A history of local elections in Penang Part I: Democracy Comes Early
By Koay Su Lyn, Steven Sim
November 2014 COVER STORY
Click here to read Part II.Fifty years ago, in March 1965, local elections were suspended throughout the newly founded Federation of Malaysia.Those were turbulent times in many ways, no doubt, and the centralising of power was a major objective of the federal government. The political disagreements and conflicts among various parties were serious and diverse. This was no surprise, given how independence from the British was gained only eight years earlier, and how the Federation of Malaysia had just been...
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.
Steven Sim
is the MP for Bukit Mertajam and Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports.
