PETALING JAYA, July 3 — A statue of the British coloniser Francis Light has been defaced by vandals in Penang.

George Town OCPD assistant commissioner Soffian Santong told The Star that the monument was found splashed with red paint by Fort Cornwallis’ operation manager, who lodged a police report yesterday.

"We received a report on the statue being vandalised and defaced with red paint. 

"Police are investigating the case, which has been classified under Section 427 of the Penal Code for committing mischief,” he was quoted as saying.

The vandals could face a jail term between one and five years, a fine, or both if found guilty.

The issue became a hot topic on Twitter on July 1 after user @AntifaM3 tweeted out images of Light’s defaced statue.

"Finally in 2020, the statue of a coloniser and slave owner named Francis Light in Penang, Malaysia meets the same fate as other statues around the world,” the user wrote.

@AntifaM3 was likely referring to Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States and Europe who tore down and defaced monuments of known slave owners and colonialists as a political statement denouncing racism.

It’s still unclear if the vandals in Penang were trying to express a similar sentiment with their actions.

A post on The Thrifty Traveller blog shows a transcript of Light’s will at the Penang state museum, which states that he did own slaves and bequeathed them to his partner Martina Rozells.

"I leave all my Caffree slaves the following choice, either to remain with Martina during her life she being willing to maintain them or each man to pay her 50 dollars and be free,” Light wrote in the document.

Light is best known for founding the British colony of Penang in 1786 and was a prominent representative of the British East India Company.

His acquisition of Penang from Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah allowed the British to expand rapidly into the Malay states and accelerate British colonisation in Southeast Asia as a whole.

Light’s statue in Fort Cornwallis was erected in 1936 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of George Town.

The Star wrote that the monument has been cleaned since the vandalism incident but remnants of red paint remain visible.