When Rubbercame

KyotoKyotoUniversity University Southeast Asian Stzadies, Vol. 29, No. 2, September !991 When Rubber Came: The NegeriSembilan Experience TsuyoshiKATo* Malaya in general, was indeed an event. There had been other cash crops, fbr Introduction example, gambir and coffee, and other cash- Gullick, a noted Malaysianist, once generating enterprises such as tin-mining, observed: befbre the introduction of rubber. But rubber decisively committed a large number One picul of rubber was exported from of Malay peasants in different parts of Negri Sembilan in 1902. This was an Malaya to cash cropping and thus to event; it had never happened before. a money economy, Malay vMage life was [Gullick 1951: 38]i> fundamentally afllected by it. The present paper will trace some of the The first consignment of rubber from influences experienced by the Malay Negeri Sembilan came from Linsum peasantry through the expansion of rubber Estate, located near the border of Seremban cultivation. In order to do so I examine and Port Dickson (Map 1). A few trees of the history of rubber cultivation in Negeri ffevea brasik'ensis had been planted there Sembilan. The cheice of Negeri Sembilan amongst the coffee in 1883, and a sample of for this inquiry is incidental; its results, their latex was sent for evaluation to however, will hopefully be consequential in Sungai Ujong, one of the major British their wider applicability to Peninsular adrninistrative centres in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. in 1893 [Jackson 1968: 213, 215, 223]. There a:re good reasons for carrying out However, it was only in 1902 that the first the present investigation of rubber culti- consignment of rubber was sent from the vation. Unlike other cash crops which Linsum Estate to England and sold fbr preceded fflavea, rubber eventually spread a satisfactory profit. Thencefbrth ensued to varieus parts of Malaya. Moreover, the successfu1 expansion of rubber culti- unlike ether cash crops, rubber cultivation vation in Negeri Sembilan. turned out to be an enterprise of enduring The commercial cultivation of rubber, commitment, which has survived frequent not in Negeri just Sembilan but British price fluctuations in the international rubber market. Although oil palm has increased * hllee ouII, The Center for Southeast Asian in significance in recent years, rubber still Studies, Kyoto University maintains an extremely important 1) Negri Sembilan is an old spelling of Negeri position Sembilan. in the national as well as rural economy of 109 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Mpt7Y7erve29ig2e -th. N ' ge KUAkA LUMPUR" erllli pelabuhth\e2}N Hretm (port svvitt-, rrarnT yer cu N jLie Baha Borto Mkir AMt, Berem s s LAKuela Johol Mekospa. Port Dickson Ktmpong Kutla Ungol M 8)s4 tanghak z) ' (Malaoca) OR Muar ig4 (4e e4 o 20 40 km - Map 1 Negeri Sembilan and Surrounding Areas <ca. 1988) present-day Malay$ia. material culture, rice cultivation, life styles Malays were involved in rubber culti- and work patterns, These are some of the vation almost from the beginning, although influences I will discuss in this paper. the British colonial autherities did not The historical examination of Malay welcome this and sometimes even attempted smallholding provides valuable insights for to discourage them. As Malay small- the understanding of contemporary rural holdings inultiplied throughout the 1910s development in Malaysia. A significant and 1920s, rubber cultivation began to element of post-war development projects, exert ramifying influences over various devised either by the colonial or Malaysian aspects of Malay village life: land tenure, governments, concerns the strengthening of settlement patterns, religious awareness, rubber smallholders, abeve all, Malay 110 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came; The Negeri Sembilan Experience smallholders. Concrete examples of this surely a prerequisite of our proper under- are the Replanting Scheme (Rancangan standing of Malaysia's contemporary rural Tanam Semula), the FELDA (Federal development, any me Land Development Authority) Seheme, Befbre going further, let briefly and the Fringe Area Alienation Scheme describe my research methodology. The (Rancangan Tanah Pinggir). These pro- present study comprises the second step in jects are not implemented in a vacuum; my project to reconstruct a social history of they are grafted onto the decades-long a lvak or ltehak [adat district] called Inas in history ofrubber smallholding. The accu- the District of Kuala Pi!ah, Negeri Sembilan mulated historical experience of smallhold- (Maps 1 and 2).2) In my previous writing ing has affected the thought and behaviour [Kato 1988], I described Malay village of the Malay peasantry. It is also bound life in Inas before the introduction ofrubber. to affect the implementation and outcome In it I examined agricultural rituals of development projects. The historical associated with rice cultivation and tried to examination of rubber smallholding is understand the cultural meaning of rice cultivation, an economic activity of decisiye importance befbre rubber was introduced into Malay vi11ages in the late 1900s. The present study begins where the previous study ended, and covers the period up to the early 1940s.3} I utilize four major sources of information in the reconstruction of locai social history. 2) Concerning my reasens for choesing Inas as a research site, refer to Kato [1988: 111-112]. 3) There are at least feur more studies planned after the present one. In a chronological order, the first one will deal with the Japanese occu- pation and the Emergency when the administrative Teorganizatien and pelitical transforma- tion of rural society proceeded from above. The second focuses en the 1960s when the politicians, at the expense of administrators, wielded increasingly stronger influence ever the decision-making processes of rural development. The third study eoncerns the last twenty years when the industrializatien, uTbanization and po!iticization of Malaysian society in general, under the New Economic Policy, has engu1fed "Inas at crossroads" Inas. Fourthly the wi11 Map 2 Administrative Districts and Adat pull together different strands of observation Districts in Negeri Sembilan (Luak) and consider future prospects fer the Malay Source: Peletz [1988: 17]; Nordin Selat [1976: V] village. 111 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Mpt7Y7Mve 29g2g One is my field research conducted m Inas. Mukim Johol I spent the total of months five in Negeri VII Implications of Rubber Small- 1986 and early 1989, Sembilanbetween late holding of which close to four months were spent in VIII Changes in Material Culture Inas. While in Negeri Sembilan, I also IX Rice and Rubber collected relevant at various Dminishing Forest Agricul- data govern- X and ment ofices at Kuala Pilah and Seremban. tural Rituals "Anatomy In writing this paper, land registration As a concluding remark, the of records at the Land Office of Kuala Pilah Malay Smallholding and Rubber Tapping" proved to be very usefu1. In addition to is discussed. field work in Negeri Sembilan, I spent about one month at the National Archives of I Negeri Sembilan in the Nineteenth Malaysia, mainly reading Negri Sembilan Century Adminlstration Reports and Annual Re- of Kuala Pilah Districtfrom the relatively ports Situated inland,the cultural colonial period. The National Archives core areas of Negeri Sembilan, that is, unfertunately does not have complete sets of Jelebu, Rembau, Sungai･ Ujong, Johol, and these documents. Nevertheless, some of Sri Menanti, are seldom mentioned in the docurnents I could locate there were European writings before the nineteenth usefu1 for my present purposes. Finally, century. Thus the fbllowing discussion I consulted various published materials on basically concerns conditions in Negeri Malay society and rubber cultivation in Sembilan in the nineteenth century, espe- Malaya. cially in the latter half of the nineteenth Among the four sources, I mainly relied century. on the latterthree in writing this paper Before the introduction of rubber, the which is primarily a general description of mainstay of the Malays of Negeri Sembilan the history of rubber cultivation in Negeri was rice cultivation. The quantity of rice Sembilan. The paper is organized ac- harvested largely determined the quality cording to the fo11owing topics : of life enjoyed. Because of the long I Negeri Sembilan in the Nineteenth maturation peried of indigenous varieties of Century rice, the Malays were involved in rice culti- II ChineseCassavaEstates vation, though admittedly not continuously, III British Colonial Rule and Land for probably nine to ten months of the year Legislation [Kato 1988: 128]. Various stages of rice IV Establishment of Pekan (Market cultivation entailed agricultural rituaJs and Towns) festive activities. The annual cycle of rice v Introduction of CultivatedRubber cultivation accentuated a basic rhytkm of to Malaya village 1ife. Rice cultivation was central to VI History of Rubber Smallholding in economic life, ritual life, and the belief 112 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience system of the Malay villagers. Despite this wide range of economic Despite the overwhelming importance of pursuits existing in Negeri Sembilan, the rice cultivation, it was not the only economic general impression is that Malay village pursuit in Negeri Sembilan in

Load more