Founding Of Penang In 1786 Was No Treaty Only Invasion Said Historian

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A LEADING Malaysian historian has branded the standard story that Captain Francis Light founded Penang in 1786 as deliberate colonial fiction designed to erase Kedah’s centuries-old sovereignty over the island.
Speaking at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Professor Datuk Dr Ahmad Murad Merican from ISTAC-IIUM declared that no lease or treaty existed in 1786.
British records, including over 2,000 of Light’s own letters, show the first formal lease was only signed in 1791, meaning 1786 marked an unlawful occupation, not a legal beginning.
“The colonial narrative deliberately frames 1786 as the birth of modern Penang, whereas authentic documents show there was no lease, treaty, or agreement between the British and Kedah in that year,” he said.
“The truth is that 1786 was merely Light’s invasion of a sovereign Malay state, not the beginning of a new political entity. The narrative of the British presence in Penang actually only begins in 1791, when an official lease document was created, not 1786 as recorded in most textbooks,” he is quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.
He added that the celebration of Light as Penang’s founder was crafted to wipe out Malay history and present the island as empty territory ripe for colonisation.
Prof Ahmad Murad warned that this distorted version, repeated in textbooks for decades, has created a public perception that Penang has no historical ties to the Kedah Sultanate, weakening the Malay and indigenous foundation of the nation.
He urged the government to establish a statutory National History Commission, chaired by a judge and empowered by Parliament, to adjudicate disputed facts and rewrite Malaysia’s history objectively, starting with pre-colonial Malay institutions before inclusively incorporating all communities.
“We need a mechanism capable of straightening out facts, not merely a council without authority,” he said.
“Many controversies, such as the Penang–Kedah lease claim, disputes over the early occupation history of Kuala Lumpur, and various issues of ethnic appropriation, can only be resolved through a commission that is fair, just, and rooted in indigenous history,” Murad added, stating that if colonial distortions are not corrected, Malaysia’s history will continue to drift. —  Focus Malaysia

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