According to standard guidelines, Penang Island qualifies to be called a city, and the state government is to gain that upgrade. Hopefully, this can stimulate further improvement – from above and below.
The Penang state government is seeking city status for Penang Island. It has appealed to the federal government to upgrade Penang Island from being a municipality to being a city. According to the Penang state executive council member in charge of local authorities, Chow Kon Yeow, the island fulfils all the criteria for city status (see “Penang Island Municipal Council seeks city status”, www.thesundaily.my/news/977890, March 6, 2014).
Guidelines certainly do exist for a town to be classed a city, but these have not always been strictly followed. For example, according to the guidelines, a city has to have more than 500,000 residents. The populations of Miri and Kuala Terengganu in the 2010 census were only 300,543 and 343,284 respectively, while the population of Penang Island is 704,376. The first two have city status; the latter does not.
