Chandra Muzaffar thinks Francis Light did not discover Penang. He is both wrong and right. It is a question of how one looks at history. The truth is we are all colonisers in one way or another, and Francis Light did colonise Penang.

As J Kennedy in History of Malaya wrote, "The story of the founding of the English East India Company's settlement at Penang can be viewed from three different angles, first from that of the Sultan of Kedah, who was the hereditary ruler of the island of Penang before 1786; secondly from that of the English East India Company, with its eastern headquarters first in Madras, later in Calcutta, and its home office in London; and thirdly, some attempt should be made to assess the aims and ideas of Francis Light, who saw the possibilities of Penang, and worked to bring the other two interested parties together." (page 67).

Chandra claims that "Penang had a population of about 10,000, mainly Malays, Chinese and Siamese when Light landed on the island in 1786." But according to Kennedy, "By 1788 the population of Penang was about 1,000, and it increased to 12,000 in 1804, by which time Province Wellesley had been included." (page 81).

Light, an ex-English naval officer, was a trader, not a conquistador. He spoke Malay and Siamese, and though not a trained administrator managed to fulfil the role of Superintendent until his death in 1794. There is nothing in Penang's history anywhere near the tragic and brutal fate of the natives of South America when the Spanish took advantage of the benign natives. If the Americans reject Columbus, they have their own reasons and political motives. But there is no reason to deny Light his rightful place in Penang's history, as he was the one who opened up the island and paved the way for its development into a modern, cosmopolitan port town and the later formation of modern Malaya.

Malaysia Airlines has capitalised on Light's founding of Penang to attract British tourists to Malaysia, and has no ideological agenda. It is a smart marketing move and MAS should be congratulated not criticised.

Singapore has no hangup about its colonial past and does not try to re-write its colonial history. It is a sign of the country's maturity to be able to live with a colonial past without any sense of bitterness, chip on one's shoulder or need to alter the facts.

Many Penangites like their Singapore cousins are proud of their British history, as they have a common history in the Straits Settlements. Not all that the colonialists had done is bad, and Chandra should remember that.

He should not overlook the non-Western colonisers in the Southeast Asian archipelago. Before the advent of European settlers, places were being colonised and re-colonised. In fact, the threat of colonisation by the Bugis from the south did worry the Kedah sultanate for a time, as much as the threat from the Siamese in the north, and the royal house in Kedah looked to the British for protection.

More importantly Chandra should not forget that while British colonialism and Western imperialism are long gone, many Asian countries still live under the yoke of neo-colonialism. The plight of the Orang Asli includes the destruction of their habitats by logging, development and policies that threaten their existence.

If we take the plank out of our eyes we may see clearly that it is not only Westerners who colonise but others too, and while the British have given up almost all their colonies, some Asian countries are still clinging on to theirs. The oppressed peoples are still fighting for their independence.

As for me I am glad that Light appeared on the shore, not to conquer but to trade, and to open up the island to people from lands that were undergoing severe hardships. We know that people don't discover places except for themselves or someone else. In this regard, we should not quibble that Light discovered Penang or that Raffles founded Singapore because we know that a long time before their discoveries, migrants had used the Malayan peninsula as a bridge between the Asian mainland and the archipelago of Southeast Asia.

But Light deserves the title, 'Founder of Prince of Wales Island'. It is a historical fact.