Sanusi said Penang belongs to Kedah. He’s right…

…in the same way that someone would be right saying that Kedah belongs to Thailand.

Okay, here’s the context, for those of y’all who haven’t heard already – earlier this week, Kedah Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor claimed that Penang belongs to Kedah. According to him, there’s no such thing as the Penang-Kedah border, and there’s no need to reclaim Penang as the state has never never ‘escaped’ from Kedah in the first place.

“We are not taking it back, they weren’t free (from Kedah), it’s our right,” – Kedah MB, Sanusi

Unsurprisingly, his comments resulted in a buttload of backlash. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called his remarks an ‘incitement’ and criticized Sanusi for having poor knowledge of history and the Constitution. DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng urged Penangites to lodge police reports against Sanusi for causing ‘public disaffection’.

Regardless of what’s actually gonna happen to Sanusi legally, was the man right? Like our title said, he’s right…

Penang did belong to Kedah… like 200 years ago

If you remember your history lessons from school, the Sultanate of Kedah did indeed have control of Penang… but only until 1786. In 1785, the Pattani Sultanate (which used to encompass the modern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Kelantan) was dismantled by the Siam, and unwilling to fall to the same fate, Kedah began to seek diplomatic assistance from other powers in the region.

Coincidentally, Francis Light, an agent of the English East India Company (EIC), was looking for a trading post along the Straits of Malacca for the British Empire at the same time. Francis then approached Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah in 1786 to make a proposition on behalf of the EIC (and others). In exchange for British military assistance and a loan of 6,000 dollars to settle Kedah’s debt with Siam, Francis’s entourage would be allowed to settle on Penang.

Obviously, there’s more to the story, but this was arguably the moment when Penang ceased to belong to Kedah. If that didn’t do it, the treaty between Sir George Leith, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales Island (yeah, the Brits renamed Penang the same year Francis Light moved in) and Sultan Dziaddin Mukarram Shah II in 1800 was certainly the dagger through the heart. The treaty gave 189.3 km² of Seberang Perai to Sir George and afforded the British permanent sovereignty over both Prince of Wales Island and the newly ceded mainland territory.

Long story short: Penang (again, arguably) hasn’t been under Kedah’s control since 1786.

Now, we don’t know what his actual justification is, but if Sanusi is of the opinion that Penang historically belongs to Kedah, surely Kedah also belongs to Thailand, since that was the case prior to the 1909 Bangkok Treaty by the same logic? Being petty aside, maybe a better rebuttal to Sanusi’s claim would be that…

Penang is its own territory, according to the Federal Constitution

Not much to say here, really. Article 1 of the Federal Constitution recognizes Penang as its own state:

The States of the Federation shall be Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Penang, Perak, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor and Trengganu. – Article 1, Federal Constitution

Penang also has its own constitution that’s given federal guarantee under Article 71 of the Federal Constitution, further solidifying its position as independent of Kedah. But before we end this article, we need to address Sanusi’s claim that ‘there is no such thing as the Penang-Kedah border’. We’d like to proudly present the map of Malaysia, as of 2023:

C’mon, my guy.