Municipal Council of Penang Island
Encyclopedia
George Town, Penang
George Town was voted as one of the best cities in Asia by Asiaweek, ranked 6th in 1998 and 9th in 2000. More recently, George Town has improved a notch to rank as the 9th most liveable city in Asia in a survey of 254 cities worldwide according to an international location ratings survey by , an...
and Penang Island
Penang Island
Penang Island is part of the state of Penang, on the west coat of Peninsular Malaysia. It was named Prince of Wales Island when it was occupied by the British East India Company on 12 August 1786, in honour of the birthday of the Prince of Wales, later King George IV...
. This agency is under Penang state government
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
. MPPP are responsible for public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
and sanitation, waste removal and management, town planning, environmental protection and building control, social and economic development and general maintenance functions of urban infrastructure. The MPPP main headquarters is located at the City Hall
City Hall, Penang
City Hall is a municipal building in George Town, Penang, which was formerly the seat of the City Council of George Town.Originally built in 1903 as the Municipal Office, Penang, the building was erected at a cost of $100,000 to relieve demand for office space at the adjacent Town Hall, which then...
(in front of The Esplanade), George Town
George Town, Penang
George Town was voted as one of the best cities in Asia by Asiaweek, ranked 6th in 1998 and 9th in 2000. More recently, George Town has improved a notch to rank as the 9th most liveable city in Asia in a survey of 254 cities worldwide according to an international location ratings survey by , an...
.
History
The Municipal Council of George Town was established in 1857, the first local authority in MalayaBritish Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
after Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. Three out of five municipal commissioners were elected by a limited franchise, but due to apathy these elections were abolished in 1913.
In 1951, as part of the move towards independence for Malaya, the British colonial authorities reintroduced local elections of nine of the fifteen municipal commissioners for George Town. Other municipal councils in Malaya followed shortly thereafter, with Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
holding its first local elections the year after. By 1956, George Town had become the first municipality in the Federation of Malaya to have a fully elected council, with Cllr G. H. Goh (Alliance) as its first President.
On 1 January 1957, George Town became a city by a royal charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
, becoming the first town in the Federation of Malaya
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...
to become a city, and the only city in Malaya/Malaysia until Kuala Lumpur was granted city status in 1972. The first Mayor of George Town was Cllr D. S. Ramanathan (Labour).
In 1965, the federal Government suspended local elections as a result of the Indonesian Confrontation. The City Council was at the time the richest local authority in the country, with annual revenue almost double that of the Penang state government. In response to allegations of maladministration and misconduct, a Royal Commission of Enquiry was set up and the functions of the City Council were temporarily transferred to the Chief Minister of Penang by the City Council of George Town (Transfer of Functions) Order 1966. A Royal Commission of Enquiry into set up by the Federal Government under Senator Athi Nahappan, reporting in 1968, recommended the restoration of elected local councils, but this was never carried out. The remaining local authorities in Penang, including the Penang Rural District Council, were taken over by the state government in 1971.
Controversy over city status
George Town's royal charter provided that:- "the said Municipality of George Town shall on the First Day of January in the Year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty seven and forever thereafter be a city and shall be called and styled the CITY OF GEORGE TOWN instead of the Municipality of George Town and shall thenceforth have all such rank, liberties, privileges and immunities as are incident to a city."
In addition, several federal ordinances and acts refer to the City of George Town, such as the City of George Town Ordinance 1957. According to Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) trustee, Datuk Anwar Fazal, a lawyer by profession, George Town "legally has been and is still a city [because] the City of George Town Ordinance 1957 had not been repealed".
However, as George Town no longer exists as a legal entity, it appears that George Town's city status has gone the way of the city of Rochester-upon-Medway in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Rochester had been recognised as a city in the year 1211, but lost its city status in 1998 when it was merged with a neighbouring borough. As the new council was not granted city status, and the city through oversight failed to appoint charter trustees to inherit the city charter, the city ceased to exist. In the view of the federal government, George Town has similarly lost its city status, and does not appear in the list of cities published by the Malaysian Government.
In 2008, the new Pakatan Rakyat
Pakatan Rakyat
Pakatan Rakyat or PR is an informal Malaysian political coalition. It currently controls four state governments while in opposition to the ruling Barisan Nasional at the federal level....
state government announced that they would revive the commemorations of George Town's grant of city status from 1 January 2009.