There is no need to travel the world to collect documents to show well-known historical facts - this was Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow’s message to his counterpart in Kedah, Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor.
He was responding to news reports quoting Sanusi on a research team formed by the Kedah state government procuring thousands of documents from abroad regarding the relationship between the two states.
“We are not denying that Penang used to be a part of Kedah in the past.
“Please accept that Penang is an independent state and that its position is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
“There is no need for you to go around the world to gather 20,000 documents about these well-known historical facts,” Chow (above, left) said, according to Buletin Mutiara.
According to Sanusi, the research team is scrutinising the documents obtained from England, the Netherlands, Thailand and Indonesia, and is expected to complete its study in December.
“There are a lot of documents. I understand close to 20,000 historical documents, mostly reports from the Straits Settlements to the British government at the time,” he added.
Sanusi said the findings would help in building a case over Penang’s status as a leased state during the British colonial administration.
“We are doing this based on the (Federal) Constitution and the (Kedah) constitution.
“There are so many facts out there, but people are talking about it in piecemeal, so my administration is collecting them. That is the gist of the study.
“Some would accuse us of just going after free money. That’s not it. We want to establish the position (of Kedah and Penang) based on facts,” New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
Sanusi added that he himself had studied some of the documents at the British Library and Britain’s National Archives. - Mkini
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