Indonesian Aggression against Malaysia

300 Pages·2000·24.24 MB·English

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This study examines how deforestation in Malaysia is h e d a s an economic issue
fought out in the political arena using cultural codes as an entry point to examining the
polit ical tensions of conternporary Malaysia. Three themes recur throughout this work. The
first theme concerns the centrality of resources in Malaysia's colonial and pst-wlonial
political economy. The second theme concerns the displacement of the anxieties of national
and cultural survival onto the contests over economic rights. And the third theme is the way
collective mernories Ylesh out' contemporary contests between the state and civil society. In
the sense that the three themes are inter-related, this stüdy traces the nvinned construction.
and opposition of the two central ideas: of 'nature' in the form of the raidorest and 'race' in
the guise of nation.
In keeping with the role of memry in present-day social and political engagements.
this study weaves both archival and contemporary material to trace the construction of the
history. imagery and vocabulary that have been rnapped ont0 the physical space of the
rainforest. I explore the production of the cultural codes through this mapping process that
are then used to articulate the contests over the rainforest. These codes are the consequence
of negotiations that reflect the unstable alliances and inconsistent identities of contemporary
Malaysia. and they are the legacies, albeit translated, of colonialism In retracing the contests
over and about the forests. I hope to shed some light on why Malaysians made. and continue
to rnake. decisions that appear to work against them.
The decisions affecting the fate of the rainforest reflects choices made about the kind
of society Malaysians live with. Hence, the three core chapters of this study examine
military. politicaVcultural and economic contests and negotiations surroundhg the birth of
.
the MalayadMalaysian nat ion-state through their impacts on the rainforest By
acknowledging how much of Malaysia's contemporary politics is its colonial legacy, 1 hope
to highlight the trade-off we have made between limited political engagement and
development. To accept that we cannot protect basic rights as the price of economic succsss
is to continue to live within the racist tiamework of colonialism t h t human rights are ody
for some humans.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
Acknowiedgement
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE MTRRORS AND MEMORIES
Context
Cultural codes and slippery signs
Research purpose
Scope
Met hod
CHAPTER TWO CONSTRUCTIONS AND DE(C0N)STRUCTIONS
Introduction
From political ecology to liberation ecology
Legitirnizing authonty in the colonial world
Orientalisrn and discourse theory
Charters of intervention: categories,
representation and management
Corporate identity and networks of power
Postcoloniaiism: continuities across the divide
Post-colonialism, nationalisrn and the ideolog
of progress
Negotiating ways of telling: the politics of memory
Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE CONFIGURiNG NATURE. NATüRALIZING
CLAlMS
Introduction
Configunng nature
Pre-colonial political ecology
The early plantation economy
Western writing about nature
Science and empire
Economic gardens
Rubber and Maiaya 77
lntroducing rubber 77
Henry Ridley and the Singapore Botanic Gardens 79
Changes in the administration of Malaya
due to mbber 8 1
Land tenure 8 1
Coloniai financing 83
Institutional support 85
Labour requirements 87
Boundaries by diflerence 90
Destabilizing categories 92
Malaya in World War II 92
Reoccupation: British Military Administration (BMA)
1945- 1 946 95
Britain's policy towards Mataya after World War il 97
Contest ing claims 99
Conclusion 1 O 1
CHAPTER FOUR SOVEREIGN SPACE: TERRITORIALIZING
THE FRONTIER 1 06
Introduction
The tiontier: forest as uncontrolled space
Shadow lines and fractured reflections: negotiating
boundanes through race, class and gender
Sites of punishment
Controlling the forests and its peoples
Gridding and girding the forest
Rendering the forest visibie
Ecology of war: disciplined space and
fragmented society
Moral representations of space
Purifjwç the body politic
Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE THE SPACE OF THE NATION 163
Introduction
Constructing the nation for the state
Empire in transition
Written in (the) blood
Constructing an uncivil society
Malaya in the cold war: translating a narrative
of local stniggle into a global sign
Maiaya as the key domino in the Free World
Independence and postcolonial dilemmas
Malaysia as a mode1 of counter-insurgency
Intelligence and counter-insurgency
Rural populations and strategic hamlets
Forest aboriginal populations
Korrfro~~taasni d the politics ofmemory
A war of minor differences
Narrating the Ko~frurtiari
Rumours of danger
Conclusion
CHAPTER SIX THE SECOND FRONTIER 212
Introduction
Rubber and global capitd
Rubber and the Malayan economy
Malaya in the sterling area
Discourse of progress: globai theories
and local effects
Development and the Cold War
Third Worid as a semiotic field
The vocabulary of numbers: ranking nations
Colombo Plan: operationalizinç development
New missionanes and the Word of Science
Economic development and Malaysian identity
Independence and structures of contestation
affecting resources
Agents of local development
May 13 and the NEP
Projecting the corporate state
Constructing the settler as a metaphor
for the htrmiprtfercr
Conclusion
CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION OR CONTINUATION 260
Bibliography
Appendix I List of important dates in Malayan/Malaysian history 290
Appendix II List of narnes and administrative titles 29 1
LIST OF TABLES
Tabie 3.1 A simplified outline of the evolution of Malaysian land legislation.
Table 3.2. Area under rubber in Malaya at the end of 1938.
Table 3.3a British Malaya: ethnic ownership of estates. 193 8.
Table 3.3b British Malaya: percentage of tin produced by
European and Chinese mines, 1 9 10 - 1 938.
Table 4.1 White areas.
Tabie 6.1 UK Balance of payments on current account (E million).
Table 6.2 Malayan area balance of payments on current account (f million).
Table 6.3 Sector ownership by race.
Table 6.4 Country retums on British investrnent.
-
Table 6.5 Malaysia export performance 195 1 1959 (%).
Table 6.6 Annual area developed 19 5 7- 19 87 (Hectares).
Tabie 6.7 Land developed 1 96 1 - 1 990 (Hectares).
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 -1 Map of Malaysia
Figure 3.1. Administrative units of British Malaya by 1914.
Figure 3.2 Early Chinese settlement.
Figure 3.3a Settlement on the Kangsar River.
Figure 3.3b Colonial goverment offices in Taiping.
Figure 3.4 Networks of distribut ion of plant material fiom exploration voyages.
Figure 3.5 Cutting down the forest for rubber estates
Figure 3.6 Division of labour on a rubber estate
Figure 4.1 Government troops on tour of duty in the forest.
Figure 4.2 Paratroop drops over the feature less forest.
Figure 4.3 Abandoned hut on the edge of a plantation is quickly reclaimed by
undergro wt h.
Figure 4.4 Map of landuse in Malaya circa 1954 depicting proximity of mbber
plantations to forest.
Figure 4.5 The planter on the Fontline.
Figure 4.6. Peasants or Communists?
Figure 4.7 Approximate locations of Orang As1 i and Co mmunist agricuItura1
plots used to pin-point target bmbing.
Figure 4.8a- Squatter settlement at the forest's edge.
Figure 4.8b. Layout of a New Village - note the geornetric arrangement for easy
surveillance.
Figure 4.9. Map of Malaya categorized by 'black' and 'white' areas.
Figure 5.1 General Van Fleet 's projection of Communist bases in Asia.
Figure 5.2 Sites of major Indonesian incursions on Malaysian territory
Figure 6.1 FELDA development in Perlis.
Figure 7.1 Tourism Malaysia brochure - the rainforest waits patient ly
for the modem day tourist.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1 wish to thank my supervisor Trevor Barnes for his patience and encouragement over the
years. The sociologist Barry Bames once said that in a world of experts, we needed experts in
human decency - I wish he could meet Trevor. Derek Gregory had faith in this project when 1
arrived in the department, a physical çeographer, wit hout the requisite vocabulary in social
theory to articulate myself. His encouragement, insightful comments and humour have sustained
me during my stay at üBC. Gerry Pratt and Peter Boothroyd made themselves available for
consultations despite their busy schedules. The financial support for this research came from a
Canada-ASEAII Fellowship and a University of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship.
Surviving the graduate expenence has always struck me as a social and political
esperience as much as an academic one. My guides through this hazardous maze have been
You-tien Hsing, Jennifer Hyndman, Pamela Moss and Nadine Schuurman. The late Amanda
Ocran helped remind me of my ethical commitments when 1 got discouraged and tempted to
abandon my project for the safe and neutral haven of a laboratory. Terry Barringer, librarian at
the Commonwealth Archives at the University of Cambridge, not only helped me navigate my
way through the documents but also has continued to respond to fiantic e-mails to check
reference sources. The helpful stafFat the Public Record Office in Kew also deserve thanks. Ann
Jarrett, Janet Parr, Goh Pek Kee and Goh Pek Choo welcomed me into their respective homes in
England and Malaysia.
Finally, my husband John has put up with last minute cancellations of vacation plans and
rny fnistrated tears when hardware and software refused to cooperate. His help with the yraphics
was invaluable. More importantly. his sensible perspective on arcane theoretical issues helped
remind me of the political impetus behind undertaking this research. This thesis is as much his
project as it is mine.
No hurnan dserence matters much untii it becomes a privilege. until it becomes a
bais for oppression. Power is the vector that tums minor into major.
Michael Ignat ieff. Wurrior's ffonour
.
Can one divide human reality .. and survive the conseqEences hurnanly?
Edward Said. Orientalism