Hello boys and girls, welcome to yet another episode of ‘How to Not Make History Sound Boring’, today
we’ll be touching on how the invasion of Siam has affected Kedah. Firstly, we need to know how it all
began. The Kedah Sultanate was a form of gift or more officially known as tributary state to Siam
somewhere between 1350-1767 (Ayutthaya Period). Basically, a lot of tackling and taking and more
tackling was happening between Siam and Britain which made Kedah a giant rugby ball. By 1822, there
was a rise of British territories, basically caused the Burney Treaty concluding the Siam and British Empire
in 1826. With this, the English accepted the Siamese influence over Kedah in exchange for free trade on
stocks and provisions. And somewhere in this mess the Sultan of Kedah was exiled for 20 whole years and
ended with him restored to the Sultanate in 1842 under the watchful eye of Siam. The Siamese hung
around long enough to the point that many locals could converse in Thai. You’re welcome, I just saved
you 3 pages worth of drama. I’m pretty sure the long part of this summary was told in the History or
Discovery Channel, told by some elderly Englishman, like you already know the whole thing will put you
to sleep from the way he narrates. I wish they put in some light jokes to attract the younger viewers, but
that’s just my opinion.
The birth of Malaysian Siamese was due to the Anglo-Siamese Treaty in 1909 which caused Southern
Burma and Southern Thailand to separate. The Treaty also established the modern Malaysia-Thailand
Border. By 2015, around 70K people identified themselves as Malaysian Thais and 42K of them resided in
Kedah itself. There were 2 types of Thai speakers in Kedah, Samsams (Thai speaking Malays) and the
Siamese themselves. A married B, C married D then by the 1990s at least 10 villages were Muslim Thai
speakers and the rest remained as Buddhists, therefore the existence of evergrowing Thai temples, mostly
in the districts of Pendang, Sik, Baling, Padang Terap, Kuala Muda and Kubang Pasu bringing a total of 42
Thai temples.
Fun fact of the day, did you know that most famous Malaysian Siamese people are sportsmen? Don’t ask
why but I find that interesting. But if you ever find yourself in Kedah and stumble upon a Malay that can
speak both Malay and Thai, please don’t get a total culture shock, clearly means you didn’t read this
article, I’ve already made it fun enough for you guys to read. So there you go, today’s history lesson of
Kedah, hope it was as informative and entertaining for you as it was for me writing it!