GEORGE TOWN: Penang has dismissed Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor's demand for RM100 million a year as "lease payment" for Penang island and Seberang Prai.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the federal government also need not entertain Kedah's demands, which was over and above the existing agreement.
"We will not pay anything to Kedah. The federal government also need not entertain the state's demands, which is over and above what has been agreed upon previously," he said today.
Chow's response came in the wake of reports earlier today that Sanusi had demanded RM100 million a year as lease payment for Penang island and Seberang Prai.
Speaking to newsmen at Wisma Darul Aman today, Sanusi said he wanted the honorarium the federal government had been paying on Penang's behalf to be raised by RM90 million to RM100 million.
The honorarium was set at RM10,000 for decades but was raised to RM10 million a year by the federal government from 2018.
Sanusi said the federal government's decision to increase the honorarium to RM10 million was thanks to the Sultan of Kedah, who had brought the issue up at the Conference of Rulers.
He also said ideally, the sum should be even higher than RM100 million as Penang state's lease valuation was at least RM500 million.
He said his government would not mind settling on a figure of about RM300 million.
At the recent Kedah state assembly session, Sanusi had claimed that Penang was a state leased from Kedah and therefore should not criticise its neighbour for its affairs.
The Jeneri assemblyman had said that while he understood Penang's concerns over several major projects announced by Kedah which were thought to raise its competitiveness, it should remember that Penang was leased and that it should not interfere or criticise the affairs of the administration of Kedah.
"Penang is not a state that exists by itself. According to the history of the country, Penang is a state leased from Kedah.
"If we lease someone's land and then we become angry with the landlord, that is not appropriate," he was quoted as saying.
Sanusi had then said that as a "good neighbour" his government assured that Penang would always be peaceful and need not feel threatened.
In 2017, historian Professor Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong had said that it was not impossible for Kedah to "reclaim" Penang to be part of its territory through judiciary means.
He had said that the onus was on the court to decide whether Kedah could rightfully claim Penang under its jurisdiction, after both entities separated under a treaty signed centuries ago.
He had also said that it was for the Kedah state government to present evidence and bring up the matter to court if it was really keen to have Penang back.