The Silence and Fantasy of Women and Work Doctor of Philosophy University of Wollongong Vicki Denese Crinis

The Silence and Fantasy of Women and Work A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy from University of Wollongong by Vicki Denese Crinis History and Politics Program and CAPSTRANS Research Institute March 2004 Candidate’s Certificate I, Vicki Denese Crinis, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Vicki Crinis ii Abstract This thesis examines the discursive representation of working-class women and work in the development of the Malay Peninsula during the colonial and post-colonial periods. It questions the selective appearance of women’s labour in official records, and traces representations of women and work in the colonial discourses of the 1900s through to those that supported Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad’s vision for a modern Malaysia in order to analyse the continuities and discontinuities in Malaysian concepts about women and work. My research reveals that in the colonial period women were engaged in many types of waged work in the Federated Malay States, but only sex workers receive more than peripheral attention in archival documents. The societal positioning of women within the family context as wives, daughters and mothers served to deny women’s status and identity as worker. However, women’s socially accepted roles did not prevent them from being represented in anthropological and fictional texts of the period as part of the orientalist discourse of the exotic ‘other’. I argue in this study that this complex positioning of colonised women denied them a sense of identity as workers. The reality of women’s lives continued to be obscured through the conflation of cultural structures, market forces, and national development after Independence. As a result of the post- colonial government’s drive to transform Malay agricultural workers into urban workers, large numbers of Malay women joined the blue-collar workforce. In the 1970s Malay women from the kampongs were celebrated as factory workers and emphasis was placed on their docile nature and nimble fingers; their skills and docility were used to sell Malaysia as a site for ‘footloose’ manufacturing. Yet, more recently, female factory workers have been increasingly ignored in official discourse. The nimble-fingered, unskilled female worker has been replaced by the professional woman worker and the (implicitly male) knowledge worker in discourses of Malaysia’s successful industrialisation. This shift reinforced gendered stereotypes of work and workers − rather than dissipating them − by bringing with it the return of a shroud of invisibility, iii reminiscent of the colonial period, over working-class women’s work. These gendered stereotypes of work have been reinforced by other discursive frames concerning their sexuality which resonate with colonial discourses about the female worker. Within these discourses, working-class women’s work efforts have continued to be undermined by the emphasis placed on women’s sexuality and reproduction. iv Table of Contents Abstract i-ix Acknowledgements List of Acronyms Introduction. The Silence and Fantasy of Women and Work 1-9 Introduction Approach and Thesis Outline Chapter 1. Tracing the Continuities 10-32 Women and Work in Colonial Malaya Tensions Between Production and Reproduction The Role of the State in the Construction and Representation of Women’s Work The Nexus Between Women’s Work and Sexuality in Malaysia Tracing the Continuities Conclusion Chapter 2. Women and Work in the Colonial Archive 33-70 Women Workers and Ethnicity Chinese and Indian (Tamil) Women in the Colonial Reports Women and the Chinese Secretariat Reports Chinese Women and Tin Mining Women and the Sexual Division of Labour Pressures for Change The Mui Tsai System Becomes Obsolete Women’s Labour and Trade Unions in Malaya Conclusion Chapter 3. The Silence and the Fantasy 71-112 Colonial Literature: Fact or Fiction v Swettenham’s ‘Anthropology’ of The Real Malay Clifford’s Stories: Female Seductresses and Victims Fauconnier’s Erotic Men and Women Conclusion Chapter 4. Colonisation, Migration and Prostitution 113-151 The Chinese Protectorate and the Role of the Prostitute in the FMS State Control: Prostitution and the Medical Department 1890-1947 The Protection of Women and Children Conclusion Chapter 5. The ‘State’ of Women’s Work in Modern Malaysia 152-186 The Rise of the Modern Malaysian State Land Reform and Family Planning Images of Women 1945-1970: Nationalism and Development Women and Nation Building: Modern Malay Mothers 1945-1970 Women and Work Western Modernity Versus Islam Women and Politics Aishah Ghani: Modern Mother, Career Woman and Politician Conclusion Chapter 6. Their Moment in the Sun: Women’s Work at the Forefront of the Malaysian Economy 1970-1990s 187-220 New Economic Policy: Industrialisation Effects of Industrialisation Feminisation of Factory Labour Factory Women and Housing Social Problems: Parents Blamed for Failure to Care for Children Hot Bodies: Sexualisation of Factory Labour Minah Karan vi Factory Discipline Response of Islam Conclusion Chapter 7. Women and Work in Mahathir’s Thrust for a Muslim Modernity 221-253 Mahathir: Modernity, Development and Vision 2020 Mahathir and the Malays Political and Professional Women Workers The High-Tech Worker and the Increasingly Invisible Malaysian Factory Worker Conclusion Chapter 8. History Repeating Itself? Immigrant Workers in the New Economy 254-292 Foreign Workers Foreign Workers in the Factories Domestic Workers Maid Agencies and Government Guidelines The Sexualisation of Foreign Domestic Workers History Repeating Itself: Prostitution in Malaysia Contemporary Discourses and the Regulation of Sex Work Conclusion Chapter 9. Conclusion 293-297 Colonial Period to Post Colonial Period Continuities and Discontinuities Bibliography 298-317 Appendix 1 Appendix 2 318-321 Appendix 3 322-325 Appendix 4 326-334 vii Acknowledgements I thank my supervisors, Adrian Vickers, who patiently waited for me to travel the long road and allowed me the time to ‘get the feel’ of Malaysia and find ‘the differences’ in the peoples I write about; and Jan Elliot who as supervisor was invaluable, and as a friend opened her home to me when I needed space to write. I thank my friends and colleagues Dr Fadzilah Cooke, Beryl Batten and Dr Michele Ford for being valuable intellectual confidants, to Fadzilah for helping open doors for me in Malaysia and to Beryl for the support and friendship during the high and low periods and to Michele for helping me with the structure of the chapters, the editing of the thesis and most of all for giving me the encouragement to remain focussed and to complete the thesis. I would also like to thank the staff in the History and Politics Department and CAPSTRANS at the University of Wollongong especially Dr Catriona Elder, Dr Tana Li, Dr Lenore Lyons, Dr Julia Martinez, Dr Beverly Symons, Dr Andrew Wells and postgraduate colleagues such as Rob Goodfellow, Damian Carl, Phil King, Kaz Monden and Suzanna Rizzo. I especially thank the above departments for providing the finance for overseas research and conference trips to Malaysia and London. I also acknowledge and thank people who helped me in the undertaking of the research for this project; Malaysian workers, the trade union secretaries such as Kenneth Perkins, Bosco Augustine and A Sivananthan; and NGO spokespersons such as Irene Zavier. I also thank Malaysian scholars, such as Jamilah Ariffin, Rohana Ariffin, Fatimah Daud, Amarjit Kaur (Aust), Patricia Martinez, Hing Ai Yun and those who answered my questions and offered assistance in practical ways. I also wish to express my appreciation to the archivists and employees, especially Kamariah Nazir at the Akib Negara in Kuala Lumpur, the Public Records Office at Kew Gardens, London, and the National Library in Canberra. I also thank Katejah who introduced me to the many professional women I interviewed in Malaysia. I also acknowledge Belinda Henwood for the copy editing of the thesis. I thank my parents Dennis and Heather, who cared for Mathew while I was conducting the research for the thesis; my brothers and sisters who often kept away because they did not want to disturb me. I also thank Eileen Gottaas and Lensey Doyle who inspired me to achieve my goal. I especially thank my children Georgia, Stanley, Mathew and Aaron for sharing their mother with library books and papers, often when they needed her the most. I also thank my son-in-law, William Glamore for being so calm when I was pulling my hair out and for not gloating when he finished his PhD thesis before me. Finally, but most of all, I thank my husband Peter for financial and practical as well as emotional support during the long haul. viii Acronyms APDC Asia Pacific Development Centre BN Barisan Nasional (National Front) DAP Democratic Action Party EPZ Export Processing Zone FELDA Federal Land Development Authority FIDA Federal Industrial Development Authority FDI Foreign Direct Investment FMS Federated Malay States FTZ Free Trade Zone GDP Gross Domestic Product ICFTU International Combined Federated Trade Unions ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund NFPB National Family Planning Board MARA Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Council of

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