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By Himanshu Bhatt.
UNTIL some years back, people visiting the lush main auditorium of the City Hall at the Esplanade in Penang could not have failed to notice on one of its walls a huge regal-looking document, drawn with officious cursive script, that gave out an imposing stately aura in the century-old hall.
Those who chanced to have a closer look at it would have seen that the document was none other than a historic charter dating back to Jan 1, 1957, of the Queen of England declaring George Town a city. What made this pronouncement – made some nine months before Malaya earned its independence from the British – significant was that this was the first ever formal declaration of a city in the country.
Some may say that it was fitting that Queen Elizabeth II had consented to ordain George Town, of all places, at that time. For the city was after all the first settlement to be established by the British upon their gradual takeover of the Malayan peninsula from 1786. Ironically enough, this city that claimed to be the first of its kind in the peninsula was taken unawares when it found its own status vanishing some time in the 1970s – through what can now only be described as a technical oversight. In 1974, the George Town City Council was merged with the Penang Rural District Council to form a Local Government Management Board. Two years later, when the Local Government Act 1976 was enforced, this board was made into the Penang Island Municipal Council. Most people did not realise it then, but the move to brand George Town as part of an island-wide municipal council had effectively caused the city status to disappear into thin air. The situation became somewhat bizarre for years to come, as there was a strange anomaly between the opinions of the federal government and the state with regards to George Town’s status. As the state government kept expressing surprise, insisting that George Town was a city, the Housing and Local Government Ministry looked up its own files, finding no evidence or record at all to show any such thing. For about three decades, this contention proved to be one of the minor sore points between the state and federal authorities. And the situation was not helped by the state government looking helplessly on as other townships – like Ipoh, Alor Star, Kuching and Malacca – steadily got recognised as cities while the crown jewel of Penang, the second largest economy after Kuala Lumpur, was still only looked upon as a mere municipality. The situation is now apparently changing as Penang is seeking to redeem its claim for city status. The state government announced last week that it was applying to the Housing and Local Government Ministry for the whole island to be granted city status, and the Penang Island Municipal Council to be elevated to a city hall. The move is perhaps only long due. After all, George Town has already been recognised by Unesco as a historic city in the former Straits Settlements. The state says there would be benefits to the island with the status. As a City Hall, it would have a local government with more authority to assert itself over federal dealings in its town affairs. For example, it would have more powers to manage public roads, as stipulated under the Road Transport Act 1987. Currently, many of the roads in Penang are under the purview of the federal Public Works Department. Named after the monarch of the United Kingdom in the 1780s, King George III, George Town has for decades been known as an exotic trading port, a vibrant meeting ground for cultures from across the world. Penang has for long asserted a unique place in the region’s history. Today, the island has grown into a modern metropolis, with high-tech industries and numerous high-rise buildings occupying many parts of its skyline, even as idyllic villages such as those in Balik Pulau and old traditions continue to exist. And it is this precarious balance, between the traditional and the modern, between the old and the new, that will define what makes the city of Penang unique as it has long claimed to be. ** Reproduced with permission. This article first appeared in the January 14, 2010 issue of theSun. Himanshu is the newspaper's Penang bureau chief.
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