The 1967 Penang Hartal riot ( ms, Hartal Pulau Pinang 1967) happened on November 24, 1967 in response to the devaluation of the

Malayan dollar The Malayan dollar (Malay: ''ringgit'', Jawi: رڠڬيت) was the currency of the British colonies and protectorates in Malaya and Brunei until 1953. It was introduced in 1939, replacing the Straits dollar at par, with 1 dollar = two shillings f ...

against the

British pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

and the newly established

Malaysian dollar The Malaysian ringgit (; plural: ringgit; symbol: RM; currency code: MYR; Malay name: ''Ringgit Malaysia''; formerly the Malaysian dollar) is the currency of Malaysia. It is divided into 100 ''sen'' (formerly ''cents''). The ringgit is issued ...

Cause of the riot

The riot began as a peaceful protest organised by the Labour Party over the devaluation of the Malayan dollar against the British pound sterling. Malaysian at that time had two currencies in circulation. One was the old Malayan dollar and the other was the new

. Both were trading at par and valued at 8.57 dollar per pound. The pegging of the local currency to the pound was part of Malaysia's membership in the

Sterling area The sterling area (or sterling bloc, legally scheduled territories) was a group of countries that either pegged their currencies to sterling, or actually used sterling as their own currency. The area began to appear informally during the ear ...

. The new Malaysian dollar was introduced on June 12, 1967 as the currency union between Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei came to an end. Singapore was expelled out of Malaysia on August 9, 1965. Five months after the introduction of the new Malaysian dollar, the United Kingdom government which was already struggling from the burden of post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

rebuilding decided to devalue the pound sterling by 14.3% against the US dollar as part of effort to improve its national competitiveness. The

Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah ( ms, ‏تونكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحاج ابن سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 8 Febru ...

took the opportunity to devalue the old Malayan dollar by 15% against the pound by and the new Malaysian dollar.

The riot

However, the protest turned violent with 27 died and 137 people injured. Conflicts emerged as some shops refused to participate in the hartal and were forced to shut down by protesters. Several cafes serving breakfast were attacked by protesters. The federal government declared a 24-hour curfew beginning 8PM on the same day to overcome the riot.

Aftermath

The federal government launched an operation coded "Operation X", which closed down the Labour Party. During the raid, the police discovered communist documents at the party headquarters, which suggested that the

Communist Party of Malaya The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from 1 ...

might have played a role in the hartal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penang Hartman riot, 1967 Riots and civil disorder in Malaysia 1967 in Malaysia 1967 protests Protests in Malaysia