District (Malay: Daerah; Jajahan in Kelantan) is a type of administrative division below the state level in Malaysia.
In Peninsular Malaysia, a district is a subdivision of a state. A mukim is a subdivision of a district. The mukim is however of less importance with respect to the administration of land.
In East Malaysia, a district is a subdivision of a division of a state. For example, Tuaran is a district within the West Coast Division of Sabah. A district is usually named after the main town or its administrative capital; for example, the town of Sandakan is the capital of the Sandakan District, as well as the capital of Sandakan Division. In Sarawak, some districts are further divided into sub-districts (daerah kecil; literally "small district") before the mukim level.
Each district has a District Office (Pejabat Daerah), headed by a District Officer, which mainly deals with land administration. In Sarawak, a sub-district is normally administered by a Sub-district Office ("Pejabat Daerah Kecil"). The District Offices are under the exclusive purview of the state governments, because land administration matters are under the states' exclusive jurisdiction as provided in the Constitution of Malaysia. Local public administration are handled by separate local governments, the jurisdiction of which may not coincide with the district boundaries especially in urbanized areas.
Owing to their small size, the state of Perlis as well as the three federal territories: Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, are not subdivided into districts. Perlis and Kuala Lumpur are subdivided into mukims, Labuan into villages (kampung), and Putrajaya into precincts (presint).
Famous quotes containing the word districts:
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)