Manjung District

View of Dindings taken from a hill in Pulau Pangkor, 1874.

Prior to 1973 the district was called Dindings. It used to be part of the Straits Settlements, then under the administration of Penang. Dindings district became part of the Pangkor Treaty signed by Britain, and the British appointed Sultan of Perak Sultan Abdullah, in January 1874. This agreement was signed to stop the bloodshed resulting from two major events, the struggle for the throne between relatives of Perak royalty on the death of Sultan Ali, and Chinese clan wars between Ghee Hin and Hai San to grab tin mining areas in late colonial Taiping.[5]

The agreement required the Sultan of Perak to surrender Dindings to the British, to accept a British Resident, James W. W. Birch, and the appointment of an assistant resident in Taiping, Captain Tristram Speedy. Sultan Ismail was to step down from the throne of Perak.

During the British colonial era, colonial Dindings comprised three main areas: Sitiawan, Lumut and Pangkor Island.

Dindings Agreement (Approval) Act 1934
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to approve an agreement made on behalf of His Majesty with the Sultan of Perak.
Citation	24 & 25 Geo. 5. c. 55
Dates
Royal assent	16 November 1934
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973
Status: Repealed

The British had hoped that Dindings would prove to be a valuable natural harbour. However, this did not become the case.[6] In 1935, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Iskandar Alang successfully appealed to the British for the return of Dindings to Perak. The Perak government united the former colony with Bruas and coastal areas to the south, forming the Dindings district. In 1973, Dindings district was given its current name, Manjung.

On 24 April 2009, Lumut was declared by the Sultan Perak as the Royal Malaysian Navy's Town – or simply called as TLDM Town or Navy Town. Manjung also was declared as "Bandar Pelancongan Dan Maritim" (Tourism and Maritime Town) by government of Perak.

In August 2016, Sembilan Island was separated from Manjung District and incorporated into Bagan Datuk District.[7]

Map of Manjung district

Manjung District is divided into five mukims:[8][9]

• Beruas
• Lekir
• Lumut
• Pengkalan Baharu
• Sitiawan

Manjung district is divided to two parliamentary constituencies with the northern part of district is under Beruas constituency while southern part is part of Lumut constituency. As of 2022, there were 201,345 voters in both the parliament seats combined.

The following is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020 census.[3]

Manjung has numerous schools, with 24 Chinese primary schools and five Chinese secondary schools in the district. Of these, five schools were founded by Ong Seok Kim.[12] They are SJK (C) Chung Cheng,[13] Sitiawan in 1920; SMJK Nan Hwa[14] (which split into Sekolah Tinggi Nan Hwa, Ayer Tawar Road in 1984) in 1935; SJK (C) Ping Min,[15] Lumut in 1951; and SMJK Dindings,[16] Lumut in 1953. Ong Seok Kim died in 1964. The following year, the Manjung community established the Ong Seok Kim Memorial Education Fund in his honour. The fund offers scholarships and loans to students in the Manjung District, irrespective of ethnicity.[17] All school are under the administration of district education office.

The public transportation servicing the Manjung area are public buses in the Seri Manjung and Lumut bus stations.

Manjung district is accessible via Route 5, Route 60, Ipoh-Lumut Highway and West Coast Expressway.

There are two small airfields located in Sitiawan and Pangkor but both of them are unused.

The main public healthcare centre serving Manjung is Hospital Seri Manjung, Hospital Angkatan Tentera in Lumut. Besides this, there are numerous clinics in the surrounding region such as in Sitiawan, Ayer Tawar, Pulau Pangkor, Pantai Remis, Beruas, Lekir. A new hospital opened in 2014, Pantai Hospital Seri Manjung. There is also KPJ Manjung.

Columbia Asia Hospital in Sitiawan will replace the earlier proposed Goodhope Specialist Hospital, Sitiawan which was abandoned in January 2014. This project was then abandoned.

Malaya in 1922 with the Straits Settlements, including Dinding, in red

The major economic sectors in Manjung are agriculture, manufacturing and the services industries. Agriculture is the main economic sector, making up the majority of the population's employment. Manjung is well known for its livestock production, especially poultry. Sea fishing and fish/prawn farming are the most important economic activities for some community members. At least 5,000 residents are fishermen. Farming of fresh-water fish and prawns are being carried out thoroughly in the district. There are more than 300 ponds of prawns in operation. The most popular prawn farming area is along Dinding River.

Manjung District has become the fastest growing district in the state of Perak. Property prices are seeing increases of over 15% in the past few years. In terms of growth of commercial sector, Manjung is the second fastest growing district in the state, with 5,947 developed units or 13.32%.[20] Many of these businesses and industries are located along the roads connecting Sitiawan, Seri Manjung, Lumut and Ayer Tawar. Industrial and commercial activities are also present in other smaller, neighboring towns such as Beruas, Pantai Remis, Pekan Gurney, Lekir and Changkat Kuring.

Businesses in Manjung include wholesale, groceries and services. There are also informal activities such as settled hawkers (1,029 which cover 11.00%) and itinerant hawkers (1,092 which cover 11.00%) in Manjung district.

Of all the business activities here, services contribute about 72.30% of all the commercial activities. The groceries sector is the second largest commercial activity, covering 24.40% (1,449 unit), while wholesale activities cover the remaining portion, with about 3.40%.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manjung District.

• Districts of Malaysia

• Rancangan Tempatan Daerah Perak Tengah 2030