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
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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 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, Land Development Authority) Seheme, Befbre going any further, let me 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 adminis- trative 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 Inas. Fourthly at the crossroads" wi11 Map 2 Administrative Districts and Adat pull together different strands of observation Districts (Luak) in Negeri Sembilan 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 five months in Negeri VII Implications of Rubber Small- Sembilan between late 1986 and early 1989, 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 data at various govern- X Dminishing Forest and Agricul- 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- Kuala Pilah ports of Districtfrom the Situated relatively 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 latter three 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 the nineteenth life, relatively speaking, was still on the century [Gullick 1951], Vegetables were periphery of the money economy in the planted in kamPong (homesteads), and first half of the nineteenth century. As edible plants were collected from around late as 1890, Javanese who carne to Jelebu saze,ah (wet-rice fields) and fbrest. The (a tin-producing yet admittedly remote area extraction of forest products such as rattan, in Negeri Sembilan) are said to have com- `Cthe honey, beeswax, gaharu (incense wood), mented that people of Jelebu so Iong as all sorts of fbrest rubber, and domar (resin) they have food are content." This implies was important because of their monetary that the Malays of Jelebu had not yet value. Fishing was carried out in the developed new needs and wants normally sawah, ponds and rivers as fish were the instigatedbyamoneyeconomy[Hill 1977: primary source of animal pretein. The 138]. raising of cattle and poultry was common, The above situation began to change from "live for they were assets" which could be around the middle ofthe nineteenth century. multiplied or, if need be, exchanged for Thriving Malacca, which became a British money or other goods or even used to possession in 1824 and later functioned as generate prestige through their conspicuous one of the major entry points for massive consumption at ceremonial occasions. Chinese immigration fbr tin-mining, was an Pottery-making, atap-making (making important factor in this development. thatch out of palm leaves) and mat-weaving Malacca and the Chinese tin-mining areas were also carried out but these products in inland Negeri Sembilan carne to con- were probably more fbr selfconsumption stitute enclaves of a strongly money- than for markets, at least until the early oriented economy in contrast to the village economies based nineteenth century. (On the other hand, prevalence of after the mid-nineteenth century, Malay largely on selfsuMciency. handicrafts had to compete against Chinese Some Malays in Negeri Sembilan handicrafts.) Some cash crops, such as developed a steady involvement with the coffee and tobacco, began to be cultivated money economy through their interaction towards the last quarter of the nineteenth with these Chinese enclaves. In the 1830s century. Tin-miningwaspractisedinsome the people of Johol, Sri Menanti, and parts of Negeri Sembilan, for instance at Rembau were exporting surplus rice to Sungai Ujong, Jelebu and Gemencheh but Malacca. Farm produce and livestock was already being dominated by the Chinese were sold to the Chinese in tin-rnines in from around the rniddle of the nineteenth Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Malacca, and later century. Gold-mining was not so im- Kuala Lumpur. Malacca Chinese came portant as tin-mining. to the Kuala Pilah area to buy fruit in the 113 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7Y7Mza neig2e 1880s. Some Malays squatted near cassava estates, with the concomitant Chinese tin-mines in the 1880s. Women development of land transportation, proba- re-panned and re-washed refuse heaps of bly reached it by the latter half of the 1880s. sand fbr,tin which Chinese miners had Concurrently, the establishment of British "house already panned and washed, while rnen did control entailed the imposition of odd jobs around the mines such as building taxes" in Inas, apparently from around 1888. ``house sheds[Hi}1 1977:126,137;Winstedt1950: The imp!ementation of the tax" 124;Rathborne 1984:132-133,309,319]. system presupposed a certain degree of diffu- The involvement of the Malay peasantry sion of the money economy and simultane- in the money economy was given a further ously predestined its further penetration. impetus in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Two events were responsible for II GhineseCassavaEstates this. One was the expansion of Chinese cassava estates from Malacca to Negeri Cassava is signbicant as a cash crop as Sembilan; the other, the consolidation of it is a source of tapioca flour, flakes or British control over Negeri Sembilan in pearls. It is not clear why the demand for 1887. 0ne underlying element in these tapioca increased in the nineteenth century. "order" the restoration of in events was There are two possible, though still con- The advent of Negeri Sembilan. large jectural, reasons for this : the rising demand revenues for Malay rulers through tin- fbr laundry starch in the British cotton mining concessions and the influx of many industry ancyor for tapioca pudding in step Chinese to the tin-mines caused frequent with the increasing consumption of coffee, feuds and much warfare ameng various tea and sugar in Europe. In either case, Malay leaders and also among rival Chinese another important factor in making tapioca "order" groups. The restoration of by the a successfu1 export product must haye been British in the iast quarter of the nineteenth the opening of the Suez canal in 1869 and century was conducive to the expansion of the subsequent adoption of steamships fbr cassava estates in practically all of Negeri the Asia-European sea route, The result- Sembilan. ing decline in transportation cQsts benefited, Both events mentioned above were es- for example, the export of sago, a bulk pecially important to Inas. Inas, being commodity, from the Straits Settlements geographically isolated from the major to Europe [Latham 1978];the sanie could riverine trade routes and having no nearby well apply to tapioca. little involved in the tin-mines, had been Cassava estates in Malaya were initiated money economy even after the mid- and subsequently controlled rnainly by the nineteenth century. However, this situ- Chinese of Malacca.4) The large-scale ation began to change in the last quarter of 4) The fo11owing acceunt of the development of the century. As Inas is situated relatively cassava estates in Negeri Sembilan is based on near Malacca, the expansion of the Chinese Jacksen [1968 : Chapter 4]. 114 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T, KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience comrnercial cultivation of cassava began in on, in the early 1880s, befbre tapioca prices Malacca in the early 1850s. Its processed plunged in 1882, it spread to Rembau, the product, tapioca, was mainly exported to neighbouring area of Malacca and Sungai the British rnarket. As lands in Malacca Ujong. By the latter half of the 1880s, became exhausted, the cultivation of particularly after tapioca prices began to cassava eventually spread to neighbouring recover in 1886, cassava cultivation was Negeri Sembilan and, to some extent, to also well established in Tampin, Johol, Johor. But it never became significant in and Gemencheh, with all concessiens other states of British Malaya. situated near Malacca and along the Cassava estates were operated on a Malacca-Tampin-Kuala Pilah road. In system of shifting cultivation. This culti- the rneantime, Sungai Ujong ceased to be vation method was extremely wasteful and important in the cultivation of this erop. devastating to the soil. A cassava estate Cassava remained the single rnost concession might eccupy an area from important cash crop in the present districts 1,500 to 5,OOO acres. A lot of land operated of Rembau, Tampin and Kuala Pilah until at any one time might range from 100 to the end of the first decade of the twentieth 1,OOO acres, Newly opened land was century. By that time much fbrest in the cultivated from three to five for years, areas was denuded, the colonial govern- during which time two or three crops of ment's attitude toward cassava cultivation cassava were harvested, with diminishing became negative, and the gospel of a new monetary return. Then the lot was cash crop, rubber, was already en the abandoned and a new tract of fbrest in the horizon. concession was opened up. When the Changes brought about by the spread of concession was exhausted, a new one was cassava estates were manifold. Road acquired. In processing cassava roots to networks were opened, improved and tapioca, large supplies of firewood were expanded in order to connect Malacca and required. This fact also accelerated the the areas of tapioca production, Cart speed of cultivation shifting and the de- roads crisscrossed and checkered the nudtng of fbrest. Thus, the cassava estates countryside, because cassava estates and steadily shifted towards the outer areas of forests fbr firewood supplies had to be Malacca and, in due course, far beyond. connected by a road to the tapioca factories. The expansion of cassava estates reached The latter were usually located near a river a peak in Malacca in 1882, by which time as the processing of cassava roots required the frontier of cassava cultivation had waterforwashing. Bullockcartseventually already advanced to the border areas be- became ubiquitous as a means of trans- "age tween Malacca and Negeri Sembilan. portation. Thus was initiated the of Cassava cultivation in Negeri Sembilan land transportation" in Negeri Sembilan. started in the latter half of the l870s, The incorporation of Negeri Sembi]an in initially in the Sungai Ujong area. Later the British sphere of infiuence in 1887 115 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Mta7V7Mza 29g2e further encouraged the advance of land Although Malays were net directly in- transportation. volved in the commercial cultivation of Another change wrought by the spread cassava, many of them were hired as wage of cassava estates was the closer level of labourers on the estates. They felled trees encounters between Malays and Chinese. at the initial stage of opening up the forest, Malay villagers in general had relatively and, after the planted lot began yielding, limited associations with the Chinese when they dug cassava roots, loaded them onto the latter were mainly concentrated in the bullock carts and carried them to the tin-rnines. Because of the shifting nature tapioca factory. This kind of arrangement of cassava cultivation, the estates, unlike was common because it was not unusual fbr the encapsulated enclaves of Chinese tin- estates and tapioca factories to be located minesi spread to almost al1 corners of near Malay settlements or even in the MalaccaandNegeriSembilan. Tin-mines midst of them.6) Thu$ cassava estates were isolated dots on a map, while cassava provided Malays with relatively easy access estates comprised a horizontal expansion. to a cash income. Bustling activities associated with cassava In many ways, the expansion of the cultivation and processing were more visible womanhadmarriedChlnesemen. Intheopin- to the outsiders than tin-mining activities. ion of the District OMcer, the Malay wemen were usually established Tapiooa factories were probably concubines of the Chinese the near water sources and at the same time (NSSF 568192). According to journal for January 1891 by the District OMcer of Kuala close to existing or newly-established road Pilah, a Chinese was murdered in Kampong systems. Bullock carts busied themselves Nuri in the previous year and two Malays were suspected of having committed the crime shuttling between the factories and cassava (NSSF 174191). The identificatien numbers in pa- estates. rentheses signify document numbers used for The above characteristics of the tapio ¢ a the Negri Sembilan Secretariat Files at the National Archives of Malaysia. All abbrevi- industry must have made the Chinese more ations for documents cited in this paper are listed familiar figures in the countryside of Negeri in the Bibliography. Sembilan than before. Closer encounters 6) For example, there was a large cassava estate (the Sungai Inas Estate) to the between Malays and Chinese in rural Negeri present just south of Inas, and its factory was located in "racial ' Sembilan are shown in the incidents' Kampong Seginyeh, at the confluence of two which were sometimes reported in official small rivers fiowing through Inas. According to Inas residents who are in their seyenties or documents towards the end of the nineteenth above, in their childhood some vi1lagers still "mar- century. Such incidents include workedonthecassavaestateforwages. Before riages" between Malay women and the 1920s the path connecting Inas to Pekan Johol, a nearby market town, was through the Chinese men and alleged murders of cassava estate. Villagers sometimes encoun- by Malays.fi) Chinese tered pigs raised by Chinese along the path to the pekan (market). Cassava cultivation was 5) In the early 1890s the Kathi (Islamic orncial) of often coupled with pig-rearing because pigs Johol complained to the District OMcer of could be fed the refuse frem tapioca processing Kuala Pilah that twe Inas women and one Johol Uackson 19os: 55]. 116 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Carne: The Negeri Sembilan Experience cassava estates and the resultant changes Mukim Register, which eventually replaced foretold what Malay society in Negeri the Malay Grants. The Grants are written Sembilan would later experience as rubber in Jawi (Arabic letters), and entries are cultivation expanded. For Malay peasants made according to household, not according it provided a foretaste of their society's to land lot. Thus one usually sees both irrevocable transitien from a subsistence- sawah and kampong (homestead) registered oriented economy to a money economy, under one entry. No specification of land size is made.7> No land other than sawah and kampong is registered in the Malay III British Colonial Rule and Land Grants, which suggests a rather narrow Legislation range of Iand utilization patterns among Perak, Selangor and part of Negeri the Malays of this period. Orchards Sembilan, that is, Sungai Ujong, came (dusun), fbr example, might have existed under the sphere of British colonial rule in then but they were probably not yet so 1874. The rest of Negeri Sembilan fo1- economically important, at least not lowed in 1887, tegetherwith Pahang. These important enough to be considered fbr tax fbur states (Perak, Selangor, Negeri purposes. Sembilan and Pahang) were to become the It is clear that the objective of the British Federated Malay States (FMS) in 1896. in compiling the Malay Grants was to tax The establishment of colonial rule brought households rather than land lots, They about many changes in the Malay society of Negeri Sembilan, especially concerning 7) Sawah and kampong in the Malay Grants were later to be classified in the Mukim Register as land, The British began registering land "custemary land" or land regulated according for revenue purposes. The first state-wide to matrilineal adat (a bedy of social etiquettes, land registers in Negeri Sembilan are called customs and tradition). However, some entries for these lands were made under male names the Malay GTants. The Land Ofuce of in the Malay Grants, which may suggest"cen- Kuala Pilah still the district's preserves fusion" in the translation of matrilineal adat Malay Grants in its oflice. I was fortu- into the Malay Grants. (Unfortunately r failed to check the relationship between these nately able to examine the of Mukim grants "land-possessing" rnales and the women under in which Inas is located. Altogether Johol whose names the lands were eyentually to be there are nine books of Malay Grants fbr registered in the Mukim Register, Although it is prebably impossible to check this, it would this merkim (subdistrict), containing some be valuable to ascertain whether the men were eight hundred entries. The first entry in husbands or rnaternal uncles to the land- the first book is dated November 17th inheriting women. The importance of this ) distinction was suggested to me by Michael 1887 and the last entry in the last book Peletz. Also see Peletz [1988: 137-138].) October25th,1896. I observed no similar confusion in the Mukim Register. was sometimes used as As far as I can ascertain from the case of Iinjang a measurement of sawah in the Malay Grants. Mukim Johol, the Malay Grants are "head" It refers only to the width of the of considerably different in character from the sawah and does net specify its size. 117 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7Y7Mza 29g2E "house probably started collecting tax" acre) and it was collected by District around 1888. A letter from the Super- Ofiicers," Hewever, I could find no indi- intendant of Police at Kuala Pilah, dated cation that the proposed new tax was actu- January 4th of 1888, addressed to the ally implemented in Mykim Johol.9) Colonial Secretary, reports that Datuk It is often stated that land possessed no Penghulu Inas (adat chief of Inas), after monetary value before the establishnent of some negotiations, finally agreed to collect British colonial rule in Malaya. Swetten- "house tax," that is, one dollar per house, ham, who had long experience in British "He "Land fbr the British: [Datuk Penghulu Malaya, observes: had no value in Inas] has now accepted his allowances tho' the Malay States of 1874 and it was the he has asked for certain sman additions & custom fbr anyone to settle where he he & his chiefs have alse agreed to the pleased on unoccupied and unclaimed co11ection of the.House tax in Inas." land" (quoted by Gullick [1958: 113, n. 2]). Initia1 negr)tiations between the two sides Judging from the way the Malay Grants took place in April of 1887. The final were organized, apparently the British did agreement stipulated that the number of not yet anticipate the commoditization of adat leaders in Inas who were to receive Malay smallholdings when they started menthly allowances from the British would compiling the Malay Grants in 1887. The be increasedfrom nine to seventeen.S) "holding" 9) In Mukim Johol ene dollar per was Over and above the lengthy negotiations evidently stM being collected through lembagta (matri-clan heads) in 1893. In a document required arid other dithculties they must dated March 16th of 1893 were listed 164 houses have encountered, the British, from the under seven lembaga in Inas, 432 houses under nine lembaga in and heuses under beginning, were evidently not happy with Johol, 213 six lembaga in Gemencheh, with annual al- the house tax. At the first meeting of the lowances totalling $648 for 22 lembaga in Negri Sembilan State Council, held on Mukim Johol (NSSF 380/93). The docurnent "List is titled ef holdings under the December 9th of 1889, they already jurisdiction ef each Lembagas of Inas and Johol." It lists proposed an alternative to the house tax: the name$ of lembaga in Inas, Jehol, and "holding" "r#maM' the flat rate of one dollar per Gemencheh, the number of (house) under their and the amount of was to be replaced with a five-percent tax jurisdiction, their monthly allowances. It is clear that on the average of sawah under "holding" padi yield here means house or househeld, not cultivation (NS AR 1889, pp. 3-4). land holding. (Note that in the above quo- "During tation Gullick seems te equate heuse tax with Gullick [1951: 42] writes: the $1 tax per one acre holding.) Likewise, the 189O's the tax was changed to an assessment final entry in the final book of the Malay Grants upon the profitability of the land (5% of of Mukim Johol, registered on October 25th "cu2ai 1896, still shows an entry [tax] $1.00" the annual crop of padi instead of $1 per in red ink on its backpage, indicating that the house tax was still being levied on that date. "K.P. "Super- 8) See File 9/88'' in the Files Malay Grants contain no information (for intendant of Police, Kuala Pilah, Negri instance, sawah size) which could be used for Sembilan 1887-1888" at the Natienal Archives the implementation of the newly proposed tax of Malaysia. system. 118 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience Malay Grants for Mukim Johol are listed in was sent to Australia to study the Torrens books of two different sizes: Qne with the System of Registration of Title. The lengths of 30 cm by 19 cm and the other Torrens System was initially introduced in with the lengths of 22cm by 15cm. In- South Australia in the 1850s. Kratoska forrnation was fi11ed on one page per [1985: 25] succinctly summarizes its charac- "The holdinglhouse with its backpage blank. teristics: Torrens System, which Each page contains the fbllowing informa- employs title by registration rather than tion: name [of the head of the holding], title by deed, is based on land registers tribe (or clan name of the holding head), maintained by the government, All alien- lembaga [of the holding head], number ef ated land is entered in the registers, and persons [in the holding], nature of culti- these entries are the land titles; to be vation (that is, sawah andlor kampong), legally binding, rnortgages, leases, and and date [of registration]. The page size transmissions of title must also be entered in of the Malay Grants allows no room for the register.'' writing any other information, for instance, Maxwell was appointed as the Resident on subsequent Iand transactions, In ad- of Selangor in 1889, He drafted the dition to this size limitation, the fact that Selangor Land Enactment of 1891, basing entries in the book were made according to it on the Torrens System. This law laid a house, not according to a lot, without the fbundation for land enactments which specifying land size, meant that the Malay were passed, without much variation, in Grants would net be usefu1 once the each of the Federated Malay States in 1897; commoditization process of Malay small- it was later repealed and reenacted with revisions in 1903. In the 1897 enactments holdings unfolded. ' In establishing and extending control in tenure of smallholdings came to be referred Malaya from the 1870s to the 1890s, it to as tenure by entry in the Mukim Register became imperative for the British to devise [eZid. : 24-26; AIIen and Donnithorne 1954: a relatively uniform systern of land legis- 115]. This comprised the first tangible lation in the western Malay States which step toward the replacement of the Malay would allow the expansion of British and Grants with the Mukim Register. In ether European-managed estates. We Negeri Sembilan, the initial registration should note here that these were the and survey of land for the irnplementation decades when European interests in of the enactment continued until 1904 plantation agriculture, for example, sugar [Gullick 1951:42]. and coffee, were growing in Malaya I examined the Mukim Register ef [Jackson 1968:Partll]. Thepersonwho Mukim Johol in the Land Othce of Kuala most influenced the drafting of this Iegis- Pilah. Therearealtogether33booksinthe lation was William Maxwell. Register for this mukim. The first entry of In 1882, Maxwell, a British official the first book is dated June 23rd of 1903. familiar with Malay systems of land tenure, Reflecting the purpose of the Mukim 119 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7Y7Mve 29g2e Register, the books are designed to record If the British rnost probably devised all land transactions revolving around the the Mukim Register in fu11 anticipation entry of a particular lot. Thus the book that Malay smallholdings would be com- size of the Mukim Register is considerably moditized, the very existence of the Register larger than that of the Malay Grants, with in turn promoted the commoditization dimensions of 49 cm by 30 cm. Moreover, process. Land began to be registered two open pages are used fbr one entry. under individual names; the procedure for The Mukim Register concerns small- alienation was clearly specified; the transfer holdings of less than ten acres. They of ownership was regulated and guaranteed 'record the heldings of Malays, Chinese and legally. These characteristics of the Regis- Indians but most of the ennies belong to ter all contributed to the rapid cornrnodi- the Malays. Each entry in the Register tization of land. As wi11 be discussed later, includes the fo11owing infbrmation : number Malay peasants were already speculating in of the holding (or a sort of identification opening up and se]ling smallholdings during number in the Mukim Register), survey the 1905-1908 rubber planting boom. In number, number and nature of former title retrospect it is the Mukim Register, among [if anyi, name of owner, area (that is, size), other things, which bred and nurtured boundaTies, nature of cultivation (for Malay attachment to 1and ownership, example, sawah, kampong or rubber) and although not necessarily to the land itself. Iocality (that is, settlement or viIlage name), special conditions [of cultivation, such as "no IV EstablishmentofPekan rubber"], subsequent proceedings (date Towns) of issuance of extract and so on), [amount (Market ony annual rent, and remarks (such as The last quarter of the nineteenth t`customary land"). century was a time of great transformation It is interesting to note that initially two in Negeri Sembilan. The general atmo- facing pages of the Mukim Register sphere was replete with new experiences contained two entries, one occupying the and new expectations. Malay peasants top half and the other the bottom half. increasingly came into contact with un- This changed in early 1905 when the whole familiar peoples and institutions in their two pages were alloted to a single entry. own environment. As a result of the As wi11 be described Iater, this coincided expansion of the cassava estates, more and with the first rubber planting boom in the rnore Chinese were seen in the Malay European estate sector. This change in countryside. Someofthemwereoperating the allocation of page spa ¢ e in the Mukim as merchants among the Malay villagers'in Register may reflect an awareness on the the 1890s [Gul]ick 1951: 53]. An in- British side that land transactions among creasing number of Sumatran Malays came Malay smallhelders would become more to the peninsula, including Negeri frequent in the future. Sembilan, as agricultural pioneers, mer- 120 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber CaJne: The Negeri Sernbilan Experience chants or estate workers [HM 1977: 127; concerning circular migration: Kratoska 1985: 17; Gullick 1951: 52- 53]. Malays, who may initially have been Malay silversmiths, blacksmiths, and C`unable to suppress their wonders at the carpenters are fast being superseded by whiteness of a European skin, and astonish- Chinese, and as the villagers have no ment at being able to see the veins in it" trades to give them occupation during the became accustomed to the sight ofEuropean time there is nothing doing in the fields, planters and colonial oMcials, and even to many of the men leave their homes in Sikh police.iO) After the consolidation of search of employment, returning at British rule, such hitherto unknown insti- frequent intervals, for they are able by tutions as police stations, and later working three months in the year te vernacular schools, were established. The supply themselves with all the necessaries expansion and improvement of road they require fbr the remaining nine. systems further stimulated the movement ef peoples, commodities, and ideas. At the hub of these transformations and In particular, transformations during this commotions were the pekan or market period meant that Malay peasants were towns. New institutions such as police increasingly drawn into the money economy. stations, vernacular schools, dispensaries, For one thing, each house under the Malay and later oMces for penghwlv (mukim Grants had to pay an annual house tax ef officials) were usually established in one dollar to the colonial government. pekan,ii) Chinese, Indians, Europeans, There were more and more opportunities and Malays congregated there. Pekan fbr wage labour available, for examp!e, were the nodal points of transportation fbrest clearing at European coffee estates or systems, through which money, peoples, road construction sites [Rathborne 1984: cemmodities, and ideas circulated. At 50,331-332;Hill 1977:138]. Asalready shops and stalls in pekan the Malays were mentioned, a large number of Malays were introduced to soap, matches, kerosene oil, also hired in the tapioca industry as and firecrackers. At coffee shops and small labourers or drivers of bullock carts (see restaurants they also came to know the also Rathborne [1984: 3n and Jackson habit of tea- or coffee-drinking and acquired [1968: 74]). Circular migration was a taste for Chinese noodles and Indian becoming common. Though referring to Malacca in the early 1880s, Rathborne 11) Evidently there were variations as to when the were instituted in different districts of [1984: 34] makes the fo11owing observation penghulu Negeri Sembilan, There were no penghulu 10) The quotation is from Rathborne [1984: 193]. yet in Kuala Pilah in 1916, while there were It describes the reaction of Malays in Perak already appointees in Jelebu in 1910. In the when they saw a white man (Rathborne) for the Iatter district land applications began to be first time, probably in the late 1880s. A similar made through penghulu, not through Iembaga, reaction possibly occured arnong the Malays of after 1910 (AR KP 1916, p. 7; AR JB 1910, Negeri Sembilan. p. 11). 121 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7VTMsc 29ig2e ``pancake"). reli canai (Indian ing to the Chinese cassava estates.i2) As I do not know the history of pekan in early as 1892 a certain W.H.I. Silva pro- Negeri Sembilan. Old pekan were usually posed to the British Resident of Negeri established at the major confluences and Sembilan that, if given government kuala (river mouths) of relatively heavily assistance, he would be willing to run a daily trafficked Yet, rivers. judging from the mail coach between Malacca and Kuala fact that the modern pekan in Malay Pilah via Tarnpin and Pekan Johol in ten society were, and still are, primarily hours (NSSF 553/92), The proposal inhabited by Chinese (and in some cases by indicates the existence of a good road system Indians), the growth of contemporary pekan as well as frequent contacts and communi- must date back to the time when the Chinese cations along this route. The first ver- started taking up residence in inland Negeri nacular school in the area was being Sernbilan. The development of roads was constructed in Pekan Johol in 1898 [NSSF another important factor, as these pekan 3036!98], are Ioeated along trunk roads. In essence the pekan were the embodi- As already mentioned, tapioca factories ment of the money economy. It was at were connected with Malacca via cart roads the pekan that money and goods could be or metalled roads. The transportation of exchanged and unfamiliar and attractive goods between these places was two-way. commodities could be purchased for a Bullock carts brought tapioca to Malacca price. There had already been increasing and carried back factory provisions on their opportunities to earn cash before the return trip [Jackson 1968: 72-73]. As establishrnent of celonial rule, fbr instance, were established, that pekan itisprobable carrying out odd jobs around Chinese tin- these bu]lock carts also began to transport mines and working for wages at cassava from Malacca goods for sale at the pekan. estates; these were al1 significant fbr the In the meantime, pekan functioned as expansion of a money e ¢ onomy. But fat collection points of forest products such as more important than this was the fact that rattan and damar. According to a man in the pekan, together with the itinerant his late seventies in Inas, in his childhood, Chinese merchants who carried goods on he used to accompany his father in carrying a pole and travelled between the pekan and rattan or damar from the vi11age to Pekan Malay villages, constituted institutionalized Johol, the pekan nearest to Inas. Given agents of consumption goods and thus these developments, the transportation of aroused new material wants in the hearts goods by bullock cart became a business in of Malay peasants. itself. Rathborne, who opened a ceffee estate at Pekan Johol was already in existence 12) Itisnotclearwhenthefirstopiumshopwasbuilt around 1890, complete with police station but there was an application by a Chinese to and shops (NSSF 966/92). One of the open the second opium shop in Pekan Jehol in shops was probably an opium shop supply- 1893 (NSSF 463/93), 122 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T, KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience Gunung [Mt.] Berembun, near the border facilities for procuring money ha$ [sic] advanced tweed between Kuala Pilah and Seremban (Map ... a fondness for 1), in the eaTly 1880s, makes the fbllowing suits, felt caps, smoking caps and even `sola observation about his Malay workers, most the topi' has been creating [sic]. of whom must have come from Negeri (quoted by Hill [1977: 138]) .Sembilan : Through their exposure to the pekan, the I always entertained them [Malay Malay peasantry of Negeri Sembilan was workers] te tea, and their wonder was immutably enticed into a journey toward at the clock, whose pendulum swung the money economy, a journey with no backwards and fbtwards with constant return. regu!arity; and the ticking of my watch would surprise and amuse them as they V IntroductionofCultivated placed it to their ears. Phetographs Rubber to Malaya they did not seem to understand at all, .... Notwithstanding the strangeness of Concerned about the presumably im- their surroundings they never appeared pending depletion of tin deposits in western gauche or awkward except when sitting Malay States, Rathborne [1984: 153] wrote on a chair for the first time, and then as fo11ows in the late 1890s: they would sit gingerly on the very edge of the seat, and were apparently half ... these alluvial deposits are now afraid lest it should give way beneath within measurable distance of being their weight, [Rathborne 1984: 53] exhausted along the western coast; and then the mining population will have to Malay naivete about European material turn their attention to the undeveloped culture was to undergo a rapid change. eastern side of the mountain, Before Curious products which Rathborne showed this takes place it is to be hoped that the to his Malay workers soon ceased to be permanent cultivation of some agri- objects of mere novelty and became obiects cultural products will have extended sufl of craving. In 1896, reviewing the first ficiently to enable this certain loss of ten years of British rule in Negeri Sembilan, revenue to be in some measure recouped, Cazalas, the acting District Oficer of and that the nomadic habits of a con- Kuala Pilah, made the foIIowing remark : siderable proportion of the Malay settlers will not cause them to abandon their Ten years experience of the people holdings and migrate elsewhere, fo11owing here have demonstrated ... that in the wake of the mining industry. weakness for fine cloths and fbr adorning themselves with gold and silver orna- The Victerian prospector's hope was to be ments has increased in proportion as answered dramatically in a short while by 123 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University fiM7Y7utfl eeig2e the spectacular rise of rubber in the early 1905 and 1908. The areas planted with twentieth century. rubber in the three states of Perak, The general history of the introduction of Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan increased flevea brasiZiensis to Malaya is well known ; from 43,410 acres to 166,257 acres between it is hardly necessary to retell it here in these years. In Negeri Sembilan alene great detail. Sufice te say that it took they expanded from 5,718 acres to 27,305 over a quarter of a century frem the first acres during the same period [Jackson importation of Hevea seeds frorn Brazil, 1968: 229]. Major centres of rubber via Kew Gardens in England, to Singapore cultivation in Negeri Sembilan at this early in 1877 and then eventually to Malaya in the stage were the districts of Seremban and early twentieth century. Pantai (Port Dickson). In these districts Negeri Sembilan is one of three Malay the Chinese were also beginning to plant states where rubber cultivation expanded rubber, oftentimes mixed with cassava or quickly frem the beginning of this century ; garnbier. the other two are Perak and Selangor. Rubber prices, and later goyernment The successfu1 shipment of rubber from the regulations, strongly influenced the sub- Linsum Estate in 1902 signaled a bright $equent expansion of rubber cultivation. future for the new commercial crop. As There was a sharp price rise between 1909 if encouraged by the satisfactory showing and 1910, fbllowed by a severe downfa11 in of this first consigmnent, impetus for rubber 1913. And modest recovery was registered mounted cuItivation in Negeri Sembilan. between 1915 and 1916, only to be counter- In 1903 alone there were applications for manded by a continuous downward trend, rubber land covering roughly 20,OOO acres with a minor recovery in 1919, until the the state in [Jackson1968:225]. implementation of the Stevenson [rubber of the Convinced future of rubber, the restriction] Scheme (1922-1928). Due colonial government encouraged the expan- largely te the impact of the restriction sion of European-managed rubber estates scheme, prices rose again in 1924 and 1925; in Malaya [Lim 1977: 72-73]. They they began to drep in 1926 and plunged gave them tax incentives and offered them, during the Great Depression. In response with favourable conditions, abandoned to this dismal state, the International tapioca or gambier estates which needed no Rubber Regulation Agreement, signed by forest clearing fbr rubber planting. They the British, Dutch, Siamese, and French earmarked land near roads and railways for governments, was implemented in 1934. them, and eventually facilitated the im- After its renewal in 1938, the scheme portation of estate labourers from India, remained effective until the outbreak of the Buoyed by the rising rubber prices between SecondWorldWar. Thesecondrestriction 1905 and 1906, and assisted by London scheme greatly he]ped to raise and stabilize capital, rubber cultivation expanded phe- rubber prices but never managed to bring nomenally in Western Malaya between about the kind of recovery effected by the 124 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience Stevenson Scheme, especially for the period with srnallholdings in Mukim Johol, and 1924-1925. Throughout the 1930s there most probably elsewhere in Negeri were no more drarnatic fluctuations in Sembilan. rubber prices, such as' were characteristic of the rubber market in the first three VI HistoryofRubberSmallholding decades of the twentieth century. in Mukim Johol The expansion of rubber cultivation generally fo11owed price increases, and later By checking through the Mukim Reg- was influenced increasingly by government ister, one is able to study the local history regulations. The 1905-1908 initial boom of rubber smallholding in a particular area. was further fueled by high rubber prices This is what I did for Mukim Jehol by between 1909 and 1911 and was to be examining the Mukim Register in the Land fbllowed by another notable expansion in Othce of Kuala Pilah. 1915-1917. During the period of the Table 1 shows the number of approved Stevenson Scheme (1922-1928), the new applications for rubber lots registered in alienation of rubber was prohibited by the the Mukim Register of Mukim Johol. It colonial government, and the new planting covers the pre-war period from 1907 when of rubber on existing land discouraged. the first application for a rubber lot was After a short interval during which this approved in Mukim Johol until 1940 when policy was reversed, new alienation was the expansion of rubber smallholdings had again prohibited in 1930, in response to the long ceased to be significant. The years serious price drop during the Great De- indicated in the table refer to dates when pression. From 1934 onwards this pro- applications were approved by the Land hibition was accompanied by a ban on the Othce, not when extracts were issued. new planting of rubber in Malaya; these There was usually a time lag of several "double restrictions" were to continue months to a few years between these two until the beginning of the war, with the time points. Lots could be utilized once exception ef a short period between 1939 the application had been approved; but and 1940 [Allen and Donnithorne 1954: they could not be rnortgaged or transferred 126;Barlow 1978:71;Bauer 1948:3,5, until the extracts were issued, While 43, 43, n.1, 65; Lim 1977: 153-154]. Table 1 shows the increase in the number of One conclusion we may draw from the smallholdings in Mukim Johol, Table 2 existence of these restrictions is that the indicates the area of expansion of rubber great expansion of rubber cultivatien in smallholdings in Inas. There is little Malaya, either in the estate or smallholding difference in growth trends between the two t`Inas" sectors, effectively ended, or at least greatly tables (compare Table 2 with in slowed down, after the implementation of Table 1), so I basically rely on Table 1 in the Stevenson Scheme. As will be shown the fo11owing discussion. shortly, this was not exactly what happened Rubber smallholdings in Mukim Johol 125 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University rkm7ti7asza eeg2e Table 1 Historical Changes in the Number of Srnallholdings in Multim Johol Inas "OtherJohel" MalayChineseIndianTotal MalayChineseInclianTotal 1907190819091910191119121913l914191519161917191819191920192119221923192419251926192719zz192919301931193219331934193519361937193819391940ooo8o32113712o1oooo315572133832ooo1ooo1oooo7372251oooooooooDooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo153104318812o1oooo315572133832ooo1ooo1o845222484108312922447oooo30438192M3424511o41424o2o11175or172353919114oooooooooooooooooooooooo1oo3o32ooooooooooooooooooooooooee 52 33ca 9 37 28 5 5013343 15 11 o o o oso438192Menm 5 1 1 o 4 1 4 2 4 o Total 191 or o 218 780 189 9 978 Souroe: Mukim Register of Mukim Johol, Land Ornce of Kuala Pilah began shortly after the high rubber prices Dato' of Johol (adat chief of Luhak Johol) of 1905-1906, precisely the years when the had aiready proposed to the goyernrnent first rubber planting boom took p!ace in the a special s ¢ heme to encourage rubber estate sector. As early as late 1905 the smallholdings in Johol. Local reception of 126 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T, KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience Table 2 Historical Expansion in the Area Size of Smallholdings inInas Malay Chinese Total AcreRed Pole AcreRod Pole AcreRod Pele 1907190819091910191119121913191419151916191719181919192e19211922192319241925192619271928192919301931193219331934193519361937193819391940 o oooooo113o2oooooo13o12o31ooo2ooooooo35o16.3o2920 ooo4113sa83232oooooooeoooooooooooooooooo33lo332oooooooooooooooooooooooooesa3520mo19. o oooo3111322oooooo13e12o31eoo2ooooooo283536.320 o o o25 o67 o 1348 10 9 17 224 22825ooooooooooeoooooooooooo 648 8.2832.811o1oooo33 1526 T811o1oooozz 1726 o o 6 6 o o o o o o o o 547183618626 547183 3.320. 3.320.223. 223.116. 618626 116. 639.73oooo38oooo 639. 73oooesaoooo !1 11 5 5 e o o o o o 4 4 o o o o o o 5 5 Total 556 3 17 132 3 20.2 os9 2 37.2 Source: Mukim Register of Mukim Johol, Land OMce of Kuala Pilah the scheme was good and the District OMcer among British officials. Under the revised of Kuala Pilah was supportive of it. The scherne, $350 was set aside out of oMcial revised scheme was finally approved in funds to purchase seeds and set up nurseries "It March 1906 after considerable discussions fbr gerrnination. was reported that the 127 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University ptwt797-ve 29#2e Malays of Johol were busily clearing the place in i913 when rubber prices dropped. lots which the Settlement Othcer had Apart from possible economic difficulties, demarcated" [Drabble 1973:41; see also this easy release of lots seems to indicate Lim 1977:79]. Unfbrtunately no fo1- a lack of cemmittment to rubber cultivation lowup report on this scheme is extant. ameng the early Malay smallholde'rs. I ``early ``Other Some of the lots" of Johol" may add here that most of the plots bo'ught in Table 1 may have possibly been opened by Chinese were eventually mortgaged to up under this scheme. Chettier moneylenders in 1920. Rubber "Other rubber between the beginning and In comparison to Johol" pricesplunged '1978:56].i3} cultivation in Inas started a little Iater. the end of 1920 [Barlow The fact that Inas was isolated from the Evidently the above tendency discerned Kuala PilahrTampin trunk road seems in Mukim Johol was not an isolated case. largely to explain this lag. According to After noting a considerable increase in the an old man in Inas, Inas people, without number of smallholdings between 1908 much previous contact with the outside and 1912, the Negri Sembilan Administra- world, were ignorant and afraid of trying tion Report for the year 1912 makes the new things such as planting rubber. fo11owing observation : There were several pioneers in Inas in the early stages ef rubber srnallholding. These figures indicate a steady demand Among them were Penghulu Sulong (then for land by native cultivators, but would Datuk Penghulu Inas), two lembaga and be more satisfactory if all the small Haji Jarnbi, a wealthy merchant immigrant holdings taken up rernained in the hands from Sumatra [Lewis 1962: 292]. Like of small cultivators. Unfortunately, a the Dato' of Johol mentioned above, certain number of them are sold after pioneer smallhelders in general were proba- a year or two, in some cases before they bly people of means in the village. have even been planted, but usually after Although not indicated in Table 1, one being cleared and planted with rubber characteristic of early rubber smallholding trees, te adjacent estates or persons who "Other in Johol" was its speculative nature a[re already considerable lamd owners, arid, to a certain degree. For example, in except in the Kuala Pilah, Tampin and Kampong Kuala Kampong Johol and Jelebu districts, where the Customary Mesjid Tua, two kampong situated along Lands Enactment is in fbrce, the law the trunk road, there were 86 Malay provides no check upon such transactions smallholdings approved between 1907 ahd and there only in the case of lands entered 1909. 0ut of this figure, 53 lots were sold 13) Kampong Kuala Johol and Meajid Tua were to Chinese and 24 to Malays within several chosen as samples in my survey of the land registers because they are located along the years after their applications were approved, Kuala Pilah-Tampin trunk road and Malay that is, even before the rubber trees started rubber smallholdings started earlier here than bearing. Themajorityoftransactionstook in ether Ereas ef Johol. 128 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience as customary lands in the register. (NS profitable a few acres of rubber in bearing AR 1912, p. 6) are at present. Hundreds of Malays thronged the office daily clamouring for The expansion of rubber smallholdings land and the books [of the Mukim in Mukim Johol was concentTated in two Register] had to be closed on two oc- KP periods before 1940: 1907-19I7 and 1924- casions during the year. (AR 1930. Active planting during the two 1916, p. 3) periods was clearly influenced by high rubber prices. The second rubber planting boom was The first period was obviously instigated preceded by several years of no active by rising rubber prices between 1905 and planting. The lack of action was caused 1906, and by the 1905-1908 rubber planting by price fa11s and the prohibition of new boom at the estate sector. There was alienation during the Stevenson Scheme. "steady a demand,'' according to the Negri Difficulties encountered by the rubber Sembilan Administration Report for the industry in production and exportation year 1911, fbr smallholdings in Negeri under war-time conditions were not en- "Proba- Sembilan from 1909 through 1911 : couraging either for the expansion of rubber bly a large proportion of these lots were cultivation. taken up with a view to cultivation of In Table 1 it is noteworthy that no more rubber" (NS AR 1911, p. 5). (The Chinese (and Indian) smallholdings aTe Administration Report gives figures of observable after 1919. Probably the Malay smallholdings only frem 1909 to 1911 but Reservations Enactment is largely re- ``steady the demand" must have started sponsible fbr this phenomenon. The earlier than 1909.) enactment, which purports to preserve t`Ma!ay Above all, the period between 1915 and lands or reservations" under Malay `tan 1917 is considered era of rapid planting ownership and fbr future Malay occupation, on the part of smallholders, both Malay wasinitiallydraftedinJuly1913. Thiswas and Chinese, particularly in the western a reaction to the contemporary trend MalayStates''[Jackson 1968:251. The whereby many Malay smallholdings were District Othcer of Kuala Pilah made the sold to non-Malays as discussed above. foIIowing comment on the condition in his After the enforcement of the Malay Reser- district in 1916: vations Enactment, alienation and land transactions in the smallholding sector The local Malays were badly bitten with became increasingly dithcult and unat- the rubber craze, partly no doubt owing tractive to non-Malays. The implemen- to the example set by Europeans and tation of the enactment was scheduled fbr others, but chiefly I think, as a large January lst 1914 but concrete steps were number of small holdings came into not taken until 1915 [Drabble 1973:102]. bearing during 1916 and it was seen how In Negeri Sembilan, it was only in 1916 129 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University ' MM797Mre 29ig2e "Nil that the enactment was actually imple- Table 3 Number of Lots" in Mukim Johol mented in rnost mukim of Kuala Piiah, Inas"OtherJohol"TotEl Tarnpin and Jelebu. As far as MukiiTi 192519261927192819291930193119321933193419351936193719381939194021112313o1ooo1ooo1o4247574l822411o4o1ooo 6 Johol is concerned, it was most probably 35 effected in 1917.i4} 87105 It is surprising that the second period of the rubber planting boom (1924-1930) was 21 22 as important as, or in case of Inas more 5 important than, the first period in Mukim 1 This is so because new Johol. particularly 1 alienation was supposedly prohibited in o Mala)ra after the Stevenson Scheme (1922- 5 o 1928), apart frem the exceptional years of 1 o 14) This delay in impiementing the enactment in the 1 three disnicts of Negeri Sembilan is explained "When as follows: the Enactment of 1913 was o this ceurse did not seem necessary passed, Total 62 228 290 owing to the protection against alienation of Malay custDmary holdings afforded by the Source: Mukim Register of Mukim Johol, Land Customary Tenure Enactment of 1909, which OMce ef Kuala Pilah applies to the three districts of Kuala Pilah, Tampin and Jelebu, but to secure this protection 1928-1930and1939-1940[Bauer 1948:3, it was necessary that the lands should be registered as customary-i.e., lands succession 5, 43, 43, n.1, 65]. `adat to which fellows the perpateh,' and this "anornaly'' Part of the explanation for this cour$e, though suitable in the case of kampong ``nature is found in the of cultivation'' and sawah lands, was found irksome in practice if applied te lands taken up rnerely to be culti- clause in the Mukim Register. Many vated for profit. On the other hand, if these "nil," whi ¢ h were not extant in the earlier holdings were net registered as customary, "nature are the of there was nothing to prevent their sale later on period, fbund in to Eurepeans er Chinese, even though they were cultivation" clause among the entries made situated in the midst of Malay holdings, and after 1924, that is, during the second rubber after carefu1 censideration the State Council 3). I equated the decided en the ceurse which was adopted as planting boom at the same time securing that, if the lands were experience in land administration informed in a locality Malay, they predeminantly should "nil" me that the was in reality the same as not pass into non-Malay hands" (NS AR "A "rubber." "nil'' 1916, pp. 9-10). In 1916 further reserva- Some entries undeT in tion at Inas is under consideration" ct't.), "rubber" (loc. the Mukim Register had written The expansion of Malay reservations continued "nil." in after the The tax rates fbr in the three districts in 1917 (NS AR 1917, pencil "nil p. 3). lots" were exactly the same as those of 130 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sernbilan Experience `trubber lots," which were much higher than Malays who themselves, until that time, had those of sawah or kampong. been active in opening up rubber small- The above observation strongly suggests holdings. In this sense, the expansion of that rubber smallholdings in Mukim Johol smallholdings in the 1920s was critical expanded $ignincantly under the guise ef because it signified a more or less pure `Cnil" when new alienation fbr rubber IEmd gain in the number of Malay holdings and "rubber wasprohibited. In addition, lots'' thus enlarged the involvement of the themselves increased during the second Malays in rubber tapping as either owner- period (compare Tables 1 and 3). In fact, tappers or share-tappers.i6) rubber holdings registered as such in both It is dithcult to estimate to what degree the estate a:nd smallhelding sectors in Negeri the above observatien is true for the rest Sembilan as a whole increased remarkably of Negeri Sembilan or to other Federated between 1917 and 1939 (see Table 5 on Malay States. Judging from the general page 150).is) observation that new land alienation and in Inas remember the Old people period planting were either prohibited or dis- of the second rubber restriction scheme as couraged during the two restriction schemes, is years of great prosperity. This so the Johol case might have been an ex- despite the fact that rubber prices during ceptional one. Nevertheless, a further this period were not as high as during the inquiry into this question is needed to time of the StevensonScheme, One of the assess the magnitude and timing of the reasons for this incongruity lies in the fact economic impact of rubber cultivation in that far a greater number of Malay peasants rural Malaya. As far as Mukim Johol is were involved in rubber tapping during concerned, the latter half of the 1930s is the second restriction scheme than during far more important in this respect than that the first. It is important to realize that the of the 1920s. cumulative total of smallholdings acquired and planted from 1907 through to the 1920s were practically all at the bearing 16) It is alsQ that Chinese who had stage when the International Rubber possible purchased Malay lots in the early stage of Restriction Agreement was implemented rubber expansion later resold them to Malays in 1934. We must a!so recall that, prior after the Malay Reservations Enactment. However, this possibility is not substantiated to the implementation of the Malay Reser- in Mukirn Johol. A cursory review of Chinese vations Enactment 1917 in Mukim (around lets in Kampong Kuala Johel and Kampong Johol), many Malay Iots were sold to non- Mesjid Tua reveals that few, if any, of the Chinese lots were seld back to Malays before the Second World War. However, this kind of 15) Unfortunately I do not know how common transaction became common in the early 1950s, "nil lots" were in other districts of NegeTi especially in 1954, This was probably related Sembilan and whether they weTe counted as to the Emergenc)r (1948-1960) and alse to the "rubber lots" in calculating macro statistics initiation of a government-sponsored rubber such as those listed in Table 5. replanting scheme for smallholders in 1953. 131 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7S77Mve 29g2e ous parts of British Malaya was also instrumental for the rapid expansion ef the VII ImplicationsofRubber transportation system, railways as well as Smallholding roads, in the peninsula [Kaur 1985]. It is said that Malay settlements in the One by-product of this was that dusun or nineteenth century tended to lack perma- orchards became an important economic nenee. Rural populations often dispersed asset, as fruit, an easily perishable commod- in response to political oppression, economic ity, could now be marketed in towns and exploitation, wars, new economic oppor- cities largely to Chinese. For example, after tunities, epidemics, or soil deterioration the town of Kuala Pilah was connected with rail 1910, [Gullick 1958]. The establishment of Bahau by in durian from villages Pilah British control offered the Malay peasantry around Kuala became a lucrative a relatively stable political environment and commodity (AR KP 1912, p, 6). Likewise, thus one more congenial to a settled durian harvested at Chiong in Inas becaJme existence. Rubber, a perennial crop which marketable only after a three-foot road must mature for six to seven years until the trees can be tapped, further enhanced this between Sekolah Melayu Inas and Kuala tendency. Note, however, that the colonial Johol, a junction on the Kuala Pilah- introduction of land registers cut both ways Tarnpin-Malacca trunk road. in this context. On the one hand, land In step with these developments in the registration increased the peasants' attach- transportation systems, Malay settlement ment to land ownership, and thus, to some patterns also underwent a transformation. extent, to the land itself; the institutionali- According to old people in Inas, the best zation of la:nd ownership, on the other ha nd, lo¢ ations for houses were considered to be enhanced the sense of deprivation among near sawah, streams or footpaths connecting those who owned little or no land and thus settlements and sawah. In time past it was encouraged them to migrate when a better common for the front part of the house to chance for land ownership becarne available face the sawah. As cart roads and later outside their village. (The FELDA metalled roads were constructed, more and scheme owes part of its success to this more houses began to be built along them "peasant psychology" created after the (see also Gullick [1958: 27] and Kaur colonial introduction of land registers.) [1985: 13-14]). This tendency was a pre- The fact that land is now a liquid com- cursor of contemporary Malay settlement modity, theoretically easily exchanged for patterns where most houses are lined up rnoney, also tends to enhance this mobility; along the roads, usually away from the small landowners can dispose of their sawah. A tangible sign of change in lands and leave fbr a new Malay settlement is still occasion- 'settlement.existing patterns ally seen in the location of mosques. Old The eventual spread of rubber over vari- mosques tended to be built near a river or 132 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience stream. Nowadays, if a road is located by Chinese merchants. It seems that away from the river, a new mosque is interracial relations then were not as usually constructed by the roadside, problematic as they were to become after "[T]he (Moslems need access to water for ablutions the Second World War. tendency befbre their daily prayers; the availability here [in the District of Kuala Pilah] of of piped water now allows flexibility in the Malay women to fbllow Chinese" was choice of mosque locations.) In the still observed in 1912 (AR KP 1912, p. 4). country$ide of Kuala Pilah, one sometimes The adoption of Chinese girls by Malay comes across abandoned mosques in a couples was not unusual either, judging dilapidated state, away from the road but from the existence of several, clearly . near a rlver. Chinese-Ieoking old women in Inas (see Chinese involvement in rubber culti- also Lewis [1962: 30, n. 1]).i7) Chinese vation signified their decision to make shops were also commonly fbund in the Malaya a place of long-term or permanent, rather than temporary, residence. In 17) Adoption for the sake of continuing a matriiine was cornmen in Negeri Sembilan; whereas this cassava cultivation, they could reap quick was not the case in the Minangkabau society of returns and even squeeze eut profits from West Sumatra. Iwas teld in Inas that in ad- dition to their fair skin, Chinese were an entire estate within several years. girls preferred for adoption because they would Rubber cultivation, in contrast, required not be claimed back by their original parents a long-range committment. Change in even after they grew up. This was not neces- saTily the case with adopted Malay the Chinese orientation in this respect is girls. Demographic factors may have been partly refiected in the development of Pekan responsible for this preference, It is my Johol, Reportedly it was already a sizable impression that the Malay birth rate and the ratio of children surviving to maturity in Chinese settlement in the first decade of the Negeri Sembilan increased only after the 1900s twentieth century. However, shops still when rural Malays began to eajoy prosperity, had atap-roofs and atap-walls, The first sllMcient and better food supplies, and im- proved hygiene and sanitary conditions. These brick-built shop balu) appeared in (feedai improvements were due largely to the develop- 1918, A Chinese primary school, sup- ment of dispensaries and transpertation systerns under British control, and to the econornic ported by well-to-do merchants of the prosperity derived from expanding rubber came into being in 1924. This pekan, cultivation, Until then, Malay families proba- "era meant a complete departure from the bly could seldom afford to relinquish children fbr adoption. Even if they did se, many of tin-mines and cassava estates" when children died before reaching maturity and families were a minority among the male- thus the parents must have been prompted to dominated Chinese population in rural claim back children given in for adoption. On the other hand, destitute immigrant Chinese Negeri Sembilan, fainilies must have been more willing to give up Closer relationships between some their children for adeption, especially their daughters. Unfortunately the historical Chinese and Malay individuals continued demography of Malaya is not a well developed in the twentieth century when the rural area of investigation, and these comments rubber market was more or less controlled remain very speculative in nature. 133 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7V7Mza 29ig2E Malay villages of Negeri Sembilan before must have been instrumenta1 in deepening the anival of the Japanese army during the level of Islamic knowledge arnongst the war. rural Malays. Closer contacts with infidel, One interesting by-product of rubber pig-eating Chinese must also have height- smallholding could be the deepening ened the Malays' selfawareness of their knowledge of Islam among the Malays. faith, The construction of expensive The rural Malays of Malacca and Negeri mosques in the 1930s is another expres- Sembilan in the late nineteenth century sion of this trend.i8) do not strike one as being strongly self As if in reflection of this increased selfl conscious about their religion. Rathborne, awareness of Islamic faith, Malay naming who spent many years in Malacca and styles also changed. Narnes which appear Negeri Sembilan in the late nineteenth in the Malay Grants seldom sound very century, rnakes the fo11owing observatien: Arabic. A few notable examples of non- Arabic names, which I fbund in the Malay They [Malays] are not strict Moslems, Grants of Mukim Johol, are Sulong neglecting many of the observances and (eldest child), Hitarn (black), and Pendek tenets that religion of when they clash (short). Names which later appear in the with their own pleasures and indulgences. Mukim Register are increasingly rnore The fasting month of Ramadhan is kept Arabic-sounding. by many only in a most perfunctory Furthermore, the Malay Grants often "bin" manner, and they have holy places at fail to make proper usage of (son of) which they make their "binti" vows, whilst spirit and (daughter of) in writing down and enter Iegends folk-lore largely into thenamesofownersfbrtheregisters. Both theirfaith. [Rathborne 1984:58] male and fernale names are inteije¢ ted with "bin." In some cases single, nen-Arabic Dogs, presumably abhorred by Moslems, names are written dewn without being "bin'' "binti'' were a common sight in Malay settlements, fbllowed by or at all. Even "bin" again according to Rathborne [tZid. : 29-30, if is inteejected, the space after it, 33]. which should be fi11ed with ene's father's This situation seems to have changed name, often remains vacant.i9) in the early twentieth century. One 18) In travelling around Negeri Sernbilan, I significant factor in this change, in my encountered at least three such mosques in opinion, was the increasing of prosperity Kuala Pilah and one in Rembau. They are built of either so]id wood or bricks. Decorative the Malay peasantry. Profits from rubber coloured glass and tile reofs are comrnon cultivation helped boost the number of features. The roof-styles and roof-decorEtiens, to and also those who pilgrims Mecca which resemble those of Chinese temples, sought Islamic learning in Patani, Kedah, suggest that they might haye been built by Chinese carpenters, probably from Malacca. Kelantan and later Sumatra. Upon their 19) No preper distinction is made either between return to their native places these individuals Haji and Hajah in the Malay Grants; both men7 134 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Carne: The Negeri Sembilan Experience The lack of expertise in the usage of two more implications of rubber cultivation C`bin" "binti" and disappears completely are worth our special attention : its influence in the Mukim Registers. Not only are on material culture and on rice cultivation. t`bin" ``binti" and properly used but the `[bin'i ``binti," space after and with a few VIII ChangesinMaterialCulture exceptions, is alrnost always foIIowed by a male name. I suspect that this complete Undoubtedly one of the most important turn-around was partly due to adminis- consequences of rubber smallholding was trative guidance by the colonial oficials. that the money economy finally came to The Mukim Register, since its inception, dominate the lives of Malay peasants. presupposed frequent land transactiens Rubber is a cash crop par excellence. It among Malay smallholdings. Yet in this brings in money weekly or even daily. system of land registration, modelled after Its response to market prices is quick the Torrens System, entries in the registers because trees can be tapped at short notice were, and are, equivalent te land titles, any time after they have reached the Thus the Land Othce had to be extremely bearing stage. As rubber cannot be carefu1 in ascertaining the identity of land consumed locally, it necessitates the de- owners, in the case of either new alienation velopment of transportation and marketing [[bin'' or land transactions. The usage of systems for its exportation. The system t`binti" and was one sure way of improving works both ways. Rubber is transported this and thus lessening process confusion out and outside goods transported in. and conflict in land transactions. Other The inward and outward movements of than reflecting the increasing Malay selfi commodities are mutual!y reinforcing ; more awareness of their faith, the Mukim Regis- rubber means more money, and more money ter might have been largely responsible for means the importation of more goods from the spread of Arabic names, inteejected with oUtside, which in turn whets people's "bin'' ``binti," and among the Malay appetites for more money. The ¢ ircle Peasantry.2o> does not necessarily run smoothly since Apart from these ramifying implications, rubber prices are an extremely important factor in this equation. Nevertheless, Xa and women who made up to Mecca, pilgrimage rubber cultivation tends to generate its own were referred to as Haji. Azizah Kassim, who momentum and, once set in motion, the worked with me at the Land Ofice of Kuala Pilah, helped me to understand the Jawi script penetration of a money economy accerelates, of the Malay Grants. The expansion of rubber cultivation 20) This situation contrasts with Indonesia where, brought about drastic changes in the although the population are overwhelmingly "bin" "binti" Moslems, the usage of and has material culture of the Malay peasantry in never become popular. Syncretism among the Negeri Sembilan. One may even wish to the dominant and Javanese, politically group, "revolution" use the term to describe this the lack of land legislation outside Java may account for this difference, change; the change was far-reaching and 135 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University mm7yr-m 29ts2e accomplished within a short time span. used as water containers. Cooking oil The material culture of the Negeri and flour were not as plentifu1 then as they Sembilan Malays was relatively simple are now. The most popular methods of before the turn of the centuryj.it was coeking were boiling (fbr example, g"lai or probably still so even up to the 1910s curry-cooking) and roasting or broiling despite the fact that the road-side pekan (Panggang and bahar). Deep-flying (go- had already begun to spring up in rural reng), very characteristic of contemporary areas by the turn of the century. The Malay coeking, was not ¢ ommon then. fbllowing account is mainly based on my Matches, soap, and cigarettes were interviews with old people in Inas.2i) practicallyunknown. Villagersstillenioyed Houses in Inas used to be built of logs of sirih-chewing, rather than cigarette-smok- appropriate diameter with their tree barks ing. merely peeled off. Building materials were The material culture of Malay villagers atap fbr roofs, atap or woven bamboo improved dramatically after the turn of the matting for walls, and split barnboo or century, especially after the two rubber nibon bark for fioering. No nails were boom periods in the 1920s and 1930s. In used. The stairs leading up to the fioor the case of Mukim Johol, the latter half of level of this house on stilts were basically the 1930s was particularly important in this wooden ladders which could be pulled respect. As pointed out already, a far inside the house at night. larger nurnber of vil]agers were involved in Furniture was minimal, consisting of rubber tapping in the 1930s than in the woven mats for sitting or sleeping and 1920s, thus many reaped the benefits of wooden chests werealsominimal. Cookingwasdonewith During the two periods of the rubber firewood. Earthenpotsweremorecommon restriction schemes, the British colonial than iron pans. Ladles were made of governrnent issued quarterly coupons to coconut shell with wooden handles. smallholders in order to specify the per- Wooden plates or banana Ieaves were used missible amount of rubber production from as plates when eating. Villagers dra:nk each holding during a particular quarter. unboiled water from kendi (earthenwareThese coupons were exchanged for expert water pitchers). Coconut shells (gopeirg),licenses at ports of shipment. For any gourds or bamboo tubes (kancung) were given quarter, rubber dealers could only export the amount of rubber in accordance the material culture of the 21) Concerning Malacca with the specifications on the accumulated Malays in the late nineteenth century, see export licenses in their hands. Thus, Rathborne [1984: 28-31]. His descriptien is similar to that of the old people of Inas. coupons inevitably formed their own 136 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T, KATo: When Rubber Carne: The Negeri Sembilan Experience market which was separate from, yet tied to Planks, instead of woven bamboo mats or to be used walls and the rubber market [Bauer 1948: 121-123, atap, began for 148-149, 158-159], floors.22) Squajre pillars and planks were Unlike the Stevenson Scheme, coupens provided by Chinese carpenters, who also under the International Rubber Regulation built fancy houses for some rich Malays.2S) Agreement were freely transferable within The architectural style itself underwent each administrative unit in Malaya, for a transformation. For example, with the example, within the Federated Malay advent ef plank walls, windows becarne States. Thewidermarketabilityofcoupons more elaborate, being sometimes adorned naturally tended to push up their price with balustrades. In some cases, the [Barlow 1978: 64]. The Agreement was serambi (veranda), which used to be open, signed among participating countries in was enclosed by the finely fitted plank walls. May 1934 and, by autumn of the same Galvanized zinc roofs were introduced year, there was already a brisk trade in during this period. Some front stairs coupon dealing [Bauer 1948: 120]. were constructed of cement inlaid with Double earnings from smallholdings and decorative picture tiles. Glass was seldom coupens, and the very fact of the market- used fbr windows but coloured glass was ability of mere pieces of paper must have sometimes fittedabove the windows fbr engendered a bonanza mentality among decoration. What is often teuted as the Malay smallholders. The smallholders traditional Malay house actually began to in rural Negeri only after were certainly prosperous [iZid.: 158-159] emerge Sembilan but it is this widespread feeling of euphoria this period, which distinguishes the second rubber Iternsof furniturebecame more numerous boom from the first. In Inas, it was than before: beds, mosquite nets, chairs reportedly not uncommon for smallholders and coffee tables were introduced.24) "share- Perhaps the reasons why the serambi just to sell coupons and let others one of tap'' rubber whenever coupons fetched high was enclosed with plank walls was because prices. There were even cases where no chairs and coffee tables began to be placed tapping was carried out because small- holders were already financially content 22) Planks were still a luxury item at the end of the nineteenth century, Rathbome 30] with the high sale of their ceupons (AR KP [1984: "Nowadays observes in Malacca: [in the 1936, n.p.). It was indeed an extravagant 1880s] wooden planks are used by the better period, both materially and psychelogically, class of natives for the sides and floors of their houses." Let us review some notable changes in 23) RathboTne [1984: 136] says that sawing planks the material culture of Inas after people was the work of Chinese. The Malays used the two rubber booms. For one thing, an adze and wedges for making planks, 24) European-style furniture began to be introduced houses began to be built from timber hewn into Malay aristocratic households in Westem into square Occasienally cement pillars, Malaya much earlier, that is, around the 1870s fbundations were laid under the pillars. [Gullick 1958:129]. 137 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7Y7MM 2982lj there and these had to be protected from sewingmachine. Peoplebecamemarkedly sunlight and rain. It seems that much of more fashion-conscious as their material the wooden furniture was manufactured, at culture improved. According to an old least at the initial stages, by Chinese man near Sri Menanti, village dandies liked "London carpenters in Singapore, Malacca, and to effect a short cut" (guntitrg elsewhere in imitation of European models. London) hair-style and to wear the shoes "looked Chinaware, glassware and brassware with a fat and round point (which became increasingly comrnon among like having an egg inside") in the 1930s. kitchen and cooking wares. Chinese jars One factor which prompted these changes and empty tin cans began to replace in material cultural was the Malay (and bamboo tubes and coconut shell as water Chinese and Indian) craving for things containers and ladles. As the coconut European. They cultivated a fascination estates spread over Western Malaya, for European material culture, which carne cooking oil became more readily available. to be conceived of as generally superior to Coupled with the abundant importation theirs. These values were proliferated of iron pans and flour (and also probably through movies, bangsawan ("Malay influenced by Chinese or Indian cooking), opera"), magazines, visits to pekan and deep-ftying became a common Malay towns or the vicarious experiences of their cooking method. A whole host of new families and fe11ow villagers who studied commodities-coffee, tea, tinned milk, other or worked with Europeans. A demonstra- tinned foods, kerosine oil, bottled lemonade, tion etltict also occured; those neighbours matches, soap, cigarettes, and so on-were who acquired prized commodities had higher introduced to ruTal Negeri Sembilan. status. Sugar consumption went up, European- The agents who supplied these commodi- style sponge cakes began to compete with ties to rural Negeri Sembilan were the indigenous sweetmeats made of rice flour, Chinese merchants in cities, pekan and glutinous rice and brown sugar, and tea village shops. Japanese merchants and time became an enjoyable event. shops were also important in this respect. Colours and fashionable styles of clothing Japanese products iri particular became increased in variety as textiles became cheap substitutes fbr European goods in ``modern more readily available and sewing rnachines fu1fi11ing the peasants' drearns ef a were introduced. (European-style ward- life style." Japanese commodities began robes becarne popular as the number of to make significant inroads into Southeast clothes in the possession of each individual Asia during the First World War when multiplied.) Velvet sengkok (black caps communication between Asia and Europe worn by Malay men) probably began to wascutoff. ImportsofJapaneseproducts, be popular at the time as velvet materials famous for their cheap price, accelerated became inexpensive and a songkok maker further after the early 1930s [Koh and could sew songkok easily with the help of a Tanaka 1984; Shirnizu 1988]. The ' 138 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo : When Rubber Came : The Negeri Sernbilan Experienee competitiveness ofJapanese goods irnproved places for the sale by Malays of their greatly through the merciless rationalization home-grown fruit and vegetables and of industrial production during the de- for the purchase by them of such hard- export pressionperiod;Japan's performance ware, cloth, crockery, cutlery and the like was further helped in late 1931 when Japan as they want, but also fbr the transaction abandoned the gold standard, which had of public business aflrecting the area only been reverted to in 1930, and let the served by the fair, such as the issue of yen to depreciate against major foreign rubber-export coupons, the collection currencies. Before 1937 when the second of land-rents, examination and adjudi- anti-Japanese boycotts of the decade began cation of exhibits of padi and rubber to take effect, Japan's control over some brought in for mukim competitions sectors of Malayan imports was indeed [i.e., padi, rubber or livestock shows to substEmtial (Table 4). According to the encourage the improvement] in these reminiscences of o]d people in Inas, products. Japanese sundry goods such as textiles, toys and ``breakables" belah) "local after the Great Depression by the colonial Malays'' who set up stalls for songkok and government, were another important com- sarong. The existence of weekly fairs is mercial channel. important when we think of the circulation These [weekly fairs] serve not only as ef commodities in rural Negeri Sembilan. "[I]t is not now neces$ary to a visit Table 4 Japan's Share of Malayan Trade in pay Selected Items, 1935-19361935 to the nearest town to purchase goods. Item These can be obtained as cheaply at the (%)1936 (%) local weekly fair" (AR KP 1934, n.p.; Anificial Silk Piece Goods 90. 093. 88. 195.041. AR KP 1936, n.p. AR KP 1937, n.p.). Canned Sardines 947. ; CementPTinted 157. 159. The symbols of newly-found wealth in CottDn Piece GoDds 468. 559. the 1930s in rural Negeri Sembilan were Cotton Underwear 466. 862. the three luxury items of the time: bicycles, Crockery and Percelain 591.668. 371. sewingmachinesandgramophones. There Fancy Goods 466. is an indication that the distribution of Glass and Glassware 073.369. 778. these might much wider Hollow Ware 664. items have been Household Cotton Goods 6 0 than one would expect. The Research (Made-up) Division of the Gunseikanbu in Japanese Rubber Shoes 92.081.459.92. 576. Silk Piece Goods 561. Malaya (MalayaMilitaryHeadquarters) Toys and Games 882. 071. conducted a household survey in Kampong Cycle Tyres 5 3 Kayu Ara of Mukim Ampang Tinggi and Sourcet Koh and Tanaka [1984: 391, Table 12] Kampong Tengah of Mukim Sri Menanti, 139 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University ptta7Y7Mza 29g2E Kuala Pilah, According to their survey Sembilan, and probably Western Malaya results, about 50% of the 275 households in general, was rubber. Winstedt [1950: surveyed in the two kampong possessed 134-135] once commented: bi¢ ycles, 25% sewing-machines, and 20% gramophones. (Another household item British science, too, introducing new included in the survey was a mosquito net, forms of cultivation, especially rubber which, although mostly not in good condi- that requires no large capital expendi- tion, was owned by about 80% of the ture, brought him [the Malay] the households.) novelty of an income so far above his These were the results obtained in 1943. households owned smallholdings with an under the military occu- Being Japanese average size of 3 acres 1 rod 38 poles. (This slightly than that pation, this was certainly not the most size is larger of Inas. See Table 2.) I speculate that the 1uxury iterns prosperous year in Malaya's history. By mentioned here were mostly owned by Malay this time, a number of must people have smallholders. According te the same survey, in the two already sold off their luxury items such as smallholders and share-tappers kampong eajoyed a relatively high degree of to make ends meet. More- gramophones war. economic prosperity before the The some might over, it is possible that people average annual income of smallholders with a land area of 5 acres 2 rods amounted to about have lied concerning the possession of $500 in 1940; that of share-tappers was $156. luxury items, especialry bicycles, lest they See Marai Gunseikanbu Cheusabu reMptta be appropriated by the military. Given eeesuaEss [Malay Military HeEdquarters Research Division], Chousabu-hou Dai-Nigou these possibilities, the above figures are sugsseaee=or [ReseaTeh Division Report No. surprisingly high and indicative of the 2], 15 May 1944, and Nanpou Gunsei- prosperity enjoyed by the Malays of Negeri soukanbu Chousabu MJEftaKskmekzzscEzz [Southern Military Central Headquarters Re- Sembilan in general in the latter half of search Division], Souchou-shi Dai-Juurokugou the 1920s and especially in the 1930s, de- twssEee-t"Jk,:em (October 1943) Marai Nouson spite the economic hardships suffered by Seikatsu-no Jittai (Chuukan Houkoku) reas geNtsne / fima ([Ii mavade) [Research Di- the peasantry during the Great Depres- yision Material No, 16 (October 1943) Cen- Sion,25) ditions of Life in Malay Village (An Interim Repert)]. In comparison with the annual What brought this presperity to Negeri incomes of smallholders and share-tappers, the 25) The interpretation of these results, however, is rnonthly salaries of teacher tralnees and teachers a little problematic. The survey involves 44 at the Gevernment English School in Kuala Chinese and 7 Indian households yet no racial Pilah were respectively about $90 and $130 in breakdown is given in presenting the survey the mid-1920s [Mohamad Yusoff 1983: 122], results. Twenty-two Chinese were vegetable while European-made bicycles and Japanese- "rubber cultivators whD had been coolies in made ones cost about $60 and $14 each in 1933 gardens" before the war, Eighteen Chinese [Koh and Tanaka 1984: 379, Table 5]. `iother and seven Indians worked in occu- Apparently smallholders often made more patiDns," including as shop owners, itinerant money than Malay school teachers in the latter merchants, lowly oMcials and coolies; no half of the 1930s; one old man in Inas told me "other breakdown of occupations" is given, that he quit being a Malay school teacher Nene of the Chinese and Indians owned rubber because he could make more money from land, while over fifty percent of the Malay rubber cultivation. 140 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience daily needs that he could build a sub- nots" among Malay peasants and made ali stantial house and buy cycles and of them more vulnerable to overseas gramophones and cars, economic depressions. Nevertheless, there is no denying that the material culture of Bauer, who wrote a report on the impact of Malay villagers in Negeri Sembilan im- the International Rubber Regulation proved a great deal within a short span of Agreement in Malaya, also obseryed: twenty to thirty years in the early twentieth century. And rubber smallholding, which Yet Malaya's specialisation in rubber was actually often discouraged and even and tin had real advantages. It was discriminated against by the colonial agreed by all observers that in the late government, was more or less direct]y 1920's the standard of living of all classes responsible fbr this. in Malaya was far higher than in India, Ceylon or the rice-producing ceuntries of IX Rice and Rubber South-ea$t Asia. ... To quote one authority, Mr. C.A. Vlieland in his William Maxwell once wrote about the Roporl on tke 1931 ldalayan Census Negeri Sembilan Malays of the 1880s in refers to the material benefits which the the following way: varied races living in Malay[a] derived from the commercial prosperity of the A purely agricultural life requires that fare country. Economically, Malaya was the cultivator be satisfied with poor and that his style of ]iving be simple, a veritable Eldorado (Vlieland's expres- sion) to the poorest masses of South and modest and economical. As satisfying `So South-east Asia. it comes about these conditions the Malays of Negri that there is a continuous stream of Sembilan are an almost an ideal peasantry immigrants from China, India, Java , . . [sic]. Their methods of cultivation are coming to seek their fortunes in Malaya excellent, they preserve their ancient . . . .' The benefits derived by the Malays habits and traditions and they are were reflected in housing and health satisfied with little. In Malacca where standards and in material pessessions, Malays are good cultivators and rnuch including occasionally a motor-car. attached to the fields, cultivation is only [Bauer 1948:20] one of a man's means of livelihood. The same may be said of the Malays of These comments, especially that of Province Wellesley, Penang and of some Winstedt, do smack of colonial paternalism. p!aces in the Malay States. (quoted in Furthermore, the expansion of rubber AR KP 1912, p. 4) smallholding, with the concomitant pene- tration of the money economy, widened the Apparently cultivation here refers to rice "haves" "have- gap between the and the cultivation. Rice planting in Negeri 141 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Xnt7ti7Mzz 29g2e Sembilan, according to more recent com- ...The men have no scope to become mentators, is supposed to have been fishermen; little scope and no inclination "hallowedbytradition"[Gullick 1951:45], to work for wages; they are padi planters "the and supported by moral value of rice first, secondly cultivators of kampong and ``the cultivation" [Swift 1965: 42] and beyondthat nothing, unless one except ideology of rice" [Lewis 1976: 78-80]. a very few special callings such as lembaga These observations notwithstanding, the [clan head], Pawatrg [vi11age magician], possible adverse efft)cts of money-earning kalhi [Islamic ofiicial], goldsmith, opportunities on rice cultivation were already bullock-carter and so on. (AR KP "With being noted in the late 1880s: the 1912, pp. 4-5) present facility for earning money in other directions, the diMculty will be to keep the Likewise the Negri Sembilan Adminis- people to the regular cultivation of their tration Report fbr the year 1917 still fields" (NS AR 1889, p. 8). This possi- sounded wistfu11y hopefu1 about Malay bility was already a reality around 1910 committment to rice cultivation, although when the creation of new rubber estates the cultivated sawah acreage in the state provided Malays with opportunities for remained relatively low in that year (see wage labour. Table 5). Whilst the failure of the crop in 1911 was, Padi planting has for generations been in the main, due to lack of rain and to the ehief industry of Negri Sembilan sickness among the Malay pepulation, Malays and (except of Iate years in the there is but little doubt that padi-planting Seremban and Coast Districts) the quan- tends to decline in popularity, for such is tity harvested has always, at any rate in the demand for labour that the Malay normal years, been suthcient fbr the finds that he can earn high wages and settled population, The craze fbr rubber ailrord to buy rice instead of growing it. planting among the Malays certainly (NS AR 1911, p. 5) led to some falling off in the production, but the process never went very far and In fact, the cultivated sawah areas the fa11 in the price of rubber last year shrank dramatically in Negeri Sembilan in and the increase in the price of rice has 1911 (see Table 5 on page 150). Yet,' the done much to counteract the tendency to District OMcer of Kuala Pilah was still neglect the rice fields. (NS AR 1917, p. 5) confident in 1912 of the basic disposition of the Malays of Negeri Sembilan towards No matter how ideal a peasantry the - - rlce-growlng. Malays of Negeri Sembilan may have been in the 1880s, it became increasingly obvious, Still the Kuala Pilah Malay lives in as the last quotation suggests, that padi a style, simple, modest and economic,al; planting was adversely affected by high 142 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experienee rubber prices. This oscillating, inverse and official pressure was always exercised relationship between rice cultivation and in favour of food production and against rubber prices had become a well-established rubber growing" [Bauer 1948: 64]. pattern by the 1920s. Thus, in 1925 when Government effbrts were in no way success- "The rubber prices were very high, pros- fu1. Some colonial othcials were clearly perity of the majority of the small holders aware of futility of their policies. appears to have had a bad effect generally on the planting of padi, admittedly, hard The benefits of rubber growing fbr work and risky" (AR KP 1925, p. 5). smallholders are also well understood by ``The Yet, in 1931, depression in the price Malayan administrators familiar with of rubber led to greater keeness in planting conditions in smallholdings. ...These 'all up available [padi] land'' (NS AR administrators also pointed out that with 1931, p. 8), And, still, several years later, the pre-war technique (in the absence of "It is thought that the chief reason fbr this mechanisation) padi growing was a most [existence of uncultivated sawah] was the thankless pursuit over most of central high price of rubber at the time when and southern Malaya. [loc. ct7.] planting became due: it cannot be dented that a usual result in this district of a high There are several Teasons why Tubber price of small-holders' rubber is a certain cultivation was in general preferred to rice reluctance on the part of sawah-owners to cultivation by the Malay villagers [Bauer plant their padi-fields." In fact, in the 1948: 60-62]. First of all, rubber culti- ``The year in question, estimated area of vation, as the above quotation suggests, sawah left wholly uncultivated was ap- was more lucrative than rice cultivation if proximately 1[,]550 acres out of a total of productive value per acre was compared in nearly 18,OOO acres in the whole district monetary terms. This was true even in [of Kuala Pilah]'' (AR KP 1937, n,p.). 1932 when rubber prices hit the bottom Here emerges the fbrerunner ef sawah during the Great Depression. Except for terbiar or abandoned rice fields, a serious the initial stage of planting, rubber culti- problem in contemporary Negeri Sembilan. vation required far less investment for its The colonial government was more than continuing operation than rice cultivation. unhappy about this development. They, Local rubber markets were nurnerous and especially after experiencing dificulty in competitive; rubber was a more saleable importing rice during the First World War, commoditythanrice, Rubbertappingwas tried to discourage Malay rubber small- less influenced by weather factors, while holding and, instead, encourage rice culti- rice cultivation was more susceptible to ``Since vation [Winstedt 1950:125-126]. the whims of the weather and other the early 1920's rubber production by calamities. Moreover, rubber tapping was smallholders has been strongly discouraged fareasierworkthanricecultivation. Thus, by the authorities in many different ways, Bauer [2Iid. : 62-63] concludes : 143 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7Y7ffza 29g2e Finally, rubber growing entails much between the two. Different requirements less hard work than padi culture. In- in work schedules for rice and rubber are stead of toiling in the mud of a wet padi another irnportant factor. Rice cultivation field sometimes for days on end, the imposes a relatively well-regulated work Malay rubber-grower rarely had to work schedule. In particular the timing of land more than three or four hours a day, and preparation and planting is crucial in rice could take a day or a week off whenever cultivation. Rubber tapping on the other he wished. ... Rubber tapping is hand imposes practically no work schedule, among the least exacting fbrms of work as long as it is carried out in the morning. in tropical agriculture, especially where It does not effect the rubber trees adversely great care is not demanded. if no tapping is done. But there is another decisive reason for Given these overriding advantages of the persistence of rice cultivation. The rubber against rice, advantages which to establishment of the seesaw relationship some extent were enjoyed by smallholders between rice and rubber was accompanied even during the Great Depression, it is by an increasing male preoccupation with actually surprising that rubber cultivation rubber tapping and their decreasing involve- did not lead to the quick disappearance of ment in rice cultivation. To be sure, the rice cultivation. Despite the fact that the major burden of rice cultivation always relationship between the two crops was seems to have fa11en on women more than like a seesaw whose balance was tipped in onmeninNegeriSembilan. Forexample, either direction by rubber prices, that is, the District OMcer of Kuala Pilah made cultivated sawah contracted or recovered the fbllowing remark in 1912: according to rubber prices, yet most of sawah was cuitivated even during the time A glaring side-light on social problems of high rubber prices. was thrown by a Malay whom I ques- There are certainly many factors involved tioned on the tendency here of Malay "peasant in the resilience of rice cultivation : women to fbllow Chinese, expecting to censervatism," concern with obtaining rice hear an outburst of racial or religious `it for self-consumption, interest in securing indignation: is very hard, tuan,' said `fbr hedges against fa11ing rubber prices, he, it is the reason whyPadi la'beleh British regulations prohibiting the con- jude'[padicannotbesuccessful]l['] Such version of sawah to rubber smallholdings, comment is as genuinely unconscious as and matrilineal adat with its high regard the present of a ckangkul [hoe] to a bride! for sawah as ancestral preperty. These But it shows howthe rnen have so much factors may all have been important in this time and energy to spend on debating respect. The fact that there is no ecological tribal othces and tribal customs. (AR competition between sawah. and rubber KP 1912, p. 3) lots also allows a flexible relationship 144 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience According to matrilineal adat, sawah to- been reluctant to go back to rice cultivation gether with houses and kampong (home- but, instead, Iooked for other cash-earning steads) generally belong to women; this activities. Probably referring to the results ``smallholdings may partly explain the major role played by of the enquiry" which was women in rice cultivation in Negeri conducted in Malaya in 1931-1933, Bauer Sembilan. [1948: 59] observes:`[During the worst Even given this long-standing tendency, period of the s]ump the smallholdings were the spread of rubber cultivation seems to often tapped by the dependants of the have further provoked men's dissociation owner, who himself went out fishing or from rice cultivation, as evinced by the woodcutting.'' If this observation is fo11owing comments made in the mid- applicable to Negeri Sembilan, the usual "The 1910s, total [cultivated sawah area recovery of cultivated sawah areas during in Negeri Sembilan] shows a small increase, the time of low rubber prices was accom- but the native Malay population is far too plished moTe by the appropriate mobili- engrossed in planting rubber to take much zation of female labour than by the interest in opening up new sawahs, and the transference of male labour from rubber care of the fields is being to an increasing tapping to rice cultivation. Particulary ``Where extent left to the women." the crucial must have been the suMcient recruit- [padi] crop was a poor one, the reason was ment of female labour in time for land solely and purely neglect. In Juasseh preparation and planting. especially the work was left entirely to the What I am suggesting here is this: the women, and the people gave me the spread of rubber smallholding in Negeri impression that they planted in order to Sembilan created net only the seesaw escape a prosecution but did not care relationship between rubber and rice but whether they got padi or not'' (NS AR also an increasing division of labour by sex, 1916, p. 6; AR KP 1916, p. 6).26> that is, rubber tapping for men and rice There is an indication that even during cultivation for women, Admittedly, this the time of low rubber prices men may have division was not rigid, as the above quotation indicates. It is known that 26) Anotherpossibleindicationofmale dissociation from rice cultivation is the disappearance of women (and children) often tapped rubber the cattle-driven in Inas in the 1920s plough around the settlements and in tirnes of and 1930s; ploughing was men's work. Howeyer, there are stories that the iron-tipped plough was introduced from Malacca to Inas carne to work for him at Gunung Berembun,) only in the early twentieth century. In general, A few old people in Inas told me that the there are confiicting pieces of information wooden plough existed before the anival of the concerning the existence of plough in Negeri iron-tipped one. I may add here that sawah Sembilan. For example, Hill [1977: 133] is in Rembau were prepared by wooden hoes in negative but Rathborne [1984: 54] is positive the 1880s [Hervey 1884t 2561, indicating that about it, provided his description refers to Negeri woeden tools were not unusual but ploughs Sembilan. (Hisreferencetoploughingappearseither wooden or iron-tipped were not common, after he describes characteristics of Malays who at least in Rembau, duTing this time. 145 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University XM7V7Mft 2982e a male labour shortage.27) Yet, this to women according to adat and in practice. division of labour was observable even in A predominantly large proportion of rubber the latter half of the 1950s [Lewis 1962; smallholdings in Malaya were generally Swift 1965] and in the mid-1960s, and is located away from the settlements- [Bauer still discernible today.2S} 1948: 6], so it was more difficult fbr women There are several reasons for the male to comrnute, especially carrying heavy preoccupation with rubber cultivation. rubberloads on their way back. Bicycles Male labour, to begin with, was a determin- were later introduced into the village as a ing factor in carving smallholdings out of means of transportation but it was not the forest. Male interest in rubber culti- considered proper for village women to ride vation was especially strong in Negeri them. Sembilan because rubber gardens were the The above division of labour by sex is most important, and in many ways, the only important because it follows the more economic assest that men could own under general and long-standing pattern of the matrilineal adat; sawah, houses, and cash economy mainly in the hand of men homesteads in the village generally belonged and the subsistence economy mainly in the hand of women. Even before wage labour 27) Referring to the pre-war situation in Malaya "The on cassava estates and rubber smallholdings in general, Bauer [1948: 7] says: rubber common, colle ¢ of trees in and around the villages [settlements] are became the tion forest often tapped by the wife and children of the products and the rearing of cattle, two of smallholder." Rubber was also often tapped the major cash-generating activities in by women during the Emergency:"The shortage of tappers on small-holdings continues nineteenth-century Negeri Sembilan, were and much of the work is done by women: the earried out by men. Rathborne [1984: 54] youths End able-bodied men having joined the makes the following observation concerning Security Ferces" (NS AR 1949, p, 14). During my research in Inas, I received the the Malay division of labour by sex, most impression that share-tapping was common probably referring to the situation in Negeri (in recent years?) arnong women from poor Sembilan in the 1880s. households who were usually diverced or widowed. ThewideningtotElacreageofsawah terbiar (abandoned sawah) and the increasing The women cook, carry water, see to the out-migration of the younger generation go handinhandwiththistendency. Thesewomen house, and work in the fields, where a usually eembine cultivation and share- bothrice of the manual labour , great proportion tappmg. is done by them. The men, when at 28) The Third-Quarter Agricultural Report of home, Negeri Sembilan of 1965 makes the fo11owing build and keep their houses in "What cornment on this is troublesome point: repair, collect rattan from the neighbour- (merunsc'nghan) in Negeri Sembilan concerns ing do all the fencing requisite, the condition and cultivation methods pf jungle, sawah. Sawah are very small and owned make traps for catching fish and game, by women and mostly worked by women" (my and seek for forest fruits and edible roots. translation from Malay) (see Plettyata Suhntcthun They attend to the buffaloes and drive }ld,rgr Kletiga 1965, Jabatan Pertanian Negeri, Negeri Sembilan, p. 3), them when ploughing, for these animals 146 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Carne: The Neged Sembilan Experience aresomewhatdangeroustohandle,. . .29) combination ef women's committment to rice cultivation and their access to cash. The emergence of rubber practically As their access to cash increases, their everywhere in Negeri Sembilan amplhied committment to rice cultivation probably this cash-subsistence bifurcation between decreases. the sexes. By providing mainly men with Rubber-tapping husbands did give some a relatively steady and often extremely cash to their wives. But cash was earned remunerative source of cash, rubber culti- in tapping usually on a daily or a weekly vation must have strengthened men's basis; being influenced by market prices entrenchment and specialization in the cash the amount earned was not stable; and no economy, while increasingly confining cash was earned if it rained or if the women to the subsistence sector. In this husbarids felt like spending the morning in connection it is interesting to observe that a village coffee shop. Husbands may or is daily shopping in Inas even now mainly may not give money to their wives, de- carried out by husbands, not by wives.SO) pending on their whims or on the state One implication of these observations is of their pockets. Thus rubber-tapping that the continuing cultivation of sawah in husbands could never be relied upon by Negeri Sembilan basically hinges on the their wives as a source of cash. An added factor here were high divorce rates. The 29) Note that Rathborne his descriptiDn of qualifies prevalence of divorce tied women to rice "when male role with the phrase at home." cultivation, for it served as an economic This again suggests that it was not uncommon for men to go away on circular migration at the buffer in case of divorce, not to mention time. This is the passage which I previously low rubber prices. mentioned in which Rathborne refers to t`makan As occupations ploughing in Negeri Sembilan. gay'i"(salaried) 30) The fact that the pekan "'ere and still are far have become common among men and, to away from the settlements alse accounts for this some extent, among women, as urban and shopping practice. Motorbikes are common rural migration latter mainly to nowadays in Inas but it is not yet considered (the proper for women to ride them alone. In FELDA Schemes) has intensified, as urban- comparison with their counterparts in rural remittances have multiplied, and as Minangkabau society of West Sumatra, Negeri rnarriages more enduring Sembilan women had less access to a money have become economy in the nineteenth century and even (changes all noticeable since the New in the eaTly twentieth century. It was commen Economic Policy), women have become in West Sumatra in the latter half of the nineteenth century for women to be active as less and less involved in rice cultivation. traders in the local markets, Since the late Salaries, dependents' allowances for govern- nineteenth century they were also involved in ment employees, pensions, and even monthly producing handicrafts such as embroidered goods for the market. The Chinese domi- remittances from children established in the nation of in Malaya was a major factor pekan cities are far more reliable sources of cash in the relative lack of involvement of Negeri fbr women than the eamings of rubber- Sernbilan women and men in commercial activities. tapping husbands in bygone days. Two 147 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University fiM7 ti 7Mee 29ig2E expressions of the increasing female dis- ated the relationship between humans and sociation from rice cultivation are the rice was semangat Padi or the rice spirit. increasing aTeas of sawah terbiar and the If the relationship was well rnaintained prevalence of 2Z" seri rumah ("fu11time''through the proper performance of agri- housewives) among married women in cultural rituals, the semangat padi stayed Inas. with humans and produced a geod harvest. If not, she (semangat padi) fied and as a consequence humans suffered from a poor × DiminishingForestand harvest. Agricultural Rituals According to some old people in Inas, Rice cultivation in Inas used to be agricultural rituals, especially the com- associated with a series of ritual activities munity-wide rituals, began to disappear [Lewis 1962; Kato 1988]. There were in the late 1930s, precisely the period when two types of agricultural rituals in Inas: rubber cultivation assumed a decisively ¢ ommunity-wide rituals which involved the importanteconomicroleinInas. Asimilar participation of the entire luhak (adat observation was also reported from "In district), and household-based rituals which Seremban in the same period: days were carried out separately by each house- gone by padi-planting was attended by hold. The beginning, middle (pre-harvest various ceremonies at the different stages. period) and end of a rice cultivation cycle This ritual has to some extent now been were demarcated by comnunity-wide abandoned, but the old methods of hus- rituals. Household rituals were performed bandry still persist'' (AR SB 1937, pp. 3-4). in asseciation with such activities as sowing Soon after the 1930s came the Japanese seeds in a seed-bed or transplanting occupation and the Emergency; and in seedlings. These rituals enhanced com- neither period was the social situation munal solidarity and at the same time conducive to the survival or revival of elabo- made rice cultivation more than sirnply rate agricultural rituals. There are signs a means of livelihood. that some of the household-based rituals Through agricultural rituals, the villagers survived until the late 1950s [Lewis 1962: tried to negotiate good relationship between 305-311]. Yet the introduction of new humans and the forest spirits. Spirits, rice varieties in the mid-1960s rendered which might be harmfu1 to rice and humans, even these rituals less meaningfu1. As also resided in sawah but they were believed one elder told me, these new varieties, to have come from the forest via the water- which have not been handed down from ways. One function of the agricult･ural earlier generations, do not have any rituals at the beginning of the rice cuiti- semangat padi. vation cycle, which usually took place at One reason for the disappearance of the headwaters, was to expell evil spirits community-wide rituals was men's decreas- downstream. A special spirit that medi- inginvolvementinricecultivation. Unlike 148 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATe: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sernbilan Experience Ikm Tb Tamptn18.4km Map 3 Inas (ca. 1958) Source: Lewis [1962:24] household-based rituals which were mainly which incorporated the pre-Islamic be!ief performed by women, community-wide system and were supervised by the pawang rituals were generally organized and carried (village magician) [Abdullah 1927:310; out by men. As rnen became more Gullick 1987:130,321-323], invelved in rubber cultivation, they must As can be understood from the above have lost interest in organizing agricu!tural description of community-wide rituals, one rituals as well as participating in rice element centrai to the Malay belief system cultivation itself. as well as to the agricultural rituals was the Mounting Islamic opposition was an- forest. Schematically speaking, the Malay other important factor here. Opposition to settlements in Negeri Sembilan developed agricultural rituals began to appear among along the valleys. Wet lands near the Islamic teachers as early as the late river on the valley floor were turned into nineteenth century [Blagden 1896: 11]. sawah, while natural levees became home- As already mentioned, rubber cultivation steads (for the example of Inas, see Map 3). most likely contributed to the enhancement On the lower valley slopes were planted of Islamic consciousness among the Malays. fruit trees, dry padi, and, in the late Accordingly, Islamic teachers were increas- nineteenth century, sometimes coffee and ingly vocal threugh the 1920s and 1930s other cash crops (cC, Hill [1977: 130, 138]). "artificial in their opposition to agricultural rituals, This space,'' a precarious token 149 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University suM7Y7Mza eeg2e of human settlement, was a mere island in in the early 1870s, the ratio between sawah the vast sea of fbrest. The forest in the and non-sawah agricultural lands in Negeri Malay belief system was not simply Sembilan was one to one. If we use the a collection of huge trees. It was inhabited 1891 figure for sawah areas as our baseline, by good as well as evil spirits; it was feared this would mean that at most the entire and awed; it was considered to be a source agricultural land, inclusive of sawah, in of potent power. Consequently, human Negeri Sembilan in the early 1870s contact with the fbrest, whether in the fbrm arnountedto40,OOOacres. Thisconstituted of fe1]ing trees or collecting forest products, roughly 2.5% of the total land area in Negeri always required a ritual mediation. Sembilan.S') Even including settlements, The above situation began to change as towns, mining areas and grazing grounds rubber cultivation spread in Negeri for cattle, one can see from this calculation Sembilan. Vast tracts of forest were cut that practically the whole of Negeri down. Before the Chinese started making Sembilan was covered by fbrest before the planks out of the fe11ed trees, probably introduction ef cassava and rubber. around the 1900s at the earliest, they were In comparison, Table 5 shows how rapid simply burned after they had been left dry. was the onslaught of rubber against the Rathborne [1984 : 72] describes such a scene fbrest in Negeri Sembilan. By 1939 about when he opened a coffee estate in Gunung Table 5 Rubber and Sawah Areas in Negeri Berembun in the 1880s: Sembilan (in acres) It is a sight to see the whole glorious Rubber Sawah hillside ablaze, and the fire and sparks 1903190619091911191719291939 6, 188 31, 12032, leaping up, whilst listening to the roar 15, 103 47533, and crackle of the flames; and for days 40,883189, 95417, the and simmer. afterwards embers glow 409220, 44026,4oo33, OOO341,848396, 18734, To call it a glorious sight is a white man's 065 730 reaction. One could only guess what the Sources: Peletz [1988: 140]; NS AR (1911, 4, ix); Malays must have felt, seeing the once NS AR (1917, 3); NS AR (1929, 15); NS awe-inspiring and seemingly inyincible AR (1939, 4) 'fbrest being mercilessly cut down and then unceremoniously set afire, which were all 31) In 1939 the ratio between sawah and non-sawah agricultural areas excluding rubber was a ¢ ¢ omplished without apparent retributions. lots 10 to 6.4, Thus, the assumptien ef a ene to One estimate puts the total sawah areas one ratio is considerably higher than this figure. in Negeri Sembilan in 1891 at about The total land areas, inclusive of agricu1tural areas and forests, in Negeri Sembilan amounted 19,423 acres [Hill 1977: 127]. For toabout1,632,OOOacresin1939(NSAR 1939, argument's sake let us say that before the p. 4). This is the figure used for the above introduction of cassava and rubber, that is, calculation. 150 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The NegeTi Sembilan Experience a quarter of the land area of the state was pessible implication of these changes was under cultivation and 87% of the cultivated the Malay's increasing reluctance to believe areas were planted with rubber (NS AR in the eMcacy of agricultural rituals and in 1939, p. 4),32) Furthermore, the expansion the potency of the forest and fbrest spirits in of rubber cultivation was accompanied by general. The spiritual as well as ecological the development of transportation systems. environment of the vi11agers began to Thus forests were not only cut down for change significantly. rubber but were also scarred by roads and Whatever the reasons behind the disap- railways. pearance of agricultural rituals, it meant for The location of rubber smallholdings people of Inas a decline in the cultural vis-a-vis the village also had important meaningofricecultivation. Strippedofits implications for the diminishing forest. sociocultural significance, rice cultivation Sma!lholdings were generally located along ceased to be a way of ･]ife and instead the slopes of the valley. In general, they became a means of livelihood. literally surrounded homesteads and sawah, ``artificial that is, the space'' in the sea of Anatomy of Malay Smallholding forest. Rubber smallholdings became a and Rubber Tapping wedge between humans and the fbrest. As rubber cultivation expanded, the gap Throughout this paper I have used the "cu!tivation" epened by the wedge widened. Signifi- term in relation to Malay cantly, rubber plots are considered by rubber smallholdings. Yet the term "cultivation" Malays to be ritually neutral zones. is most inappropriate for this Villagers perfbrm a special ritual when purpose. To understand why this is the clearing the fbrest, Hewever, once the case is to come to grips with the nature of cleargd let is planted with rubber, no more Malay rubber smallholding and its wider rituals will be held there even when the social implications. "Cultivation" rubber trees are cut down for replanting. among Malay rubber Thus the expansion of smallholdings meant smallholders was generally limited to the the expansion of the ritually neutral zone initial stage of opening a lot, that is, cutting between humans and sawah on one hand, down forest trees, burning thern after they and the forest en the other. had dried, clearing the ground and planting Aside from their ecological impact, one seedlings, After this, usually minimum attention was paid to the lot until the trees 32) Before the introduction of rubber, the invasion started bearing, generally within six years ef the forest by cassava was already substantial. of planting, Once the trees reached the It is estimated that over 100,OOO acres of land in Negeri Sembilan were occupied by cassava bearing stage, tapping was more er !ess the estates by the turn of the century, most of them only activity undertaken by the Malays. already planted with cassava [Jackson 1968: Thus, tapping, not cultivation, is a more 68]. Abandoned cassava estates were eventu- ally turned into rubber estates. appropriate description of Malay behaviour 151 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7 ti 7Mee 29g2g in the context of rubber. rubber lot, he then had to forgo the income The Iack of cultivation effbrts was from rubber tapping until the trees reached reflected in the phenomenon of selfisown the bearing stage, that is, for about six seedlings which were usually left to grow on years. One way of overcoming this Malay smallholdings.33) Another mani- problem was to replant a holding by festation of the sarne tendency was observed sections but this was usually not practicable in the question of replanting. (Replantingbecause of the smal1 size of Malay tots.S5) of smallholdings, especially Malay small- Joint ownership through inheritance was holdings, became a real issue only after the not unu$ual among Malay smallholders. SecondWerldWar. Treesinsmallholdings This presented another problem because it were not yet old enough before this time.) was not easy for the joint owners to reach The Annual Report of 1964 by the Negeri aconsensusaboutreplanting[Bauer 1948: Sembitan Agricultural Department points 173-175;Barlow 1978:233-234]. ``old out the age" of rubber trees in the In addition to these socioeconomi ¢ "Malay state: smallholdings are in a be- factors, there may have been another factor wildering state. Most of their trees are involved in the lack of replanting activities already old and very unproductive'' (my among Malay smallholders, Eevea brasi- translation from Malay).S4) Yet, system- k'ensis, which originally grew wild in the atic replanting was seldom carried out by Braziliari forest, was accepted by Malays the Malays. Instead, selCsown seedlings more as a forest tree than as a cultivated ``automatic oftentimes functiened as re- crop. The characteristics of ?71evea planting." brasiliensis were instrurnental in promoting It should be pointed out that socio- this kind of acceptance. This point should economic factors were irnportant in the become clear when we compare rubber with question of replanting. Malays seldom other cash crops such as sugar cane, tobacco possessed adequate capital to finance re- and coffee. planting. Clearing the lot, planting it The above-mentioned cash crops demand with seedlings, and, above all, enriching the mere or less regular care and cultivation soil of the old rubber lot with fertilizer all efforts, fbr example, weeding, replanting required a substantial investment. Even after some interval, and processing the if a smallholder managed to replant his yield. In contrast, flevea brasthensis is to 33) Accerding Bauer [1948:103],this was 35) Another selution te the same problem was to common throughout the East and especially open a new smallholding instead of replanting so in the Netherlands East Indies. It is possible the old one. The cash outlay for srnalIholders that selfisown seedlings were bettercontrolled in was srnaller for new planting than for replanting. than the East Malaya in Netherlands Inclies, In this way the smallholder could also continue as was generally the case with varieus other to draw income by tapping the old lot until aspects of smallholclings. the new one started predualng. However, 34) See 1[1,ayata 7bhunan b`rgi' 71ihun 1964, this option was not easily available to Malays Jabatan Pertanian Negeri, Negeri Sembilan, during the eolonial period due to the government p. 2. restrictions against new alienation after 1922. 152 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATo: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Seinbilan Experienee a very easy plant to deal with. Cultivation with it. It is a lonely eperation carried out requirements are minimal after the trees inanenclosedatmosphere. Whiletapping, have been planted and especially after they one can see only rows and rows of rubber reach maturity. Yet the rubber trees can trees and nothing else. The pleasure of produce, with little care, for twenty-five to witnessing a plant grow is alien to rubber thirty years or even longer. Trees or the tapping. Unlike the act of looking for latex they centain do not suffer damage even forest products, nQ sense of adventure, if the neglected.36) Processing trees are of mystery, anxiety, joyfu! discovery or even the yield is not diMcult and the product, disappointment of non-discovery is involved rubber sheet, does not spoil. in it. Once planted, rubber trees are always Malays usually tap about 300 to 350 there to be tapped, just as forest products trees within a few hours. One makes are always there somewhere in the forest a Tound of trees, cuts incisions, puts a to be extracted. Moreover, rubber trees, receptacle fbr latex at its proper place, just like fbrest products, or perhaps even and then, after one round is over, makes more so than forest products, scarcely im- another round of the same trees, this time pose their biologieal rhythm on humans. emptying the latex into a pail,37) Rubber One can tap them or extract them more or tapping consists of the repetition of the same less whenever one wants to, The initiative routine day in and day out. Latex thus and timing of work are dictated not by collected is useless by itself. Practically no selfconsumption is nor it plants but by human need, will and whim. possible, can In this sense, the tapping of rubber must be consumed even locally. Thus rubber have easily fitted the pre-existing Malay tapping is labour to be endured purely for work habits of extracting forest products. money-making. If rubber is a cash crop I previously quoted the fo11owing com- par excellence, rubber tapping is a mone- t`Rubber tary excellence. ment made by Bauer [1948: 63] : pursuitpar Considering matter-offact nature the tapping is among the least exacting forms the pragmatic, of of work in tropical agriculture, especially activities involved, it is perhaps not sur- where great care is not demanded." Yet prising that no ritual is associated with rubber tapping is also among the least rubber tapping or rubber cultivation, eniQyable works in tropical agriculture, Rubber tapping can also be contrasted No cooperative work is involved in rubber tapping, nor is any ritual festivity associated 37) In recent years, the second round is generally ornitted to simplify the procedure ; the collection of latex (scrap rubbeT) is postponed until the 36) Neglect actually can be beneficial to the trees fo11owing morning when tappers make a fresh as it gives them a resting period. I was often round of the trees to cut new incisions. They told in Inas that the latex yield after the Second can in this way kill two birds with one stone, so World War was very good because trees were to speak. The latex in the receptacle will be not tapped at all during the Japanese occupation diluted if it rains in the afternoon but the tappers due to the lack of a market. nowadays are w{lling to take this risk, 153 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Mtw7V7Mza 29ig2g in many ways with rice cultivation. (Of the concept of agricultural involution, course, some ofthe contrasts between rubber there is generally a positive relationship and other cash crops apply here too.) between the amount of work put into rice There is practically no season for tapping; cultivation and the amount of rice harvested. it can･be canied out a}1 year round. If There is no such relationship in rubber one needs and wants to do so, one can even tapping. A greater amount of effbrt in tap trees every day unless it rains. (It is tapping does produce a greater amount of not practical to tap on rainy days because latex collected. Unlike rice, however, the latex will not run along the incision to latex is useless unless it is exchanged for the receptacle.) Or conversely, one may money. It is not infrequent that the not tap at all, even for months on end, if amount of rnoney earned depends mere on rubber prices are low or simply if one does the market price of rubber than on the input not feel like tapping. Better still, the level of human endeavour. The disiunc- resumption of tapping after a long rest tion between effort spent and money earned involves no preparatory work, except per- is magnified because of frequent Emd widely haps for clearing some of the undergrowth oscillating fluctuations in rubberprices. between the trees in the neglected lot. In sum, the above characteristics of This switch-on-switch-off characteristie of rubber cultivation and smallholding patterns rubber tapping gives it a free and easy greatly influence the economic behaviour quality. The ftuits of the tapping en- of the Malay vMagers involved in rubber deavour can be exchanged with money in tapping. For exarnple, the idea of rubber a short interval, even daily. Rubber is as a fbrest product and the disjunction like a deposit made in trees which can be between physical endeavour and monetary drawn up at will. It may be likened to gain are not conducive to replanting effbrts. "savings a account on roots." The disiunction between endeavour and In contrast to rubber, indigenous varieties money and the unattractive nature as well as of rice are harvested only once a year. the ease of stopping and starting rubber Consequently, rice cultivatien requires tapping are not in any way supportive of an ``ethic economic planning at least on a one-year of haTd work." Furthermore, these basis in order te sustain the cultivator from factors, as well as the halfiday work one harvest to another. Rice cultivation schedule, are not likely to lead to speciali- also imposes a certain regimentation in work zation in rubber tapping as a profession; and time schedules according to the growth these characteristics are more congenial to stages of the rice. These characteristics the practice of combining diverse economic lead to the general observation in ri¢ e- pursuits commonly observed among the growing societies that household-based Malays in the pre-rubber period [Barlow festivities, such as wedding ceremonies, are 1978:225]. As one offcial of the Farmers' better put off until the harvest is over. Cooperative of Pekan Johol, himself a As Geettz [1968] points out in out]ining Malay, commented somewhat critically to 154 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. KATe: When Rubber Came: The Negeri Sembilan Experience me, the Malays of Negeri Sembilan like to than tapping, save perhaps the cultivation "keija have rojak" or a combination of ef vegetable gardens. Thus, they are various economic pursuits. (Rojak is a dish metivated, no matter whether rubber of mixed fruit or vegetables eaten with prices might be low or high, to maintain the sauce,) Rubber tapping exactly fits this bill. production capability of rubber trees at Money earned through tapping is unlikely a high level and at the same time to tap as to be saved, for extra money can always much latex as possible within a permissible be earned at any time through further range. In contrast, Malay smallholders ``savings tapping, that is, tapping the are motivated to take advantage of high account on reots." rubber prices and, at the time of low prices, What I have described so far actually to diversify their economic pursuits. In applies to more or less any rubber small- other words, fbr Chinese smallhelders holding, be it Malay, Chinese or Indian. rubber is rnore of a cultivated crop; for Yet, Chinese smallholders, for instance, Malays, a forest product. are reportedly very different from Malay The economic fiexibility of Malay small- , smallholders in their economic behaviour. holders is their strength as well as their According to a Malay odicial of MARDEC weakness. Partly helped by the declining (Malay$ian Rubber Development Corpo- cost of Iiving, it enabled them to survive ration) in Kuala Pilah, the Chinese, in even the Great Depression. comparison to Malay smallholders and tappers, are generally better caretakers of When the present writer visited Malaya the rubber trees and lots, more receptive to in 1946 many smallholders were asked the idea of replanting, more specialized in how they had managed to make a living tapping regardless of rubber prices, and during the great depression of the early more concerned with adjusting the forms of thirties when the Singapore price of the rubber product, that is, latex, sheet or rubber at one time declined below 5 scrap, depending on their respective current Straitscents(1-}-d.) per lb, The answer market prices. was generally that as the cost of living, There must be many factors to explain especially the price of rice, had been very the above dfference but let me single out low at that time, it had been possible to one factor which partly accounts fbr the make ends meet, though in some instances divergent economic behaviour between it had been necessary to rely to a greater Malay and Chinese smallholders. Chinese extent than befbre on other activities such smallholders more or less entirely depend as fishing or hawking, or the production of on rubber tapping for a living but Malays rattan to supplement the income from rub- do not. Often barred or discouraged from ber. Butamongsmallholders,asdistinct rice cultivation by government regulations, from unemployed or underemployed la- Chinese smallholders seldom have had bourers, there was apparently Iittle hard- recourse to any other means of livelihood ship even in 1931-1932.[Bauer 1948:64] 155 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University MM7V7-za 29g2g Yet, this very flexibility keeps them in independence. It is this realization which, a limbo world, neither as peasants nor in my opmion, has to be borne in mind when agricultural entrepreneurs. Malay small- we think of rural develepment projects in holders, and probably share-tappers too, contemporary Malaysia. in Negeri Sembilan were seemingly not as Despite the increasing importance of oil poor as the rice-growing Malay peasants in palm, rubber still cuts a dominant profile Kedah or Kelantan. They occasionally in Malay rural economy and many govern- became rich when rubber prices were high. ment development projects are concentrated Yet they mostly failed to sustain their in this sector. The outcome of these wealth whenever rubber prices started to projects is bound to be influenced by what "anatomy plunge. Variations of this story are not I called here the of Malay altogether unheard-of, even today. smallholding and rubber tapping.'' It is By developing the arguments in this the aim of this paper to demonstrate that paper, it was not my intention to propagate the sociology and social psychology of rubber tapping's deterministic influence, rubber, along with its economics, politics uponMalayeconornicbehaviour. Norwas and agronomy, are most helpfu1 in better it my objective to resurrect the colonial understanding and perhaps better planning "myth of the lazy native" (concerning the development processes of contemporary a critical comment on the myth of the lazy rural Malaysia. native, see AIatas [1977]). I am well aware of the argurnent that Malay economic Acknowledgements behaviour centains selective strategies The research for this paper cemprises part of "Socio-Economic adopted by peasants who had to undergo a larger research project titled Change and Cultural Transformation in Rural the transition to a money economy under Malaysia," It was carried out between 1987 and colonia! rule and whose life was increasingly 1989 under the sponsorship of JSPS (the Japan subjected to politico-economic changes Society for the Promotion of Science) and VCC (the Vice Chancellors' Council ef National beyondtheircontrol. However,Imaintain Universities of Malaysia) and funded by the Hitachi no matter one might approach that how Scholarship Foundation. I would like to express my Peletz, Talib the economic behaviour of Malay peasants- appreciation to Michael Shaharil and Wendy Srnith for their critical cemments on the cum-tappers, there is no denying a close original manuscript of the paper. interconnection between characteristics of rubber as a crop and as a commodity, Bibliegraphy smallholding as an ownership pattern and Abbreviations as an operational pattern, and tapping as IMBRAS: fozarnal of the Rayal Asiatic Sbct'ety, e¢ onomic behaviour, which was largely Ma2dyan Braneh within socio-political and defined given ISBRAS: lburnal `v" the Rayal Asi`tist Sbciety, Straits Branch historical enviromnents of colonial Malaya. NSSF: Negri Sembilan Secretariat Files Sigriificantly this interconnection is still NS AR : Negri Sembilan Administration Report very real today even after Malaysia's AR JB: Annual Report Jelebu 156 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University T. 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