Of Felda Ayer Hitam, Johor State, Malaysia Yoshimi KOMOGUCHI*

Socio-Economic Changes in FELDA: A Case Study of Felda Ayer Hitam, Johor State, Malaysia Yoshimi KOMOGUCHI* (2) "":T I. Framework of the Study ::"'lJff :3T f;:'lffffffi Ji"il. tension, (3) to identify some important elements re- 1. Introduction sponsible for societal change and modern- ization. The Federal Land Development Authority In order to meet these objectives, this research (Felda: created in 1956) has been the foremost focuses on the problems involved in the following government sponsored agency for human settle- topics: ( 1) landscape of settlement, (2) land de- ment and land development. Felda's policies and velopment and management, (3) changing land- execution of programs have had much to do with uses and their associations, (4) population and its the dynamic process of "nation building" in the change, (5) changing occupational structure, and country for nearly the past four decades. These (6) organization of the community and its have confronted various important societal prob- change. lems associated with the social and economic de- In this study, analytical emphasis will be placed velopment of the country and thus, have received upon the settlers' adaptation to and adoption of great attention among researchers in various aca- the changing socio-economic opportunities in and demic fields, government officials, and national/in- around the rural community for which the recent ternational development agencies.r) Malaysian economic development seems to be lar- Like other social scientists, geographers also gely responsible. The basic analytical unit is the have had a great research interest in the settle- individual settlers and households. The problems ment/land development schemes, since most geo- involved in the above topics are certainly inter- graphical studies on nature are concerned with woven. Thus, the description and analysis will be the problems associated with man/land relation- advanced by integrating the physical/cultural ships over time (historical) and space (regional). (human) elements of the focal problems into the conceptual frame of human ecology which can be 2, The Study Objectives and Method shared with various fields of social science. The intensive field research for this study was This study is fundamentally concerned with the conducted in three phases: three months (July- settlers' socio-economic development and re- September) each of the years of 1992, 1993, and source management in Felda's scheme areas. It 1994. The most recent data of the studied village deals primarily with a selected rural community, were arranged into those as of September 1992. Felda Ayer Hitam of Kluang district, Johor state It should be noted that this paper deals mainly (Fig. I-l); and has the following specific objec- with ( I )-(4) of the above topics, and the rest will tives: be dealt with in a separate paper. ( 1) to clarify the structural and spatial pat- terns of the rural community with special II. Landscape of Felda Ayer Hitam reference to its economic activities, and to measure the degree of association and inte- Felda Ayer Hitam (FAH: the studied gration among settlers whose socio- kampuntz) lvillage) is located in southern Peninsu- economic backgrounds seem to vary to lar Malaysia in the state of Johor, in Kluang some extent; district (Fig. I-1). The town of Kluang (district * Departrnent of Geography,Komazawa University,Setagaya‐ ku,Tokyo 154. 89 Socio-Economic Changes in FELDA, Malaysia (Komoguchi) θ ，【】 “ 一／” ♂ 〇２Ｃ】卜 ”′ 】Ｈ／ “ Ｃい一０Ｅ０＼〓〓ｏＥコ』「一〓〓Ｈ “ ∞ ∽ ∝ 』日Ｃｏ〓 ∞ ∝ ０〓〓０ｏ凝行ヽ（、日４ “ 修君ズ” 甲【層忠僣 “ 務く出 ● ■ 【一／Ｃ【Ｈ〓０〓Ｃココ ● Ｅ】亀＼』 ● コぢ〓〓）】﹇覇 “ ０ ● 』』００Ｎく、」ハ ■ ” 三一』めｏ」〓轟 ” ′ ● い “ Ｏ】Ｃ】〓目〓０Ｃ一』ｏ ■ 回 ” 費 ∽ 、ＣＯ当【口ｏ日２ュＦ』〓ｔＨ一】 ∝ Ｈｍ目０口富 ∽ 口 ∽ Ｏ〓ＣＯ ∝ 〓ＨＣン ∝ ∽ 〓Ｃ口卜 ∝ ｃ一ａ〓〓コＤＣいく口 “ 〓 “ 卜 ∽ ∝ ０餞卜 ∽ “ ∽ ∝ ロ ∝ ＨＯｍ卜ＯＨ ∝ 卜 ∽ ０〓０『ンＣ〓卜コＨＯく，ロト， ∝ 口 ∽ Ｃ〓〓ｃ ∽ Ｈ一Ｈ〓トＣ卜 ∽ Ｃ【 ∝ 口 ∝ コロ“ 〓一 ∝ 〓〓】 “ 【 ● 。 ● コ〓 □□□□因国 -90- Socio-Economic changes in FELDA, Malaysia (Komoguchi) capital) is located 215 km southeast of Kuala developed through a piecemeal process over 30 Lumpur (national capital) and 80 km northwest years. of Johor Bahru (state capital). The FAH's en- The initial settlement of 336 households in the trance is conveniently connected with the state kampung had occurred mostly in three phases in highway running NE-SW between Mersing (dis- different years; i.e., phase-l: l2l households in trict capital) and Batu Pahat (district capital) July 1962; phase-2: 105 households in April 1963; along which there are neighboring towns, Kluang and phase-3: 110 households in August 1965 and and Ayer Hitam to each of which the travel onward until 1980 (hereafter phases-l , -2, and -3 distance from FAH entrance is 12.8 km and 8 km will be referred to P-l,P-2, and P-3 respectively). respectively. From the highway entrance it is still This settlement can be regarded as one of the about zkm southward by a metalled road to reach earlier groups among Felda's 475 schemes (as of FAH gate. 1992). In September 1992, there were 332 house- Administratively, Felda Ayer Hitam belongs to holds with a population of I ,542 persons (male: one of 13 kampungs under Kluang mukim3) 777; female: 765). Some important changes in which is one of 9 mukimsa) under Kluang district population and related problems will be discussed (Fig. II-1). As far as Felda's administration is in a later section. concerned, the FAH is one of 30 schemes under At the initial settlement in FAH, each house- the Central Johor Office which is one of three hold was provided with a residential lot (0.28 regional officess) currently existing in Johor state; acre) with a cottage and agricultural land (8 each of which has direct linkages with its head- acres). Besides, as a part of living maintenance, quarters at Kuala Lumpur and its supporting each household was provided a loan of $69.60 per offices located in the individual scheme areas. month at 6% annual interest which continued for The roles of Felda regional offices are multi- six years after joining FAH scheme. This loan facetted based on the headquarters' policies and accounted for barely half of the living costs of a regulations, but it might suffice here to point out household at that time. the following aspects: ( I ) supervision and advice Based on three different arrival groups in FAH, for cropping and management, (2) regular ac- the settlers are identified as P-1, P-2, and P-3 counting of crop production, (3) extension work settlers; and hold the corresponding P- l, p-2, and for adoption of advanced practice and technolo- P-3 land for residence and farming. And each of gy, (4) credit distribution, (5) implementation of three "physical phases" is further subdivided into agricultural inputs, and (6) promotion of welfare 4 or 5 blocks (P-1: 5 blocks, P-2:4 blocks, and p- programs. closely associated with settlers at the 3: 4 blocks) (Figs. II-3 and -4). Thus, as a rule, a scheme areas, Felda's grass-roots offices have given settler occupies a housing lot in the residen- taken responsibility for operational aspects of the tial area and one or two farming lot(s) of the work more directly under supervision of the re- main agricultural land in a specific block in one of gional offices. As of September 1994, there were three physical phases attributed to each of the 14 staff posted in Felda Ayer Hitam, the studied settlers. scheme area. The block-based neighborhoods in residence Figures II-2 and -3 respectively depict the phys- and working place of agricultural fields have ical setting, and residential and associated areas of played some important functions not only in the studied kampung. Roughly speaking, the settlers' varied socio-cultural practices including kampung is pentagonal in shape with a territory daily miscellaneous collaboration, regular evening of I ,776 hectares or 4,388.5 acres. The settlement meeting for men and women separately held on area occupies about 99 hectares and is located in different days of the week, and occasional collab- the northern section of the kampung. centering oration such as for wedding and funeral; but also around Felda's office, there are post office, clinic, in the collaboration for some agricultural works, public hall, indoor sports house, cooperative €.9., hiring tractor and lorry for carrying oil palm store, shopping center, gas station, mosque, fruits, rubber latex, fertilizers, drum water for pusat rubber collecting center (PMG: Mengu- irrigation and weeding chemical and pesticides, mpul Getah), graveyard, schools and play- etc. The specific importance of the block unit ..settlement grounds, etc., which together form a should be referred to as the "block group work core." This is partly mingled with, but largely system" adopted in the early stage of settlement in surrounded by residential and associated areas. It which the settlers worked together on an allocated should be noted that the establishment has been block of fields. with regard to this, we will touch -91- Socio-Economic Changes in FELDA, Malaysia (Komoguchi) KLUANG DISTRICT °・ : _。ヾ＼爵撃丁ヽ、| KAHANG く|ォツ醗濾 ANDAR KLU :lg場 K luang 五多くl::‖ 姜 KLUANG Ayer Hitam イ杉つ RENGGAM Takungan Air ttachapl Renggam く｀/Ma高 ′_じ資 Ulu Benut い G― LAYANG 7) ULU BENUT ズ Reng i t 一 STUDY AREA(FELDA AYER HITAH)匿 ROADS □ □ ∃ DISTRICT BOUNDARY []三三三Ξ三] RIVERS & STREAMS 日 HUKIM BOUNDARY [IIIIII] RESERVOIR 0 5 10 KH RAILWAY Figure II-l Immediate Surroundings of Felda Ayer Hitam 一- 92 -一 Socio-Economic Changes in FELDA, Malaysia (Komoguchi) ▲ ― ― 上 ― ― 囲 II:IIEI::::IIl::is 財ROADS VILLAGE BOUNDARY [三【三Ξ] FIELD BOUNDARIES SWAMPY AREA 500 1000 □ METERS Figure ll-2 Physical Setting of Felda Ayer Hitam on some details in the following chapter.

Load more