Why do you think Penang is a peaceful place?

The question is not why Penang is peaceful place but what holds the people together in Penang? What keeps Penang from exploding into a full blown racial confrontation. The answer is in who is asking. Is it a local asking this question or is it a foreigner, is it a rich well to do independently wealthy that is asking the question or is it the oppressed poor. The answers are relative depending on the questioner and based on their observations on a period of time. For the transient random enquirers like a foreign journalist of tourist who drop by and having spent a few weeks or months on the island Penang is a peaceful place or so it seems, however when one had been born and lived here most of one's life the answers are not so positive as one would like to believe..
Penang's wealth lies in her mixed cultural heritage with the three predominant culture of Malays, Chnese and Indians having existed alongside each other as its its main showcase. From all over the world people who have had the opportunity to visit this island have been amazed at how peaceful it seems this spirit of co-existence that has lasted with very few minor frictions for the past 57 odd years since the country had achieved its independance, Penang has become a model of social harmony in the eyes of the world or so it seems.
having been born in 1949 a few years before the independance I fell very fortunate to have lived through the past 6 decades of changes that this country has been through. My father from Sri Lanka and mother from Medan, in Sumatra, I can only call myself a Malaysian although most of my life i have identified my life to that of a Malay from growing up in a predominanatly Malay Village of Kampung Selut, Sungai Pinang, located on what was once the outskirts of Georgetown. This village is long gone and it is doubtful that the younger generation today living in the area even remember the old name of Kampung Selut or Muddy Village. Today the area is very much part of the Georgetown City limits.
A little bit of personal experiences from historical perspective on how or what it was like in those days as far as racial harmony went between the three various racial groups. The Kampung Selut was almost one hundred percent Malay except for two Indian families and a Chinese grocery store located across the main street from the village. The village is enclosed by two streets intersecting one another, that of what used to be called River Road and that of what is today the Sungai Pinang road on one side while on the other runs the Jelutong road. The Sungai Pinang River runs one one side thus enclosing it all around. In the fifties to the sixties the village existed as a cluster of thatched housed built high on stilts standing soem six feet above the ground. This was because the village was located in a mangrove type swamp land where the salt water at hightide can reach the floor even at six feet! Hence the name Kampung Selut or Muddy Village as the village eixsted in a mud hole practically.
To be continued...