Settlers in Malaysia: a Case of Felda Ayer Hitam, Johor State
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Migration and Changing Occupational Patterns of FELDA's Settlers in Malaysia: A Case of Felda Ayer Hitam, Johor State Yoshimi KOMOGUCHI* areas, but also the villagers' adoption behavior in I. Introduction occupations associated with the recent dynamic change of regional economies in Malaysia. The recent remarkable economic achievement As did the previous article, this paper deals of Malaysia has received great attention among mainly with a selected kampung, Felda Ayer researchers in various academic fields, govern- Hitam of Johor state (Fig. I-1). ment officials and national/international develop- It should be noted that this paper adopts some ment agencies. This is because the Malaysian figures and tables and their corresponding cap- case is thought to be one of few examples among tions appeared in my previous article for readers' the multiethnic nations in the changing political convenience. landscape of the recent world. This economic achievement might be attributed II. The FELDA and Studied Area to a great extent to the fairly stabilized govern- ments, their implementation of unique internal/ The Federal Land Development Authority external policies and programs, peoples' great pa- (Felda: created in 1956) has been the foremost tience and efforts for integrating the multiethnic government sponsored agency for human settle- groups as citizens of the nation and for sharing of ment and land development. It is administered by socio-economic interests among them, and con- a Board responsible to the Minister for Rural cerned leaders' fairly balanced performance in Development. The main objective of the land their respective fields; those of which together development program was to provide land to the among others could have provided faborable con- poor and landless in rural areas and to upgrade ditions for the economic development. their living and status in line with the Associated with some aspects of the recent Government's effort to uplift the rural sector. economic development, this study is mainly con- There were also administrative considerations of cerned with changing agriculture and rural com- politics and security in the country throughout munity focussed upon FELDA's settlement and the 1950s and early 1960s. land development scheme which has had much to Felda has devoted much activity to the opening do with the dynamic process of "nation building" of land in Malaysia for nearly the past four in the country for the past four decades. decades. Legislative changes and procedures This paper is a continuation of my previous were adopted to meet new situations; large amo- article on changing socio-economies in FELDA unts of funds were allocated; and new instititions scheme areas which discussed some important at both the federal and state levels were created to problems involved in the following specific topics: cope with increasing demands and activities ( 1) landscape of settlement, (2) land develop- (Shamsul Bahrin & Perera 1977; Shamsul Bahrin ment and management, (3) changing land-uses & Lee 1988; Shamsul Bahrin & Khadijah 1992: and their associations, and (4) changing popula- 80). tion and its associations (Komoguchi 1995). Various aspects of Felda including concepts This particular paper focuses upon an in- and policies, organization and finance, its execu- tegrated theme of migration and occupational tion of programs for settlement and land develop- change occurring in Felda scheme areas. It is to ment, corresponding settlers' activities, and crop depict more clearly not only the changing socio- production, etc., have attracted the attention of economic conditions themselves in Felda scheme students, academics, and development agencies. r * Professor, Department of Geography, Komazawa University, Tokyo. 63 Regional Views No. 9 1996 θ ¨ Ｈ “” ♂ 一 ／ 一 〓 Ｃ ¨ 卜 Ｈ ′ Ｈ ／ “ Ｃ 卜 一 ” Ｏ Ｅ ０ ＼ Ｘ ０ 】 一 Ｅ “ コ ↓ と 』 ∽ 〓 ” ∞ 』Ｏ 』 〓 ｏ ０ 一 い ｏ ０ご 【』 一 ∽ 〓 行 凌 日 ” 〓 “ “ ゝ 目“目 “ コ ‥ “ ■Ｍ ＣＣ 層 ゝ 」 濯 ‘ ● （ 一 ｍ 出 ロ ２ Ｃ Ｈ 卜 ョ ０ 〓 ／ 自 目【 “ く ０ ＼ ２ ０ 缶 ぢ 〓 Ｘ コ 】 通 』 】【 Ｏ ● ∞ ０ 】 一 〓 〓 」 ハ 一 ｃ ン 〇 ∽ ≡ ” ● α Ｈ 〓 ｏ 碓 ヾ 一 上 一 ） 月 ＯＨ ■ 日 “ 〓 荘 ／ 』 ω 一 ■西 ゝ ／ く 炉 ま Ｏ 、 』 ｏ ／ 、 く 、 ． “ ο 「【 ０ 』 』 〓● 〇 〓 “ｏ ● 口 ＝ ｏ Ｈ ｏ 』 ■ ∽ ｍ ０ く 】』 〇 ∝ ” ∝ ｃ ∽ 〓 Ｃ 口 Ｈ Ｚ【 卜 ∝ Ｃ ａ Ｃ 〓 コ く 口 ∝ 卜 【 〓 ∽ ∝ 〇 〓 ０ 「 一 Ｚ ｏ ｍ “ ∽ ‘ コ Ｏ ∝ い ∽ ＨＯ ｍ ＯＨ ＞ Ｃ 〓卜 コ Ｈ Ｃ ∝ Ｃ ∽ ∝ 口 ”＞ Ｈ ∝ 口 口 ∝ い ∽ 〓 Ｃ 】 Ｃ 一 Ｈ 〓 一 ｃ ∽ 口 ‘ 卜 ＨＱ Ｈ 〓 口 〓 〓 の ∝ ∝ 〓 Ｘ Ｃ 【 ● Ｏ ① コ 〓 □□□□因国 一- 64 -― Migration and Changing Occupational Patterns (Komoguchi) By the end of 1993, Felda developped the total accounted for barely half of the living costs of a area of 895,793 hectares including settlemt areas household at that time. of 35,653 hectares in 468 schemes2 and resettled Based on three different arrival groups in FAH, 114,445 settler families3 in 309 schemes (Felda the settlers are identified as P-1, P-2, and P-3 Annual Report 1993: 17-23). settlers; and hold the corresponding P-l,P-2, and In the following, we will show an outline of the P-3 land for residence and farming. Each of three process of the settlers' involvement and socio- "physical phases" is further subdivided into 4 or 5 economic activities in the Felda Ayer Hitam blocks (P-1:5;P-2:4; and P-3:4) (Figs. II-1 & - (FAH) scheme. 2). Thus, as a rule, a given settler occupies a Adiministratively, FAH belongs to one of 13 housing lot in the residential area and one or two kampungs under Kluangmukim which is one of 9 farming lot(s) of the main agricultural land in a mukim.s under Kluang district of Johor state. As specific block in one of three physical phases far as Felda's administration is concerned, FAH attributed to each settler. is one 30 schemes under the Central Johor Office The block-based neighborhoods in residence which is one of three regional offices currently and working place of agricultural fields have existing in Johor state. played some important functions not only in The roles of Felda regional offices are multi- settlers' socio-cultural practices, but also in the facetted, controlled by the headquarters' policies collaboration for some agricultural works. The and regulations, but it might suffice here to point specific importance of the block unit should be out the following aspectsr ( 1) supervision and referred to as the "block work system" adopted in advice for cropping and management, (2) regular the early stage of Felda's settlement and land accounting of crop production, (3) extension development strategy in which the settlers worked work for adoption of advanced practice and tech- together on an allocated block of fields (Shamsul nology, (4) credit distribution, (5) implementa- Bahrin & Lee 1988: 40-56; Komoguchi 1995: 95- tion of agricultural inputs, and (6) promotion of ee). welfare programs. Closely associated with set- Felda had assigned rubber as a plantation crop tlers at the scheme areas, Felda's grass-roots for FAH scheme. It is often said that rubber trees offices have taken responsibility for operational start to produce latex 6 years after transplanting, aspects of the work more directly under supervi- and should be replanted after 30 years in order to sion of the regional offices. As of September obtain economic return. 1994, there were 14 staff posted in FAH. Table II- 1 shows basic statistics of some pro- Figures II- 1 and -2 respectively depict the phys- cesses of land development and rubber plantation ical setting and residential and associated areas of in FAH. The initial land development for agri- FAH. It has a territory of 1,776 hectares or cultural land in FAH has been made over a long 4,338.5 acres including the settlement area (99 period of 1960-7 5 during which the developed ha). area was 1,634.53 hectares or 4,038.92 acres in- The initial settlers of 336 households joined the cluding roads and passways, field canals, and FAH scheme in three phases in different years, i. swamps (paya). The agricultural land in FAH e., phase-l: 121 households in July 1962; phase-2: was largely divided into four "physical phases"; 105 households in April 1963; and phase-3: 110 i.e., P-1, P-2, P-3, and P-4 of which the first three households in August 1965 and onward until 1980 were allocated respectively to P-1, P'2, and P-3 (hereafter phas€- 1, phase-2, and phase-3 will be settlers; whereas P-4 land was Felda's land re- referred to P-1, P-2, and P-3 respectively). This serve. settlement is regarded as one of the earlier groups The land development for the first three phases among 468 schemes (as of 1993). In September was carried out in earlier years, and young rubber 1992, there were 332 households with a popula- trees had already been planted in each phase tion of 1 ,542 persons (Mt 777; F: 765). before corresponding group settlers' arrival to At the initial settlement in FAH, each house- FAH. Within the three phases, even some steep hold was provided a residential lot (0.28 acre) slopes of hills and swamps Qtaya) scattered in the with a cottage and agricultural land (8 acres). small basins have been used for fruit trees Besides, &s a part of living maintenance, each (durian, coffee, cocoa, etc.), banana, and vegeta- household was provided MR(S)69.60 per month bles; and for cattle grazittg. Thus, there was no at 6Vo annual interest which continued for 6 years idle land to be found in the three phases. after joining FAH scheme. This amount of loan Land development in P-4 started long after all 65 Regional Views No.