George Town – From city to municipality to culture centre

By Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

January 2015 WINDOW INTO HISTORY
main image
Advertisement
George Town became a city on January 1, 1957. The timing was not by accident. In fact it was an event to herald the approach of sovereignty for the 11 states of Malaya exactly eight months later that year.George Town thus had the honour of becoming Malaya’s first city. It remained the country’s only city until 1972, when KL, on being separated from Selangor and becoming a Federal Territory, also gained city status. Most importantly, the first popular elections were...

Subscribe to our e-archive to read our older articles.

Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His latest book is Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World (Singapore: Faction Press) Homepage: wikibeng.com.


`