When Labour ruled the council

By Koay Su Lyn

April 2014 WINDOW INTO HISTORY
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A partially-elected council in the early 1950s.
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Once upon a time in Penang, there were local council elections, and the underdog Labour Party reigned for many years.As the first British settlement in South- East Asia, George Town inherited most of the British Empire’s conventions, including an elective local council. Indeed, the island became the first and only state to own an entirely elective local council.With that said, the island’s history is never complete without highlighting the Labour Party’s reign over the council. Since its reign marked the...

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Koay Su Lyn

reads and writes of the past to make sense of the present. She is a research analyst in the History and Heritage Programme of Penang Institute.


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