THE AVATAR OF 1786 REVIEWED BY SITI RUQAIYAH HASHIM.

THE AVATAR OF 1786

Decolonizing the Penang history

A CLOSURE TO THE PULAU PINANG HISTORY AND OPENING THE PANDORA BOX.

BY PROF AHMAD MURAD MERICAN

For almost twenty years, Prof Ahmad Murad Merican diligently, passionately and with utmost commitments wrote and examined in details the narratives of history of Pulau Pinang. Currently a Professor of Social and Intellectual History in International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, International Islamic University Malaysia (ISTAC-IIUM) he had written extensively on the history of social science, journalism studies and problems of representations on the narrative of Pulau Pinang, his home state.

Pulau Pinang is an island in the northern part of peninsula Malaysia. Malaysia was formed in 1963 and originally it was known as Malaya (Tanah Melayu) when she was a British colony until independence was achieved in 1957. Pulau Pinang was part of an old Malay Kingdom called Kedah on the mainland of Malaya under the Sultan of Kedah.

Prof Ahmad Murad had written three books on the historical discourses of Pulau Pinang alone. Starting from 2015, he wrote Batu Uban: Sejarah Awal Pulau Pinang or Batu Uban: Early History of Pulau Pinang. In 2020, he published Batu Uban, Tanjong and Bagan: Pengkisahan Lisan or Batu Uban, Tanjong and Bagan: Oral Narrations. And the latest book is The Avatar of 1786 Decolonizing the Penang History. A trilogy.

Much of the arguments in his book dealt with doing away with Eurocentrism of history writings of Pulau Pinang that it was founded by an English East India Company (EIC) officer by the name of Francis Light in 1786. For hundred of years since then, this fallacy was accepted (and still is) and not much questioned until about 50 years ago, years after Malaya achieved her independence. Many books were written on the history of Pulau Pinang by many scholars and researchers, but it was an on and off efforts followed by sporadic discussions and discources. Only Prof Ahmad Murad, wrote three books on history of Pulau Pinang from the point of view of a Malay and a Malaysian scholar. Congratulations Prof Ahmad Murad.

I agree very much with many things he said in his Avatar of 1786, and like Prof Ahmad Murad, feel the discourses and polemics of history of Pulau Pinang need a closure . He did very credible extensive researches and obtained many digitized documents pertaining the communications between Francis Light and the Sultan of Kedah and others from SOAS or School of Oriental Studies, London and many other archives and sources. Most important, he proved that Pulau Pinang was not a ‘terra nullius’(without any population) island as assumed and told for hundred of years that led to the made up stories and fallacy that it was Francis Light who founded Pulau Pinang and given the name Penang and was legally leased to EIC in 1786. Facts must be accepted and rectified and contents of text books must be changed also.

The Sultan of Kedah never signed any documents concerning the leasing as conditions stipulated by the Sultan was not met. That made Francis Light who acted on behalf of EIC headquartered in India as nothing more but the person who illegally took Pulau Pinang and placed it under EIC that later became part of British colony. Francis Light was never a founder of Pulau Pinang as assumed and written in books of early writers of British origin and later accepted and written in history books including in school text books until now. 66 years of independence, Malaysia is yet to decolonize facts based on truth and not make believe colonial narratives. So much ‘intellectual terrorism’ done to the history of Pulau Pinang. And not just to this island, but the whole history of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak were intellectuly terrorized, deviated and truth not told.

Actually, Prof. Ahmad Murad raised so many contentious issues on the history of Pulau Pinang that I cant help but feel he and many Malaysian historians opened widely the pandora box of the whole history of Malaya and Malaysia. It had been said again and again by history scholars of this country that Malaysian history must be rewritten. I agree very much about this. And the sooner its done, the better. Obviously more and more linked issues and narrations and expose surfaced as a result of his writings on the history of Pulau Pinang . Such as the history of state of Kedah and her numerous wars with Siam. Kedah which owned Pulau Pinang before her debacle to British East India Company through nothing more but manipulations, false believes and assumptions. Stories of manipulations and cheatings of an imperialist power in legitimizing colonialism by propagating alternative narrations from the actual true ones. They said ‘history is written by winners’ but don’t forget that Abraham Lincoln also said that ‘ history is not history if not written on truth’.

There are still many parties with interests in Malaysia who are still colonized mentally, perhaps?

THE AVATAR OF 1786 is dedicated to’ the descendents of Dato Kramat, Nakhoda nan Intan @ Haji Muhammad Salleh, Nakhoda Kecil @Ismail, Nakhoda Bayan, Dato Jenaton @ Jenan and the rest of keturunan asal (original descendents)’. Who are these people? These were the early people and traders who continuously travelled to and from Batu Bara and other places in Sumatera to Batu Uban in Pulau Pinang before Francis Light set foot on Tanjong Penaga and later claimed it as EIC port and named it as Georgetown without any approval from its owner the Sultan of Kedah. These traders were part and parcel of the people of the Malay World. The Malay World consisted of Muslim, Malay speaking and inhabited areas of Tanah Melayu, Sumatera, Jawa , Sulawesi, Borneo, Phillipines, Pattani and many Siam regions in the South.

You will have to read this book to know more about all these traders and their descendants who were given rights and land by the Sultan of Kedah to reside, plant crops etc in Pulau Pinang. Also to know more about British manipulations on the the history of Pulau Pinang which is just the tip of an iceberg of the whole intellectual terrorism of the history of Malaya and Malaysia. So many countries colonized before change the colonizer’s narratives of their countries and talked about what really happened since many years ago. In Malaysia, after 66 years our school text books still paint the rosy picture of British!

BOOK REVIEWED BY SITI RUQAIYAH HASHIM.