POLITICS OF ACCOMMODATION: A CASE STUDY OF MALAY'SQUATTERS IN KUALA LUMPUR Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of London by Azizah bte Kassim School of Oriental & African Studies January 1935 ProQuest Number: 10672863 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672863 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 SUMMARY This thesis is an attempt to study local level politics among the urban poor, i.e. the squatters in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, by focusing attention on a Malay squatter community in a squatment in the southwestern part of the city and examining their struggle to retain their illegally occupied land and their attempt to improve their living conditions in the squatment in the face of an apparently unsympathetic urban bureacracy. The study is prompted by Oscar Lewis’ theory of 'culture of poverty’ and the concept of marginality and it is the contention of this thesis that the Malay sq u atters are neither marginal nor do they exhibit traits of Lewis' ’culture of poverty’; they are sufficiently well organised at the community level which accounts for their success in achieving some of their communal goals and such success is attributable to their close association with politicians from the party in power. The thesis consists of eight chapters. Chapter I, the introduction, outlines the aims and scope of the thesis, its problems, theoretical orientation and provides a brief background of the country and its people. Chapter II traces the historical development of squatting in Peninsular Malaysia (formerly Malaya) with special reference to the emergence of squatting among Malays in Kuala Lumpur. Chapter III examines the development of the squatment under study and the squatters’ initial involvement with political parties. Chapter IV deals with the squatter community, its economy and social networks. Chapter V takes a look at the squatters’ relationship with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the predominant party in the ruling Barison Nasional (National Front) between 1967 and 1977. Chapter VI examines the basis of the squatters’ dependency on UMNO and the exchanges taking place between them, while Chapter VII looks at the role of the political party in community organisation of the squatters. Chapter VIII, the conclusion, summarises the findings of the thesis, compares the Malay squatters with those of other ethnic groups and explains the nature of the relationship between the squatters and UMNO in terms of political party patronage. ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost I wish to record my sincere appreciation and profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Andrew Turton, for his kind help and painstaking guidance in the preparation of this thesis and for the great tolerance and understanding that he has shown me in all the years that I have been under his supervision. I was far from being a model supervisee: as a foreign student my English was far from perfect, as a wife and mother of three growing children, my work pattern was often erratic and in the last three years or so, as I was called back by my employer to resume duties, I have had to shuttle back and forth between Kuala Lumpur and London. I must have given Dr Turton a very difficult and trying time but he has shown nothing but patience and kindness and was always ready to help with my problems. Next, I wish to thank my employer, the University of Malaya, for granting me a three-year study-leave (1978-1981) to enable me to do my Ph.D in London, although the thesis itself took considerably longer than three years to complete. To all the people of Kampung Selamat, especially my squatter respondents, I owe a special debt of gratitude or, in their terms terhutong budi , not only for letting me pry into their lives in order to obtain data for this thesis, but more especially for the warmth with which they welcomed me and took me to their bosom, so much so that I now feel great attachment to and a sense of affinity with them. My fieldwork would have been well-nigh impossible without the help and assistance of government officials, iv especially those at City Hall, who sometimes went out of their way to help me, and politicians from both the government and opposition parties, who gave their views freely. In this connection I must also record my appreciation for the services rendered by some of my students in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Malaya, as 'research assistants' at some stage of my fieldwork. I wish also to express my sincere thanks to Professor Khoo Kay Kim, Head of the Department of History, University of Malaya, for reading through the historical sections of the thesis and to Professor A Cohen, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, and Dr Nigel Phillips, Department of Southeast Asia and the Islands, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, for having kindly read the entire thesis in its final draft, and also for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am indebted to these distinguished scholars, but for all errors and shortcomings that may be found in this thesis I alone am responsible. Lastly, I must record my profound gratitude to my husband, without whose unfailing support and constant encouragement none of all this would have been possible. As a token of my appreciation for everything that he has done for me and also for the tolerance and understanding shown by my children when I neglected my motherly duties throughout the Ph.D programme, I dedicate this work to my husband, Zainal Abidin Bador and to our three boys: Zain Azhari, Zain Al-Fikri and Zain Al-Ashraf. Azizah Kassim 1 January 1985. V CONTENTS Summary.................................................................................... ii Acknowledgment ..................................................................... iii List of Contents ...................................................................... v Tables...................... vii Figures...................................................................................... viii Abbreviations .......................................................................... ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 1 1.1 The Aims and Scope of the Study ............... 1 1.2 The Problems...................................................... 4 1.3 Significance of the Study .............................. 10 1.4 Theoretical Orientation .................................... 14 1.5 Methodology ........................................................ 24 1.6 West Malaysia: A General Background .... 33 II. SQUATTING IN WEST MALAYSIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KUALA LUMPUR: AN OVERVIEW 40 2.1 Squatting in WestMalaysia: A Historical Perspective ...................................................... 40 2.2 Malay Traditional Mode of Land Acquisition 50 2.3 The Malays: From Settlers to Squatters ... 52 2.4 Internal Migration and Urban Squatting by M alay s ................................................................ 60 2.5 Squatting in Kuala Lumpur: (a) Early Squatters in Kuala Lumpur 63 (b) Squatting in Kuala Lumpur in the Post-Independence E ra ............................. 67 (c) The Emergence and Increase of Malay Squatters in Kuala Lumpur .... 70 (d) The Present State of Squatting in Kuala Lumpur: Size & Ethnic Dis­ tribution ....................................................... 78 III. THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF KAMPUNG SELAMAT AND THE POLITICALISATION OF THE SQUATTERS .................................................................. 85 3.1 Paving the Way for a Squatment: The Demise of a Traditional Malay Kampung ... 85 3.2 The Making of a Squatment: Kampung S elam at................................ 94 3.3 Politicalisation of the Squatters .................. 107 3.4 Early Development of Kampung Selamat ... 117 3.5 Kampung Selamat Today: (a) Its Physical Characteristics................... 126 (b) Available Amenities ................................... 135 (c) Social Services ........................................... 138 (d) The Squatters ............................................. 139 vi IV. THE SQUATTER COMMUNITY: ITS ECONOMY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS .......................................... 155 4.1. The Squatter Community ............................... 155 (a) The Squatter Family and Household ... 159 (b) Extra Household T ies ............................... 163 4.2 The Squatters' Economy ................................. 172 (a) Income and Occupation ............................. 174 (b) Expenditure and Consumption Patterns 214 4.3 The Economy and Social Networks ............... 224 4.4 Implications of the Squatters' Social N e tw o rk s ................................................................ 227 V. POLITICS, POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY DEPENDENCEY IN KAMPUNG SELAMAT (1967-1977) ...................................................................... 231 5.1 Squatter Politics ...............................................