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When the british landed, entire northern states of malaya was under thai rule.including kedah.The former southern Thai/northern Malaysia territories were ceded to Malaysia because the Thais collaborated with the Japs during ww2 .. they allowed the Japs to land there and cycle down south to invade the peninsula
Kedah sultan leasing penang to British was therefore illegal.
Siam, Not Kedah, Lost Penang To The British, Says Expert
MALAYSIABy MT Webmaster On Oct 29, 2021
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(FMT) – As a debate over an annual honorarium rages, a heritage expert has given a brief outline of Penang’s history since Kedah leased it to the British in 1786.
Clement Liang, a council member of Penang Heritage Trust, said Kedah had no territorial right over the island when it agreed to the lease because it was Thailand, then known as Siam, that had sovereignty over it.
Kedah leased it without the Siamese king’s knowledge, he said.
Thai history textbooks and the national museum in Bangkok show that Penang island, or Koh Mak, was the first territory that Siam lost to a western power.
Liang said Saiburi, as Kedah was known then, was in subsequent years raided frequently by the Siamese force for its disobedience. In 1821, a war known as Perang Bisik saw Kuala Kedah destroyed and thousands of Kedahans escaping to Province Wellesley for safety and resettlement.
In 1826, King Rama III and British officials signed the Burney Treaty to establish Siam’s independence from European powers.
The treaty recognised Kedah, Perlis, Terengganu and Pattani as Siamese provinces and Penang and Province Wellesley as British territories.
“The Burney Treaty effectively nullified the leasehold status of Penang as agreed earlier between the sultan of Kedah and the East India Company,” Liang said.
“Boundary stones marked Siamese and British territories, some of which are still in existence in Seberang Perai today.”
He said it was only in 1909 that the Siamese kingdom returned Kedah and three other northern Malay states to the British. However, Kedah was given back to the Siamese in 1943 during the Japanese occupation.