Baling District


The Baling District is an administrative district in southeastern Kedah, Malaysia. Located about 110 km from Alor Setar, it borders Perak and Betong, the southernmost town of Thailand.

Name

The name Baling can be traced to a series of events detailed in the story of Raja Bersiong, a popular legend of Kedah, recorded in the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. Raja Bersiong was a ruthless vampire-like king with a taste for human blood who preyed on his subjects. His subjects finally rose against him and burned down the palace. When the fanged king fled his palace at the Old Kedah capital in Lembah Bujang, he fled to a place named Merbau and began removing his fangs by twisting them by hand. As a result of the twisting act, Merbau was renamed as Merbau Pulas where pulas in Malay means twisting.
After the king had successfully removed both his fangs, he threw them away to a faraway place. The place where he stood when he threw his fangs is known as Baling which means throw and the place believed to be the site where the fangs landed was named Siong, which means fang in Malay, one of the villages in Baling district.
The name Baling is also from Thai language "Ba Taling".

History

Baling was also the site where the leaders of the Malay Races Liberation Army, the newly formed Malayan Government, and the British met in 1955 to try to end the Malayan Emergency. Tunku Abdul Rahman, a leader of the Malayan government, implored the Communists to give up their arms peacefully by promising that no retaliatory action would be taken against them. The MRLA leader Chin Peng expressed skepticism of a pardon promised by the leader of a nation that had yet to gain its independence. Chin Peng insisted that the Malayan government and the British endorse the MRLA as a legal Communist Party so that it could run in the forthcoming elections. This was denied, however, and thus no agreement was reached.
The towns that Baling has are Kuala Ketil, Parit Panjang, Tawar, Kuala Pegang, Kupang, Baling, Kg Lalang and Kota Baling Jaya Batu 42.
One of the small towns in Baling is Parit Panjang. Parit Panjang is situated at the junction of four main roads. The roads are from Kuala Ketil, from Batu Lima,,and from Baling Town via Asam Jawa and from Baling via Kuala Pegang. Parit Panjang situated 13 km from Kuala Ketil and 25 km from Sungai Petani. There are six villages in Parit Panjang. The villages are Kg Banggol Berangan, Kg Sungai Tembak, Kg Carok Bakap, Kg Bukit Endoi, Kg Tandop Pisang and Kg Lanai.
In Kampung Pisang, Kupang, there is an Islamic religious school, Sekolah Menengah Agama Yayasan Khairiah. Yayasan Khairiah is one of the biggest religious school in Baling. Now it has about 1700 students coming from all over Malaysia.

Administrative divisions

Baling District is divided into 8 mukims, which are:
The district is administered by the Baling District Council.

Federal Parliament and State Assembly Seats


List of Baling district representatives in the Federal Parliament


ParliamentSeat NameMember of ParliamentParty
P16BalingAbdul Azeez Abdul RahimBarisan Nasional



List of Baling district representatives in the State Legislative Assembly of Kedah


ParliamentStateSeat NameState AssemblymanParty
P16N30BayuAbd. Nasir IdrisGagasan Sejahtera
P16N31KupangDatuk Najmi Haji AhmadGagasan Sejahtera
P16N32Kuala KetilKapt. Mansor Haji ZakariaGagasan Sejahtera

Transportation

Baling is the gateway to the East Coast for Kedah and Penang motorists, as the highways 4 and 67 run across this constituency. Baling is also the northern end of Highway 76 which begins in Kuala Kangsar in Perak and connects to the border town of Pengkalan Hulu.