lingering sentiment on this matter,” claimed Professor Datuk Ahmad Murad Merican from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in a recent interview with The Vibes’ sister portal, Getaran.

Murad said that it was a longing that was imparted by the 19th Monarch of Kedah, Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin to the rest of his successors – namely Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Halim Shah II and Sultan Badlishah.

“It persists even to the present sultan and his late predecessor,” said Murad, a life member of the Malaysia Historical Society who is well-versed in the pre-colonial history of Pulau Pinang.

He was referring to the late Tuanku Abdul Halim Badlishah – the 28th Sultan of Kedah – and the current reigning monarch, Sultan Sallehudin Badlishah.

Pulau Pinang, commonly known as Penang, is an hour-and-a-half drive southwards of Kedah’s royal capital, Alor Star. The state consists of two regions; the mainland in the peninsula and the overly developed island that is slightly a quarter smaller than Singapore.

“Sultan Sallehudin even sought my opinions on the Light Letters,” added Murad, about the collection of correspondence between British trader Francis Light with the Malay Rulers – among others – throughout the former’s sojourn in the Malay Archipelago circa the 1770s.

Whatever interest the Kedah royalty has with the Light Letters was not without merit, given its role in the purported “ceding of Pulau Pinang” from Kedah in 1786.

When Light landed on the shores of what is now known as Padang Kota Lama, the colonialist proclaimed that the then Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah – the 20th monarch of Kedah – had leased Penang to him.

And said lease, declared Light, would last so long as “the moon, the stars and the world continue to exist”.

“There was no lease. There wasn’t even any agreement, to begin with.

“Light lied. He pillaged Pulau Pinang from the Kedah sultanate when the latter had its hands full dealing with the ever-strenuous threats exerted by Siam and Burma,” Murad stressed.

Murad is correct.

In his 1971 book, 'Kedah 1771 – 1821: The Search for Security and Independence', published by Oxford University Press, historian Rollin Bonney pointed out that the ceding of Pulau Pinang to Britain was Light’s “greatest illusion”.

“Contrary to accepted history, Pulau Pinang was neither leased, granted nor ceded by any written treaty or agreement,” wrote Bonney, who combed through hundreds of documents belonging to British’s East India Company (EIC) at then-headquarters in Calcutta.

But the sultanate did indeed initiate a discussion with the EIC, over a proposal to lease Pulau Pinang to the British in exchange for military support, before the events in 1786.

The EIC was a private company owned by London stockholders that eventually grew to become a quasi-governmental body with its own army, laws and was responsible for trading spices, cotton, silk and tea all over the world.

Owing to his close relationship with Sultan Abdullah Mukarram, Light acted as the messenger for both parties, a role that rewarded him temporary permission to occupy a strip of land in Pulau Pinang whilst waiting for an agreement to be inked.

“By taking formal possession of the island on August 11, 1786, in the name of King George III of England, Light not only committed, by European Standards, a breach of international law but cheated the sultan as well.

“The declaration of Pulau Pinang as British possession was therefore illegal for no such verbal or written permission was given, and the EIC was, in effect, in illegal occupation of Kedah territory,” Bonney posited.

If the sharp colonial knife that rents asunder the historical and political borders of Kedah and Penang was nothing more than mere sly deceit, can the decades-old split be mended?

While the demarcations of every state in Malaysia have been clearly defined in the Federal Constitution, Murad, however, believes that such reclamation, albeit a tall order, is not impossible.

“Over the past 500 years, we have seen the political borders changed countless times, be it in Europe, Africa or Asia. For example, in Indonesia, the political borders were changed, and the country Timor Leste was born.

“In fact, Malaya’s political borders were changed when it formed Malaysia with Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak in 1963 and then the borders changed again in 1965 when Singapore left Malaysia.

“So, the possibility for Kedah to reclaim Pulau Pinang is always there,” said Murad. – The Vibes, June 20, 2021