Rice in Malaya

9. Pattern and Process

Pattern and Process 195 9 Pattern and Process … you will find in the good earth and fields a sure refuge from dangerous materialism. Pope John XXIII, 1959 But these men compose the great mass of life which sustains all civilisations and bears their burdens. They are content barely to live… Rabindranath Tagore Kalau tiada padi, sa-barang kerja ta’ jadi.1 Malay proverb Rice growers, whether Malay or aboriginal, by no means uniformly benefited from changes during the period in which imperial control became established. Change would seem to have by-passed remote areas almost entirely. Had the population of such regions increased, and even this cannot be established, a slow extension of the cultivated area presumably ensued; but the economy remained subsistence and local in orientation. For “foreign” Malays, it is likely that life was materially easier in the Peninsula than it had been in their homeland. Why else would they have migrated? Yet for some, the toil of the rice fields for relatively little return was unattractive and they turned to growing coconuts, as in Lower Perak and western Johore, to coffee as in Selangor and increasingly after 1910, to rubber. For the Peninsular Malays it is impossible to make a single generalization that will apply justly to all regions. In the north-east there can be little doubt 195 1 Briefly, “No rice, no work”. 196 Rice in Malaya that for the Kelantanese there was a modicum of quiet prosperity so long as land suitable for rice-growing and cattle-rearing remained abundant; but by about 1910, intensification of peasant production had begun as fallows were reduced. Although there was as yet no evidence of a fall in income levels, the lack of development in the commercial sector of the economy boded ill for the future. The transformation of Kelantan from one of the richest states in Malaya to one of the poorest took place under a half-century of British guidance. In nearby Trengganu, however, the collapse came prior to direct British interference. The well-developed craft and commercial sectors of the state economy declined between 1890 and 1910. The result was an increase in the proportion of agriculturalists and fishermen. In the north-west, the craft sector was less important than in Trengganu and its destruction was less keenly felt, being compensated for by a spectacular development of commercialized rice cultivation stimulated by the presence of the Penang market and controlled by a commercially-minded Malay aristocracy. By 1910, from the ashes of war, Kedah had once again regained its ancient pre-eminence in rice production, though methods and the organizational basis of production remained essentially peasant in nature. The same was true in Province Wellesley and the Krian district of Perak, which also lay within the hinterland of Penang. In these areas, however, “top management” was imperial rather than indigenous though at middle levels Malay entrepreneurs were by no means lacking. Moreover, in Province Wellesley a good proportion of the production was skimmed off by landlords and rich peasants and this class may have also existed in Kedah and in Krian. In the south-west, the rice economy of the Minangkabau lands, except perhaps Naning and Rembau, was essentially self-contained, though this isolation was being broken down by “foreign” Malays, especially in Jelebu. Minangkabau farmers were highly skilled, and as in Kelantan, the picture was one of quiet stability and prosperity as the effects of political broils diminished. The Malacca plain was in many respects similar in economy and size to Province Wellesley though less productive. Elsewhere, rice-growing was of marginal importance in the overall economy, at best providing a sufficiency to those who opted out of the drudgery and repetitiveness of wage labour. Not only in states being developed far plantation agriculture or mining, were there “… thousands of Malays … who feel no shame in planting padi and do not find the work irksome, who would decline absolutely to do a day’s work as a labourer” (B.R. Perak to Gov. SS 16.3.1893, CO 273/46). Yet by clinging to the only occupation they knew, the great majority ensured that they would remain at the bottom of the economic heap. In this they received every encouragement from government. Pattern and Process 197 In the Federated Malay States from 1874 until 1895 it is clear that … the establishment of a large self-employed agricultural population (as distinct from...