Reviews & Press : : Penang and Its Region

Penang Economic Monthly, Jan 2010. 47
Review by Johan Saravanamuttu

THE CAPTORS in this book come from papers presented at an international conference held in 2002. Together, they depict historically the multicultural wealth of Penang.
As Tan Liok Ee's contribution shows, Penang was already a confluence for multifarious cultures and hybrid identities from the start. But how important was Penang really, at the height of the British Imperium? This book provides clues.

It was not until 1932 that Singapore overtook Penang as the main port of the Straits Settlements. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Penang was the first port of call east of the Indian subcontinent. Penang was then also clearly the site of European and Chinese capital in the rubber and tin trade. Revenue farm networks of Penang, i.e. opium trade links, stretched as far afield as Saigon, Hong Kong and China. At the apogee of the British period, Penang had become a regional educational hub for Islamic, English and Chinese education.

At the onset of the independence, competing groups, cultures and ideologies made for a more complex, yet highly vibrant, Penang society. This animated multicultural mix turned potent enough to impel a secession movement in 1948 when the Federation of Malaya was proposed. Contrary to popular belief it was not just the Straits Chinese who wanted such a break with the Federation.

Penang also attracted Chinese revolutionaries such as Sun Yat Sen, who transferred his Kuomintang headquarters from Singapore to the island in 1910. another legendary revolutionary who made regular visits to Penang was Tan Malaka, depicted variously as "communist, nationalist, Trotskyite, Japanese agent, idealist, Muslim leader, Minangkabau chauvinist" (Abdur-Razzaq Lubsi, p. 169).

This volume aptly ends with a chapter on Penang's secret societies, and another on its post-war socialist politics. As all Penangites would know, the first great triad war was between the Red Flags and White Flags in 1867. The island came to a standstill for 10 days as these two secret societies, comprising alliances of Chinese and Malays, battled for control of George Town. Tan Kim Hong's chapter provides us with this glimpse of Penang by examining the radical agendas and politics of the Labour Party of Penang.
Penang and Its Regions is a must-read for those who not only wish ot "deconstruct" Penang's past but also reconstruct its future.