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Sintok is a small town
in Kedah, Malaysia. Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
is situated here.
Sintok is located about 52 km from Alor Setar
and about 12 km from Changlun. Sintok is
reachable via Kuala Perlis-Changlun-Sintok expressway and via a road from
Padang Terap.
The name
"Sintok" is taken from the name of a type of tree. The town was originally
a remote settlement area for tin miners. However, due to its close
proximity to the border of Malaysia-Thailand, Sintok was exposed to
threats from the banned communist group. Hence, the government had to
migrate all the original residents to a safer area, and declared the town
are as a 'black area'. History recorded many killings of members of the
security forces in the area.
By mid 80's, the federal and state government agreed on building a
university in Sintok. The university was named Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM),
literally translated as "Northern University of Malaysia", and the
construction was started by the lat 80s to replace the temporary campus in
Bandar Baru Darul Aman, Jitra.
As a memorial to the sacrifice by the security forces, a memorial
structure was built in that UUM campus. A list of names of the members of
the security forces that was killed by the communists was placed at this
memorial structure.
The establishment of UUM campus has expedited the growth of new
settlements like Bandar Baru Sintok and Bukit Kachi which is located
opposite of Sungai Badak Forest Reserve.
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