The Gutsy Little School by the River
5 min read
River Road Tamil School, like most schools, had humble beginnings. Established in 1947 by P. Gopalakrishnan, the state Tamil school coordinator at the time, it...
November 2025
This November, Penang Monthly explores language, place and memory. As GTLF returns, we highlight Penang’s multilingual streets and the dialects that keep local history alive.
Jelutong, Home to Hearty Food
6 min read
Bukit Dambar.Today, Jelutong is a multifaceted place that is rich in history and peopled by folks of all races and creeds. At the same time, it is transfo...
Malaysia’s Dimensions of Conflict
6 min read
A discussion on the deeper dimensions of conflict and other aspects of the upcoming 14th Malaysian general election couldn’t be timelier, with the electio...
Feel the Pulse in Jelutong
11 min read
A History of a George Town SuburbJelutong is named after the Jelutong tree, or Dyera costulata, which grew in abundance when the modern suburb was just a coas...
A History of Malayalees in Penang: Part One: The First Wave – Traders, Convicts and Builders
18 min read
The Malayalees originate from the modernday state of Kerala, on the south-west coast of India, and Malayalam is their mother tongue. Older historical references...
Penang Pushes on with Flood Mitigation
9 min read
2017 was a challenging year, and it was no exception for state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow.Heading the Flood Mitigation portfolio for the state (along...
Can the Erasure of Malaysian Arts be Reversed?
5 min read
What does Malaysian literature mean today, and what is required for a work of literature to be considered national literature? Can literature in Chinese, Tamil...
Taking the Next Step in Travel
6 min read
Yeoh Siew Hoon made a career out of her love for travel.Penang lass Yeoh Siew Hoon, a prominent figure in the Asia Pacific tourism industry, has enjoyed s...
Coworking – Much More than Just Sharing Office Space
7 min read
The word may sound wrong, but Penang had better get used to the idea of “unconferences”. The fourth annual edition of Coworking Unconference (CU) As...
Redefining and Refining Urban Living
6 min read
The World Urban Forum (WUF) was established by the UN in 2001 as “a nonlegislative technical forum”.1 Serving as an international conference focusin...
Hang Tuah and the Keris Which Heals the Wound it Caused
13 min read
The story of Hang Tuah fascinates me. But to the question of whether he existed or not, I do not have an answer. However, that does not at all affect my interes...
Time for Malaysians to Show Power
6 min read
A question commonly posed to me is what made me decide to choose politics as a vocation.I wonder about it myself sometimes. Although it may not appear to...
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