Perak

Perak (Malay pronunciation: [peˈraÊ"]; Jawi: ڨيرق,), one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in Peninsular Malaysia. It borders Kedah and the Thai Yala Province to the north; Penang to the northwest; Kelantan and Pahang to the east; Selangor to the south, and the Straits of Malacca to the west.

The state's administrative capital of Ipoh was known historically for tin-mining activities until the price of the metal dropped, severely affecting the state's economy. The royal capital, however remains at Kuala Kangsar, where the palace of the Sultan of Perak is located.

The Arabic honorific of Perak is Darul Ridzuan ("Abode of Grace").

Name

The state's official name is Perak Darul Ridzuan (Jawi: ڨيرق دار الرÙ'ضوان), or "Perak, the Abode of Grace". Perak means silver in Malay, which is probably derived from the silvery colour of tin. In the 1890s, Perak, with the richest alluvial deposits of tin in the world was one of the jewels in the crown of the British Empire. However, some say the name comes from the "glimmer of fish in the water" that sparkled like silver. Darul Ridzuan is the state's Arabic honorific, and can mean either "land" or "abode" of grace.

History

Legend tells of a Hindu-Malay Kingdom called Gangga Negara in the northwest of Perak. Archaeological discoveries indicate that Perak was inhabited since prehistoric times.

The modern history of Perak began with the fall of the Malacca Sultanate. Raja Muzaffar Shah, (the eldest son of the last Sultan of Melaka, Sultan Mahmud Shah) fled the Portuguese conquest of 1511 and established his own dynasty on the banks of the Sungai Perak (Perak River) in 1528. Being rich in tin ore deposits, the dominion was under almost continuous threat from outsiders.

Dutch colonialism

The Dutch attempted to control the tin trade in the 17th century, and built defensive forts at the mouth of the Perak River and on Pulau Pangkor.

Early history recorded the arrival in Perak of the Dutch in 1641, when they captured the Straits of Malacca and controlled tin-ore and spice trading. However, the Dutch attempt to monopolise the tin-ore trading in Perak by influencing Sultan Muzaffar Syah failed. They then turned to Sultanah Tajul Alam Safiatuddin, the Sultan of Aceh, to seek permission to trade in Perak, which forced the Sultan of Perak to sign a treaty, allowing the Dutch to build their plant in Kuala Perak on 15 August 1650. This did not go down well with the aristocracy of Perak.

In 1651, Temenggung and the people of Perak attacked and destroyed the Dutch plant. The Dutch were forced to leave their base in Perak. The Dutch sent a representative to Perak in 1655 to renew the earlier agreement and to seek compensation for the loss of their plant. The Perak government however did not honour the treaty and was thus surrounded by the Dutch; in retaliation, the people of Perak, Aceh, and Ujung Salang, launched a surprise attack on the Dutch.

In 1670, the Dutch returned to Perak to build Kota Kayu, now known as Kota Belanda ("Dutch Fortress"), on Pangkor Island. Perak agreed to the construction because of news that the Kingdom of Siam would be attacking the state. Nevertheless, in 1685, Perak once again attacked the Dutch on Pangkor Island, forcing them to retreat and close their headquarters. The Dutch attempted to negotiate for a new treaty, but failed.

British colonialism

In the 19th century, the Bugis, Acehnese, and the Siamese were all attempted to invade Perak, and only British intervention in 1820 prevented Siam from annexing Perak. Although the British were initially reluctant to establish a colonial presence in Malaya, increasing investment in the tin mines brought a great influx of Chinese immigrants, including Foo Ming, who formed rival clan groups allied with Malay chiefs and local gangsters which all fought for control of the mines. The Perak Sultanate was unable to maintain order as it was embroiled in a protracted succession crisis, .

In her book The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither (published 1892 G.P. Putnam's Sons), Victorian traveller and adventurer Isabella Lucy Bird (1831â€"1904) describes how Raja Muda Abdullah (as he then was) turned to his friend in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching. Tan, together with an English merchant in Singapore, drafted a letter to Governor Sir Andrew Clarke which Abdullah signed. The letter expressed Abdullah's desire to place Perak under British protection, and "to have a man of sufficient abilities to show (him) a good system of government." In 1874, the Straits Settlements governor Sir Andrew Clarke convened a meeting on Pulau Pangkor, at which Sultan Abdullah was installed on the throne of Perak in preference to his rival, Sultan Ismail. This Pangkor Treaty also required that the Sultan of Perak accept a British Resident, a post granted wide administrative powers.

In 1875, various Perak chiefs assassinated the British Resident James W. W. Birch, resulting in the short-lived Perak War of 1876. Sultan Abdullah was exiled to the Seychelles, and the British installed a new ruler. The new resident, Sir Hugh Low, was well-versed in the Malay language and local customs, and proved to be a more capable administrator. He also introduced the first rubber trees in Malaya. Perak joined Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang to form the Federated Malay States in 1896. However, the British Resident system persisted until the Malayan Union was established in 1948. Perak (as a component of the Federation of Malaya) gained its independence from the British on 31 August 1957.

Administration

Constitutional monarchy

Under the laws of the Constitution of Perak, Perak is a constitutional monarchy, with a constitutional hereditary ruler. The current Sultan of Perak is Raja Sultan Nazrin Shah, the 35th Sultan of Perak. He was appointed as the new Sultan on 29 May 2014. The preceding Sultan was Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah, who was the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia and formerly the Lord President of the Supreme Court of Malaysia who died on 28 May 2014.

State Government

The Perak State Legislative Assembly (Malay: Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak) is the unicameral state legislature of the state of Perak. It is composed of 59 members representing single-member districts throughout the state. Elections are held no more than five years apart.

The current Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) is Dato' Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir who is representative of the Barisan Nasional, the governing political party that commands the support of majority of members of the State Legislative Assembly.

Following the opposition coalition winning Perak in the 2008 general election, Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) was appointed as the new Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the state eventually, although the Democratic Action Party (DAP) won the most seats compared to other opposition parties. The Menteri Besar did not come from the Chinese-dominant party as the state constitution states that the Chief Minister must be a Muslim, unless the Sultan specially appoints a non-Muslim Chief Minister. As DAP does not have any Muslim assemblymen, if the Sultan insists that the Chief Minister must be a Muslim, then the assemblymen would have to come from either Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) or PAS, which formed the coalition state government with DAP. On 3 February 2009, Barisan Nasional, the national ruling party, gained control over the state government, after the defections of three Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen. However, several cases have been filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court challenging the validity of the new Barisan Nasional government, causing a constitutional crisis. Adding to this crisis is the fact that the Pakatan Rakyat Menteri Besar has refused to resign and states that he is still the legal Menteri Besar until he is removed through vote of no confidence or snap election.

Administrative divisions

Perak is divided into 10 administrative districts which are further divided into local administrative Municipal councils. The following is a list of the 10 administrative districts in terms of population.

Map

Please note that the districts of Kerian and Larut, Matang dan Selama have been wrongly labelled in the map on the right. Both districts are in the northwest corner of the state. Kerian district is in the west and Larut, Matang dan Selama is in the east.

Perak constitutional crisis

In February 2009, Barisan Nasional retook Perak State Assembly from the Pakatan Rakyat government, after the defections of Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang), Jamaluddin Mohd. Radzi (Behrang) and Mohd. Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) to Barisan Nasional as independent assemblymen. The Sultan of Perak dismissed the Pakatan Rakyat government but refused to dissolve the state assembly and thus trigger new elections. Amid multiple protests, lawsuits and arrests, a new Barisan Nasional-led State Assembly was sworn in on 7 May, but the takeover was ruled illegal by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on 11 May 2009, restoring power to the Pakatan Rakyat. However immediately on the next day, the court of appeal suspended the judgement of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur pending a new judgement from the court of appeal, and followed by 22 May 2009, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court's decision and returned power back to the Barisan Nasional. Many supporters of the opposition party, DAP, claim that the crisis was effectively a 'power grab'.

Demographics

Once Malaysia's most populous state, Perak has yet to recover from the decline of the tin mining industry. The economic downturn resulted in massive manpower drain to higher-growth states such as Penang, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Perak's population grew at an annual rate of 0.4% as follows:

• 2001: 2,051,236
• 2006: 2,283,000
• 2010: 2,258,428 (official 2010 census)

The ethnic composition of the population in 2001 was:

• Bumiputera: 1,101,105 (53.68%)
• Chinese: 643,129 (31.35%)
• Indians: 262,121 (12.78%)
• Other ethnicity: 6,536 (0.32%), including 2,080 Thai
• Non-citizens: 38,345 (1.87%)

The population breakdown in 2010 was:

• Bumiputera: 1,360,506 (55.74%)
• Chinese: 702,170 (28.77%)
• Indians: 296,600 (12.15%)
• Other ethnicity: 8,842 (0.36%)
• Non-citizens: 72,751 (2.98%)

In 2010, the religious make-up of residents in Perak was:

• Muslims: 55.3%
• Buddhists: 25.4%
• Hindu: 10.9%
• Christians: 4.3%
• Taoists, or followers of other Chinese folk religion: 1.7%
• Followers of other religions: 1.5%
• Non-religious: 0.9%

Geography

Perak covers an area of 21,035 km² (8,122 sq mi), making up 6.4 percent of total land banks in Malaysia. It is the second largest Malaysian state in the Malay Peninsula, and the fourth in the whole of Malaysia.

The longest river in Perak is the Perak River (Malay: Sungai Perak), it originates in the mountains at the Perak-Kelantan-Thailand border, and empties into the Strait of Malacca. It is the second largest river in Peninsular Malaysia, behind the Pahang River.

Climate

Perak's days are warm and sunny, while its nights are cool the whole year through, with occasional rains in the evenings. Temperature is fairly constant, that is, from 23 °C to 33 °C, with humidity often more than 82.3 percent. Annual rainfall measures at 3,218 mm.

Economy

Perak was one of Malaysia's wealthiest states during Malaya's colonial period, as much of Malaya's mineral deposits were situated here. The tin industry here subsequently flourished under the auspices of the British fuelled by the ongoing Industrial Revolution then. The global tin industry collapsed in the 1980s, subsequently forcing the closure of many local tin mines concurrently crippling Perak’s economy.

This turn of events led the local state government to diversify the economy's base towards commodity-based manufacturing. The mid-1980s witnessed a large influx of electronics SMEs from Taiwan to Silibin and Jelapang industrial estates, but these have relocated to China in the 1990s as a result of outsourcing. A local car manufacturing hub called Proton City at Tanjung Malim has been developed with the establishment of state-of-the-art car manufacturing facilities, it is the largest manufacturer of Proton cars. However, the economy has never fully recovered from the decline of the tin industry.

Agriculture is also one of Perak's main industries, especially those concerning rubber, coconut and palm oil. Tourism is a growing industry given the state's abundant natural attractions.

Perak is set to become the second state (after Kelantan) to introduce the gold dinar and silver dirham as official currency.

Tourism

Ipoh, the state capital, is legendary for silky soup noodles called 'Sar Hor Fun' and Hainanese chicken rice. Tambun pomelo, the most popular fruit in Perak, is another tropical delight.

The Lost World of Tambun theme park is surrounded by a 400 million-year-old limestone mountain, and includes a 175-room hotel.

Kuala Kangsar, just 48 km north of Ipoh on the Perak River, is the royal town. It is dominated by three buildings: Istana Iskandariah, Istana Kenangan and the Ubudiah Mosque. The Istana Iskandariah, located on a hill overlooking the river, is the palace of the Sultan of Perak. Istana Kenangan, which was constructed as a temporary residence during the Iskandariah's construction is known for its beautiful architecture. The Ubudiah Mosque is an impressive structure topped with a constellation of bright golden domes.

Perak State Museum is located in Taiping, and is the oldest museum in Malaysia.

Kellie's Castle is located in Batu Gajah. It was built in 1915 and was never completed as the owner William Kellie Smith returned to England and died there. The castle is perched on top of a hill in what used to be a rubber estate. The castle was once believed to be haunted, with many secret rooms and a hidden tunnel. Today, it is opened as a tourist attraction.

Gua Tempurung is located between Gopeng and Kampar. It was believed to be one of the oldst place in Perak. During peak season, it is packed with locals and tourists.

Accessible from Lumut, the Pangkor Island holds a mix of quaint fishing settlements and white beaches decked with rich vegetation. The warm waters are perfect for swimming and diving, while the atmosphere is relaxing. Many resorts are available for accommodation on this popular island. Pangkor's two popular beach areas are Pasir Bogak and Teluk Nipah which offer ocean activities such as scuba-diving, snorkelling, wind-surfing and fishing. Teluk Ketapang (Turtle Bay) still receives turtles on their egg-laying pilgrimages.

A beautiful white water rafting location in Perak is at My Gopeng Resort (Gopeng). White water rafting (Grade 3), waterfall abseiling, rafflesia's flower trekking, jungle trekking and others adventures are part of the joy of visiting Perak.

Beside rafting, many are admired by Gaharu Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng a kind of Agarwood which can be processed as tea. Rumor has it that whoever captures picture with the tall King Wood will bring in a windfall. Hong Kong famous director Raymond Wong Bak-Ming believed had a very close relationship with the farm owner.

The Belum-Temengor Forest Reserve is one of the largest untouched forest reserves in the peninsula, with exotic mammals such as elephants, rhinoceroses, tapirs and tigers. Guided tours are available for visitors to immerse in the immense wealth of flora and fauna.

The Sungai Klah Hot Spring Park uniquely offers a specially designed free-flowing hot springs swimming pool and therapeutic park at the foothill of the Titiwangsa Range, 200 feet above sea level. Visitors can enjoy a scenic view of oil palm plantations and durian orchards amidst a haven of tranquility. Visitors can also experience hot springs egg boiling.

Founded in 1844, Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill) is the wettest place in Malaysia, with an annual rainfall of over 500 cm. The hill boasts of spectacular views on a clear day where the peninsular coastline and the Straits of Malacca are visible, sometimes stretching as far as Penang to the north and Pangkor Island to the south.

The Taiping Lake Gardens was built on top of an abandoned tin mine, and opened in 1880, the first public garden in Malaya. Spread over 64 hectares, the lake has ten scenic lakes and ponds, a lotus pool, charming bridges, tracks for jogging and reflexology, a roller skating rink, paddleboat rides, and a playground, all surrounded by tropical plants, flowers, trees and wildlife.

Transportation

Railway

The railway service is undergoing major upgrading with the advent of electrified trains running on double tracks from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. Ipoh Railway Station is an imposing structure in the city centre. Built in the Moorish style, this white structure, nicknamed the Taj Mahal of Ipoh, was completed in 1935 to replace the original railway platform shed built in 1917. The Ipoh railway station is said to be the second most beautiful railway station in Malaysia after the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station. It is located on Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab.

Education

There are a number of higher education institutions in Perak. Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College have it branch campus at Kampar, while Universiti Teknologi Petronas has it main campus at Seri Iskandar.

Cuisine

Lemang, a Malay delicacy made from glutinous rice cooked in a bamboo tube over slow fire is a must-have during the festivities such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Hari Raya Haji, especially along with some rendang. Some say lemang originated from the indigenous people who cook their rice using bamboo.

Tempoyak is another popular Malay delicacy. It is durian extract which is preserved and kept in an urn. Commonly eaten with chillies and other dishes, it is well known due to the popularity of its key ingredient, durian, among the locals.

See also

• Perak royal mausoleum

Literature

• Isabella Lucy Bird. The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither. (1892). G.P. Putnam's Sons.
• Barbara Watson Andaya. Perak, the Abode of Grace. (1979). East Asian Historical Monographs. ISBN 978-0-19-580385-3
• John Frederick Adolphus McNair. Perak and the Malays. (1878). Cornell University Library. ISBN 978-1-4297-4312-9
• Raja Bilah and the Mandailings in Perak: 1875-1911. MBRAS Monograph Series, No. 35. (2003). ISBN 967-9948-31-5

References

External links

• Perak State Government's Official Website
• State Agency ICT Company
• Department of His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Perak in handling and managing all the activities of Perak's State Ruler
• Perak page on the official portal of the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia