Article

Perlis

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Perlis

Perlis is the smallest of the Malay states on the Malay Peninsula, situated in the extreme north of the country, and is distinguished by its unique origin as a district of Kedah that achieved separate sovereignty in 1843. The state’s name derives from the Malay word perlis, meaning “obtained” or “acquired,” reflecting its history as a territory granted to a new ruling house rather than inherited through the established Kedah royal line. Its political significance was magnified in the twentieth century when its fifth ruler, Tuanku Syed Putra, was elected the third Yang di-Pertuan Agong of the Federation of Malaya in 1961, bringing the small northern state to the centre of national and international attention [1, pp. 173].

Origins and Separation from Kedah

The territory now known as Perlis was originally called Kayang, or more formally Indera Kayangan, and constituted one of the districts administered by the Sultan of Kedah. During the reign of Sultan Mohd. Jiwa Azlin Ma’adzam Shah II, the nineteenth Sultan of Kedah, his second son Tengku Dhiauddin was appointed Raja Muda (Crown Prince) and entrusted with the governance of Kayang and Setol [1, p. 174]. The district’s strategic position between Kedah and the Siamese frontier made it a point of contention in the broader power struggles of the early nineteenth century.

The pivotal event in Perlis’s history was the Siamese invasion of 1821, when the Raja Muda of Kedah, Tengku Ya’akob, in a dispute with his brother Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin over the succession to Kayang, invited the forces of Ligor (Nakhon Si Thammarat) to intervene. The resulting conflict saw approximately 10,000 Malay soldiers initially repel the Siamese advance, but a contingent of 300 under Syed Hussain was defeated, and the Siamese ultimately occupied both Kedah and Kayang, installing Tengku Anom as their puppet governor [1, p. 175].

The path to independence was negotiated over the following two decades. Tengku Anom, in concert with Syed Hussain and other Kedah royal relatives, persuaded the Raja of Ligor to restore Kedah to its legitimate ruler. As part of the settlement, the Siamese crown formally recognised the grant of Kayang to Syed Hussain, Setol to Tengku Bisnu, and Kubang Pasu to Tengku Anom, each receiving the title Phya and owing tribute of gold and silver flowers to Bangkok every three years, independently of Kedah [1, p. 177]. On 14 December 1843, Syed Hussain Jamalullail was thus installed as the first Raja of Perlis, and the state was formally separated from Kedah [1, pp. 176–177].

The founding ruler, Syed Hussain, was the son of Syed Harun Jamalullail, an Arab of Hadramaut origin who had settled in Kedah and been appointed Penghulu (district chief) of Arau in 1797. Syed Hussain had served as second Penghulu of Arau from 1825 and had played a significant military role in the 1821 defence against the Siamese [1, pp. 174–175]. He reigned until his death on 20 November 1873, after approximately thirty years of rule [1, p. 177].

Administration and Economy in the Late Nineteenth Century

The most detailed contemporary account of Perlis’s condition before British protection derives from the observations of W. W. Skeat, a member of the Cambridge University Expedition to the Malay Peninsula in 1899–1900. Arriving at Kangar on 2 January 1900, Skeat found a small administrative centre with a two-storey stone Rest House facing the river, built at a cost of $8,000, furnished with mahogany tables and chairs and iron spring-bedded cots [1, p. 180]. The main street contained 62 buildings, the majority being Chinese shop-houses, with only eight Malay houses of timber and nipah (palm-leaf) thatch [1, p. 180].

The state’s finances were modest. Total annual revenue stood at $27,000, a figure that did not cover government expenditure. The largest single source was a tax on opium, rice, and other goods at $14,000 per annum, followed by taxes on salt, arrack, and gambir ($3,200), oil ($1,500), a 3 per cent entry and exit duty ($1,000), tobacco ($900), and fish ($780). No land revenue was collected; land was granted free of charge without survey [1, p. 180]. Tin was exported in ingots weighing 50 to 70 kati (a traditional unit of weight) each, and a small quantity of gold was obtained by panning in the river [1, p. 180].

The administrative structure was simple. Beneath the Raja were two categories of senior officials, the ratu and the panglima, below whom served the penghulu. The penghulu received no salary but were granted a kamsin (a share) of 10 per cent of government land sold within their district, and their positions were hereditary within certain families [1, p. 181]. The population was estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000, including women, children, and Chinese residents [1, p. 181].

Under the third Raja, Syed Safi, who reigned from 1897 to 1905, the state experienced a period of development. Roads were constructed, canals were dug to irrigate rice fields, and all bridges in the state date from this period. Young men were sent to Penang to study English at St. Xavier’s Institution and the Penang Free School [1, p. 181]. However, the state’s finances remained precarious, and in 1905, Raja Syed Alwi, who succeeded his father, entered into an agreement with the Siamese government to accept a financial adviser and a loan, as the state’s fiscal position had become critically strained [1, p. 182].

Transition to British Protection and the Japanese Occupation

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 transferred Perlis from Siamese to British protection. A British financial adviser, H. E. Duke, had already been sent by Siam in 1905, and a British Resident was appointed in 1909, after which the state was administered in the manner of the other British-protected Malay states until the outbreak of the Second World War [1, p. 182].

The Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945 proved a period of severe hardship for the royal house. The Crown Prince, Syed Putra, was stripped of his title and his allowance was cut by the Japanese military authorities. He sustained himself through a trade in spices, dried chillies, and salt imported from Siam, and later in cattle, with the support of loyal subjects. His uncle, Raja Syed Alwi, supported him at $90 per month until the latter’s death in 1943 [1, pp. 183–184]. The Japanese installed Syed Hamzah, a brother of the late Raja, as their puppet ruler. After the Japanese surrender, Syed Putra returned from Kelantan, where he had taken refuge, and was recognised by the British military administration as the legitimate Raja of Perlis on 4 December 1945 [1, p. 184].

The Agong and National Prominence

Following independence in 1957, Perlis’s national profile rose dramatically. Tuanku Syed Putra was elected the third Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 21 September 1960 and installed on 4 January 1961, serving until 20 September 1965 [1, pp. 185–186]. During his tenure as head of state, he made state visits to India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Republic, and Jordan, and performed the ceremonial washing of the Ka’aba in 1965, an honour reserved for the highest-ranking Muslim sovereign [1, pp. 190–192]. His reign as Agong also coincided with the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, which he proclaimed [1, p. 189].

As Raja of Perlis, Tuanku Syed Putra was noted for his personal attention to the welfare of his subjects, his promotion of education through the establishment of a Tabong Derma Pelajaran (Education Fund) that financed the first English-language school in the state, and his encouragement of agricultural cooperatives and small rice-milling enterprises [1, pp. 186–187]. In 1950, irrigation works were undertaken to supply water to 6,000 acres of new paddy land and to improve 11,000 acres of existing fields [1, p. 187].

Research and Documentation

The principal scholarly treatment of Perlis’s history in the Society’s literature is Hussain Baba bin Mohamad’s 1969 article, which draws on the author’s position as a court official of the Perlis royal establishment and provides an authorised dynastic narrative from the state’s separation from Kedah through to the 1960s [1]. The article incorporates, as its primary source for the pre-colonial administrative and economic condition of the state, the account of W. W. Skeat and F. F. Laidlaw from the Cambridge University Expedition of 1899–1900, published in the Society’s journal in 1953 [1, p. 180, n. 2]. This expeditionary report remains the most detailed contemporary description of Perlis’s physical and administrative landscape in the late nineteenth century.

Julie Tang Su Chin’s 2002 monograph, Sejarah Kerajaan Perlis 1841–1957, provides a more extended treatment of the state’s political history over the same period, though the archival record available here does not permit a detailed assessment of its arguments or methodology [2]. Together, these works represent the two principal strands of scholarship on Perlis in the Society’s literature: the court-internal dynastic tradition, and the external academic reconstruction of the state’s political development under Siamese and British suzerainty.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. Hussain Baba bin Mohamad (1969). Sejarah negeri dan raja-raja Perlis JMBRAS 42(2): 175–196. Read on JSTOR
  2. Julie Tang Su Chin (2002). Sejarah Kerajaan Perlis 1841 - 1957 : 370.