Johor Bahru
Johor Bahru is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Johor. It is the core city of Johor Bahru District, Malaysia's second-largest district by population and economy. Covering an area of 373.18 km2, Johor Bahru had a population of 858,118 people in 2020, making it the nation's largest state capital city by population. It is located at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the city-state of Singapore.
As a major financial and business centre in Malaysia, Johor Bahru is Malaysia's second best-performing city behind only Kuala Lumpur, in terms of economic competitiveness, prosperity, and ease of doing business, according to the World Bank. It has the fastest urbanisation growth and internet speed among Malaysian cities. As one of the most visited cities globally, Johor Bahru also has the world's busiest land border crossing, via the Johor-Singapore Causeway, KTM Intercity and the future RTS Link to Singapore. Johor Bahru is served by Senai International Airport and the world's 15th-busiest port, Tanjung Pelepas.
During the reign of Sultan Abu Bakar between 1886 and 1895, the city witnessed modernisation from a fishing village, with the construction of administrative centres, offices, schools, civic and religious buildings, and railways to Woodlands, Singapore. Japanese forces occupied Johor Bahru during the Pacific War. Johor Bahru thus became the post-war cradle of Malay nationalism, forming a major political party, UMNO at the Istana Besar in 1946. Granted city status in 1994, Johor Bahru is currently part of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone and Iskandar Malaysia, the nation's largest special economic zone by investment value.
Etymology
The present area of Johor Bahru was originally known as Tanjung Puteri, and was a fishing village of the Malays. Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim then renamed Tanjung Puteri to Iskandar Puteri upon his arrival to the area in 1858, after acquiring the territory from Sultan Ali. It was renamed to Johor Bahru by Sultan Abu Bakar following the Temenggong's death. The word "Bahru" means "new" in Malay; thus, Johor Bahru means "New Johor". Bahru is normally written as "baru" in English characters, today, although the word appears in other place names with several English spelling variants, such as in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, and Pekanbaru, Riau. The British preferred to write it as Johore Bahru or Johore Bharu, though the currently-accepted western spelling is Johor Bahru—''Johore is only spelt Johor, without the letter "e" at the end of the word, in the Malay language. The city's name is also spelt as Johor Baru or Johor Baharu.Johor Bahru was once known as Shantou, or "Little Swatow", by the city's Chinese community, as most of the Chinese residents are Teochew whose ancestry can be traced back to Shantou, China; they arrived in the mid-19th century, during the reign of Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim. The city, however, is generally known in Chinese as Xinshan'', meaning "New Mountain", as "mountain" may be used to mean "territory" or "land". The name "New Mountain" distinguished it from "Old Mountain", once used to refer to Kranji and Sembawang, where the Chinese first cultivated black pepper and gambier on plantations before relocating to new lands in Johor Bahru in 1855.
A further Chinese transliteration of Johor is 柔佛, literally meaning "gentle Buddha", which is for example part of the official name of Johor Bahru Old Chinese Temple.
History
Due to a dispute between the Malays and the Bugis, the Johor-Riau Sultanate was split in 1819 with the mainland portion of the Johor Sultanate coming under the control of Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim while the Riau-Lingga Sultanate came under the control of the Bugis. The Temenggong intended to create a new administration centre for the Johor Sultanate to create a dynasty under the entity of Temenggong. As the Temenggong already had a close relationship with the British and the British intended to have control over trade activities in Singapore, a treaty was signed between Sultan Ali and Temenggong Ibrahim in Singapore on 10 March 1855. According to the treaty, Ali would be crowned as the Sultan of Johor and receive $5,000 with an allowance of $500 per month. In return, Ali was required to cede the sovereignty of the territory of Johor to Temenggong Ibrahim. When both sides agreed on Temenggong acquiring the territory, he renamed it Iskandar Puteri and began to administer it from Telok Blangah in Singapore.As the area was still an undeveloped jungle, Temenggong encouraged the migration of Chinese and Javanese to clear the land and to develop an agricultural economy in Johor. The Chinese planted the area with black pepper and gambier, while the Javanese dug parit to drain water from the land, build roads and plant coconuts. During this time, a Chinese businessman, pepper and gambier cultivator, Wong Ah Fook arrived; at the same time, the Kangchu and Javanese labour contract systems were introduced by the Chinese and Javanese communities. After Temenggong's death on 31 January 1862, the town was renamed "Johor Bahru" and his position was succeeded by his son, Abu Bakar, with the administration centre in Telok Blangah being moved to the area in 1889.
British administration
In the first phase of Abu Bakar's administration, the British only recognised him as a maharaja rather than a sultan. In 1855, the British Colonial Office began to recognise his status as a Sultan after he met Queen Victoria. He managed to regain Kesang territory for Johor after a civil war with the aid of British forces and he boosted the town's infrastructure and agricultural economy. Infrastructure such as the State Mosque and Royal Palace was built with the aid of Wong Ah Fook, who had become a close patron for the Sultan since his migration during the Temenggong reign. As the Johor-British relationship improved, Abu Bakar also set up his administration under a British style and implemented a constitution known as Undang-undang Tubuh Negeri Johor. Although the British had long been advisers for the Sultanate of Johor, the Sultanate never came under direct colonial rule of the British. The direct colonial rule only came into effect when the status of the adviser was elevated to a status similar to that of a Resident in the Federated Malay States during the reign of Sultan Ibrahim in 1914.In Johor Bahru, the Malay Peninsula railway extension was finished in 1909, and in 1923 the Johor–Singapore Causeway was completed. Johor Bahru developed at a modest rate between the First and Second World Wars. The secretariat building—Sultan Ibrahim Building—was completed in 1940 as the British colonial government attempted to streamline the state's administration.
World War II
The continuous development of Johor Bahru was, however, halted when the Japanese under General Tomoyuki Yamashita invaded the town on 31 January 1942. As the Japanese had reached northwest Johor by 15 January, they easily captured major towns of Johor such of Batu Pahat, Yong Peng, Kluang and Ayer Hitam. The British and other Allied forces were forced to retreat towards Johor Bahru; however, following a further series of bombings by the Japanese on 29 January, the British retreated to Singapore and blew up the causeway the following day as a final attempt to stop the Japanese advance in British Malaya. The Japanese then used the Sultan's residence of Bukit Serene Palace located in the town as their main temporary base for their future initial plans to conquer Singapore while waiting to reconnect the causeway. The Japanese chose the palace as their main base because they already knew the British would not dare to attack it as this would harm their close relationship with Johor.File:Singapore causeway blown up.jpg|thumb|A view of the causeway, after being blown up by Allied forces as a final action to counter the Japanese advance
In less than a month, the Japanese repaired the causeway and invaded the Singapore island easily. Soon after the war ended in 1946, the town became the main hotspot for Malay nationalism in Malaya. Onn Jaafar, a local Malay politician who later became the Chief Minister of Johor, formed the United Malay National Organisation party on 11 May 1946 when the Malays expressed their widespread disenchantment over the British government's action for granting citizenship laws to non-Malays in the proposed states of the Malayan Union. An agreement over the policy was then reached in the town with Malays agreeing with the dominance of economy by the non-Malays and the Malays' dominance in political matters being agreed upon by non-Malays. Racial conflict between the Malay and non-Malays, especially the Chinese, is being provoked continuously since the Malayan Emergency.
Post-independence
After the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, Johor Bahru continued as the state capital and more development was carried out, with the town's expansion and the construction of more new townships and industrial estates. The Indonesian confrontation did not directly affect Johor Bahru as the main Indonesian landing point in Johor was in Labis and Tenang in Segamat District as well Pontian District. There was only one active Indonesian spy organisation in the town, known as Gerakan Ekonomi Melayu Indonesia. They frequently engaged with the Indonesian communities living there to contribute information for Indonesian commandos until the bombing of the MacDonald House in Singapore in 1965. By the early 1990s, the town had considerably expanded in size, and was officially granted a city status on 1 January 1994. Johor Bahru City Council was formed and the city's current main square, Johor Bahru City Square, was constructed to commemorate the event. A central business district was developed in the centre of the city from the mid-1990s in the area around Wong Ah Fook Street. The state and federal government channelled considerable funds for the development of the city—particularly more so after 2006, when the Iskandar Malaysia was formed.For more than ten years of building construction and rapid urbanisation in Johor Bahru, the city has experienced a series of property boom with many new higher-end high-rise apartments and commercial property, including The Astaka, which has been the tallest building in the city and outside Kuala Lumpur since 2018, and is one of the tallest twin towers in the world. With the gradual improvement of quality of life and infrastructure, Johor Bahru has also been ranked one of the global cities with the highest living quality, the third highest in Southeast Asia after Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, according to Mercer, as of 2024. Today, it is also Malaysia's fastest city in terms of internet speed, second only after Singapore in Southeast Asia.