Penang, the middle child

TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the first to drive across Penang Bridge, in a red generation-one Proton Saga in 1985, when he opened it. That is one of the things I remember about him in relation to Penang.

Another Mahathir-Penang episode that sticks in my head was when he visited us sometime between 1995 and 1996 and angrily named the state “Pulau Pinang Darul Sampah” (Penang, House of Rubbish). We had poor cleanliness back then.