Janda Baik


Janda Baik is a village in Bentong District, Pahang, Malaysia. It is about 45 km from Kuala Lumpur, and at elevation of 800 meters. The village was estimated to have a population of around 2,820 in 2019.
The village was first settled by three villagers in 1930 whom they move out from Bentong which was flooded in 1926 to a location with higher elevation. Since then, more villagers have settled in this village and this area was frequently visited by Sultan of Pahang.
While the main economy was previously only agriculture, in recent years, Janda Baik are now focused on electronics industry and tourism. The location are also popular among families, corporation and association who choose this location as their retreat place due to the nature of peace and tranquility, while it is also popular among cyclists and trail runners due to challenging nature of the hills and good scenery view.

History

Foundation and etymology

Prior to the foundation of Janda Baik, this area was mostly resided by group of Orang Asli tribes. Janda Baik was founded in 1930 when some residents moved their home from Bentong to an area with higher elevation due to the 1926 floods that flooded Bentong and other low elevation area. The earliest founder for this village is Haji Deris, Haji Kadir dan Haji Yasir, where they build the hut and stayed in this village for nearly a week before others start moving into this village and become populated. The village was given name Kampung Tiga Haji at that time which refers to the name of these three early settlers.
The rising numbers of population in Janda Baik has caught attention of Abu Bakar of Pahang, the Sultan of Pahang, who make his first visit on this village in 1932 and Sultan stated that he do not recognize this name as the name for this village and requested for this village to be renamed. Residents then told the Sultan that Orang Asli tribes had previously settled here and doing agriculture activity by planting paddy and fruits.
However, an argument between Tok Batin Wok, the Orang Asli chief, with his wife, Siah, had caused both to be separated until a month later when Siah returned to Batin Wok’s house and reunited. The news about reunion between them has the Orang Asli want this village to be renamed Janda Baik as a reference to their reunion and was accepted by Sultan of Pahang hence it was renamed to Janda Baik. Janda refers to divorcee, while Baik refers to the word Balik which refers to the divorcee returns to this village.
Another reason Janda Baik was chosen as the village name is that the widow had help treated Pahang army who are injured during their participation of civil war in Selangor returned to their base in Pahang. While they on the way back to their base, they passing by the village for a rest, then the widow inside the village come and saw some of the people are wounded so she offered help to provide medicine to treat the injured people. Because of this, the village was given name Janda Baik to honor her kindness, where in Malay language, Janda means widow and Baik means good.
Inside the village there used to have an island called Pulau Santap where it was located on the middle of the big stream which were enjoyed by Sultan of Pahang as his cool and relaxing place, hence the name Santap refers to eating in Malay language. The island was ceased to exist due to erosion caused by the recent developments.

Post-independence

Janda Baik started gained its popularity after the late Tan Sri Muhammad Ghazali Shafie, the former Foreign Affairs Minister of Malaysia survived the Cessna 206 air crash on January 11, 1982 in Janda Baik while he was on the way to Kuala Lipis to attend UMNO division committee meeting. The greatest fear of the Malaysian government at that moment was that a Federal Government's Minister could be captured by communist guerillas. While he survived with only slight injuries as he fell on bamboo, other person on-board such as co-pilot and chief flying inspector of Royal Selangor Flying Club Vergis Chacko and his bodyguard Charon Daan was killed in this crash.
As Kuala Lumpur has become more crowded and congested, a proposal has been made to build new administrative center known as Putrajaya and relocate the administrative buildings and offices away from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya. In 1990, the government has listed six possible places to build Putrajaya, one is at Janda Baik, while another one is at North West Rawang, Perang Besar and Sepang Coast in Selangor, Kenaboi Plains and North Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan. The latter preferred the site in Perang Besar, Selangor instead due to better connectivity and less impact on local communities, hence Janda Baik was not chosen as the Putrajaya site.
In August 2019, villagers protested further development of ecotourism in this area which were silently implemented by authorities without resident’s consent, stating that development of eco-tourism will eroding cultural and traditional values, and will disrupt villager’s life. The residents insist that authorities should focused on improving the road conditions and clean the river instead.

Economy

Most early residents earned their living by agricultural activities through small rubber plantations and paddy cultivation mainly because Janda Baik is blessed with a rich natural network of rivers. In addition, farmers do also plant bananas on paddy fields as well. However, due to lack of maintenance of paddy fields, the yields declined rapidly and was overgrown by Imperata cylindrica grass. About 55% of the residents surveyed identified as farmers in 2001.
In recent years, some people had moved from urban area to Janda Baik to setting up farming business, aside the cooling climate and escaping from urban’s life. Those vegetables were then sold not just to customers, but also restaurants in Janda Baik. Figs plantation which are become common in Janda Baik would also set for become next tourist attraction in Janda Baik.
Electronics industry occurs in Janda Baik when Elektrisola, a German-based electronics corporation, opened its factory on 1990 that focused on manufacturing copper wires and litz wires to support fast growing Asian market and economy, and has created 1,000 jobs for residents of Janda Baik and nearby. 90% of these products produced here are then exported to Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Sports and recreation

In recent years, Janda Baik has become popular spots for cyclists and trail runners. Cyclists often ride to Janda Baik due to the challenging nature of the hill elevation, great scenery and plenty of great cuisines provided at variety restaurants in this village. The village is also popular for trail running due to good scenery view and hilly slopes. Aside this, Janda Baik do offers other sporting facilities to visitors such as swimming pool, paintball and ATV.
In addition, families, companies and associations tend to choose Janda Baik as their retreats place due to the nature of peace and tranquility. Families typically will be having picnic or camping around the riverside.