The 1967 Penang Hartal riot (Malay: Hartal Pulau Pinang 1967), initially intended as a peaceful protest began on 24 November 1967. However, the 1967 Hartal escalated into a bloody situation of heightened racial tension which turned the relatively peaceful holiday island into a deserted, cowboy town. The protest was even cited as one of the major events which might have prepared the grounds for the 1969 racial riots Twenty years earlier, the all-Malaya hartal shut down the whole Malay peninsula.