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Penang DCM: Sanusi’s RM100 mil a year demand nothing short of blackmail!



KEDAH menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor’s recent demand for RM100 mil a year as ‘lease payment’ for Penang island and Seberang Perai is akin to blackmail, said Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Dr Ramasamy Palanisamy.

According to the Perai assemblyman, the Federal Government is currently paying RM10 mil a year to Kedah in recognition that Penang belonged to Kedah before the advent of the British.

This has been raised by the Federal Government from RM10,000 back in 2018.

“Sanusi wants the Federal Government to offer RM100 mil, a sum that is equivalent to the amount paid by the British to the Kedah Sultanate in the past,” he remarked.

“Beyond this, he wants the Federal Government to compensate for the sacrifice in the production of rice and the benefits forgone in protecting the water catchment areas in Kedah.

“For a while, Sanusi had targeted the Penang state government for not paying water charges, and now he wants the Federal Government to raise the amount for the historical lease of Penang and for other sacrifices made.”

Ramasamy pointed out that it must be understood that the so-called ‘lease’ of Penang island and the mainland was in response to the Siamese incursion into Kedah and other northern Malay states.

Kedah, he elaborated, gave up Penang in return for protection offered by the British.

“There is in fact no single clear historical document that would attest that Kedah leased Penang to the British. The documents available are vague and unintelligible, and is subject to differing interpretations,” he added.

Furthermore, Kedah was not a sovereign state at the time of the British intervention but was under the sovereignty of the Siamese state.

According to Ramasamy, the payments of dues in the form of ‘bunga mas’ attests to the fact that Kedah was under the hegemony of Siam.

The ‘bunga mas’ (literally translated as ‘golden flower’) is a tribute sent every three years to the the king of Ayutthaya (Siam) from its vassal states in the Malay Peninsula, including Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, among others.

Given this fact, Kedah was in no position to lease both parts of Penang to the British as Penang was in actuality ceded to the British in exchange for protection against Siam, Ramasamy added.

While he was unclear as to why the post-independent Federal Government continued to provide compensation to Kedah that went on to this day, Ramasamy speculated that it was a goodwill gesture on the part of the Federal Government that might have nothing to do with the fact that Penang was leased from Kedah.

“However, Sanusi seems to interpret history in accordance with his narrow and biased political interests.

“He thinks that by invoking history he might get better chances to get a bigger compensation from the Federal Government and his demands, direct or otherwise, seems to resemble a blackmail.

“In fact, he went one step further in demanding more compensation by coming out with a thinly-veiled threat that without a bigger compensation, Kedah might have to neglect the production of paddy and even go for logging, as though there is no rampant logging in parts of Kedah,” he said.

For the sake of historical verification, Ramasamy went on to suggest that the Federal Government embark on a study to find out whether Penang was indeed leased from Kedah and whether the latter was a sovereign state or not during that point in history.

“Sanusi is simply no expert to interpret history as he prefers,” he concluded. – Oct 28, 2021