Pekan Gurney or Gurney's Town is a small town in

Manjung District The Manjung District, formerly Dindings, is a district in the southwestern part of the state of Perak, Malaysia. The district is well known for Pangkor Island, an attraction in Perak and the home of the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM), Lumut Naval Ba ...

Perak Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The town was founded in 1952 and named after Sir Henry Gurney, a former

British High Commissioner in Malaya In 1896, the post of High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States was created; the High Commissioner represented the British Government in the Federated Malay States, a federation of four British protected states in Malaya. The High Commissi ...

History

This Chinese settlement began in the early 1900s with mainly Fuzhounese (Foochow) migrants. There was a small presence of Hinghwas and Indians. They were mainly rubber tappers, pig farmers and paddy planters. This place which originally known Simpang Tiga because it's the third junction leading towards the Sungei Wangi Estate. There is a cross road in the heart of the settlement, a through road from Simpang Dua leading through to Simpang Lima. The other cross road had led to Sungei Wangi Estate on one end and to another abandoned settlement on the other end. During the Japanese occupation, many residents fled into the jungle, farming, fishing and hunting to provide food for their families. A number of these people provided opposition to the Japanese and many were hunted down, taken away, never to return. After the Japanese occupation, many moved back into the settlement. Most of the residents were sympathetic to the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

. A number of the local leaders, Ding Lean Kea, Ting Toh Ming were murdered by Malayan Communist Party (MCP). Early one morning around 2 am, 1950, a band of MCP members surrounded the commercial area, comprising mainly shops, shot in the air and threw lighted gunny sacks soaked in kerosene on to the roofs of these shops razing the shops to the ground within hours. This was the MCP punishment for their non cooperation to the MCP's cause. However, it could be argued that the settlers had very little left to spare after the Japanese occupation. The Japanese "Banana" currency was declared worthless immediately after the Japanese surrender. The one hourly bus service to Kampong Koh was disrupted when the bus was burnt. A private taxi was shot. Rubber trees were slashed. The MCP has also used "soft" tactics. Members would approach rubber tappers individually trying gentle persuasion to get them on their side. In 1952, British Military Administration tore down all houses and shelters in the area and resettled the population in a barbed wired area about away. This was part of the Briggs Plan to starve the MCP into surrender. The new town was named Pekan Gurney in honour of Henry Gurney, the British High Commissioner. It had two Chinese schools for a short while. Unfortunately, one of the schools which fell outside of the fenced area had to close. All its students and staff were moved into San Ming Primary school. The township has two churches, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

and the Church of Dindings.

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...

is also present. Every year, the hungry ghost festival is celebrated on a grand scale with

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

s, fire walking etc. When numbers betting came into vogue, there were at least one medium in active service.

References

{{Reflist Manjung District Towns in Perak