It has been over two weeks since Aug 11, the date Penang was founded 239 years ago. Once again, the day passed in silence. No speeches. No reflection. Not even a mention from the state.
On that day in 1786, Francis Light raised the Union Jack at what is now Fort Cornwallis. It marked Penang’s entry into modern history as the first British settlement in Southeast Asia, and a free port from the start. Two centuries on, we behave as if the date is an embarrassment best left unspoken.
Before Light came, Penang was mostly jungle and uninhabited, with a few fishing villages and passing traders. An official survey at the time recorded just 58 people on the island.
The island was leased from the Kedah sultan in exchange for British protection against Siam and Burma, a promise that was never fully kept.
Light saw the island’s promise. According to local legend, he had gold and silver coins fired from a cannon into the trees so workers would clear the land. Whether fact or fable, the story fits the urgency of those early years.
He welcomed anyone who would build a life here, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Europeans and Eurasians. George Town took off. And later, Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai).
Of course, Penang was there long before 1786 … people and trade predated Francis Light.
But that year was a turning point. It marked the start of a free port and a modern town, as part of the Straits Settlements rather than the Malay states.
Sojourners came, then stayed. They built clans, associations, places of worship and schools, and looked after one another when times were hard. We can hold two truths as one: empire did harm, and yet it also left institutions we still rely on, the courts, local government, and a working language.
Penang was a gateway too. Every migrant today can trace his route to Penang, as all were required to be ferried first to Pulau Jerejak’s quarantine station in the late 1870s.
By the time of the Second World War, 1.13 million had passed through before proceeding to Penang island and other parts of Malaya.
Another irony, a young Thomas Stamford Raffles learnt the ropes here as assistant secretary to Penang’s governor in 1805. Later he pushed the idea of setting up base in Singapore in 1819, despite his boss Governor Bannerman’s objections on grounds that it would kill Penang’s thriving port.
From this small place came steps that shaped Malaya. In 1807, under the First Charter of Justice a proper court was set up in Penang. This was the start of our modern legal system.
By 1857, George Town had a municipal commission and held local elections. By 1906, George Town was running electric trams, among the earliest.
For an island where our justice system and local government were born, our neglect of state symbols, and of our own “birthday”, feels odd.
So why did Aug 11 pass unmarked? Because leaders fear the optics. Some say it would look like a celebration of colonial rule.
It also disturbs the neat national story that begins with Merdeka in 1957 and Malaysia Day in 1963. In Penang politics, avoiding controversy is easier than facing history.
In 2019, while marking the island’s Bicentennial, then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong accepted Singapore’s colonial past without celebrating it. He said Raffles did not “discover” Singapore, that the island had centuries of history before 1819. The 200 years’ celebration was framed as reflection and learning, not a party. Penang can take the same approach.
But the silence costs us. We lose a chance to tell the full story. Not only the colonial chapter, but the grit and care that made this place home.
Other cities face their founding dates head on. They argue over them. They teach them. They don’t erase them. We could do the same. Call it “Penang History Day”. Not a celebration of empire, but a day to learn.
Yet every July 7 we celebrate George Town World Heritage Day, the date we were inscribed on Unesco’s list. We honour the day the world recognised us, but not the day we began. That’s the irony.
Schools can teach how the island grew from jungle to a port open to the world. Museums (wonder when our state museum would ever reopen after being closed for the past eight years!) and guides can host talks and walking tours that show both promise and betrayal in 1786 and after.
We do not need to praise Francis Light. But we should have the courage to admit that Aug 11 happened, and that it shaped who we are.
If our leaders cannot face that, the silence says more about us today than it does about our past.
Silence is not neutral; it is a choice to forget. Tak lapuk dek hujan, tak lekang dek panas.
Predeep Nambiar is FMT’s northern region bureau chief.
The views expressed are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.