Bukit Mertajam: The Mount That Decides Borders
By Eugene Quah
June 2025 COVER STORY
“KEEP YOUR PISTOL cocked and ready, tuan, when you see me uncover my kris, as we pass through the blukar (scrub), for many a man have I known to be set upon here...” warned Oamut [Ahmad] to James Turnbull Thompson as they made their way back to British territory.The travel companions were a retired Malay soldier who served in the Ceylon[1] Rifle Corp and a young land surveyor employed by his relative, David Wardlaw Brown of Gelugor, to survey the...
Eugene Quah
is an independent researcher and writer who is working on a book tentatively called “Illustrated Guide to the North Coast of Penang”. He rediscovered the joys of writing after moving back to Penang from abroad.
