On Independence the new Indonesian Government did not begin with a clean slate. In the case of interisland shipping the old slate was actually re-endorsed. Under the Round Table Agreements the new government had to concede, as a condition of Independence, the continued rights of the Dutch flag KPM which held the virtual monopoly of modern interisland shipping. Breaking that KPM monopoly thus became almost an obsession of Indonesian nationalists. The result was a protracted stalemate, not broken until the end of 1957, when an attempted nationalization threw the industry into chaos. The nature of the industry today, and the government's regulation of it, can be understood only in the light of these historical circumstances.

This chapter therefore attempts to sketch the background to the development of the industry both before and after Independence. The first section shows that, as early as 1850, a monopoly of interisland steam shipping was virtually concomitant with government contracts for the subsidized carriage of passengers and mail, In 1891 the contract was taken over by the KPM. The second section considers the impact of the KPM upon the industry. The rest of the chapter deals with the evolution of government policy after Independence in three sections: Indonesianization (1949-58), Guided Economy (1958-66) and the New Order (since 1966).

PRELUDE TO THE KPM

Three events profoundly affected die pattern of shipping and trade in the Indonesian Archipelago over the course of the nineteenth century: the foundation of Singapore in 1819, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the commencement of services by the KPM in 1891.

Geographically strategic, exempt from customs duties and secure from the depredations of Dutch and Malay rulers, Singapore acted as a catalyst on long-depressed regional trade. Preoccupied with the exploitation of Java through the Cultivation System, the Dutch were slow to develop economic interests in the Outer Islands, where, in the mid-1830s, there were still only fifteen Dutch settlements.

INTRODUCTION

What does the village look like today? Who lives there, what do they live from, how are they related to each other? In slightly more academic terms, the questions could be rephrased as concerning the sources of household income, the extent of social differentiation or the social organization of production. The following chapters will attempt to provide answers to these questions, beginning with a concrete description of the village households, followed by an analysis of the economy and society. In other words, an attempt will be made, not merely to provide an anatomy of the village, but also the underlying mechanisms which animate the process of production and exchange taking place within it and between the village and other social units.

The research was carried out during the author's one-year stay in the village from April 1979 to March 1980. The presentation of the material follows closely the actual research procedure itself, in the course of which the blurred and indeterminate village contours gave way to a meaningful pattern. An overview of the households in the village was first obtained (from a census taken on all the village households) in order to obtain base-line indicators like demography, landownership, size of farm operation and so forth. A deeper understanding of the dynamics of household formation and the household economy was then facilitated by a six-month survey of fifteen sample households, taken as representative of well-to-do, poor, and middle-income households in the village.

At first count there were 133 households in the village but during the period of field work (one year), two households were dissolved; one was an old lady formerly living alone whose illness forced her to move in with relatives and another, a young nuclear family where divorce led to the dissolution of the household. The woman left with the children for the village of origin; the man sold the house and left to look for a new life in Pahang.

The difficulty in presenting the development of the Law of the Sea in a vast area is that one has to select the necessary information from a large number of sources. In almost all areas, the Law of the Sea boundaries have not been consolidated or approved by international law. This is the reason for the lack of precise maps and descriptions. Although a number of states publish documentations, these are mainly subjective interpretations of the Law of the Sea. In order to achieve a positive outcome of future talks, a few states exaggerate or falsify their claims, because their neighbours usually have a different opinion of their sea boundaries. It was therefore essential in this study to analyse the contradictions between official, scientific and economic publications of each country, the oil industry, fishing management, scientific institutes, and the press. Thus, the maps of the Law of the Sea zones, given in this book, represent the conception of the respective states only, regardless of the recognition by neighbouring states.

The regionalization of the Law of the Sea is a dynamical process nowadays, rendering it necessary to gather up-to-date information from newspapers and magazines. However, the distance between Germany and the Pacific countries hampers the flow of information considerably. In addition, slight errors and the shortcomings of topicals are inevitable in some cases. The information in this book has been gathered up to August 1985 and in some cases up to November 1986.

In spite of this unsatisfying basis, from the scientific point of view, I wrote this geographical description and documentation because it is my opinion that the new Law of the Sea will initiate long-term structural changes which are of political significance as a result of the changing national control and jurisdiction of the sea (Bohme and Kehden 1972, Johnston and Langdon 1978).

The continually widening gap between the industrialized countries and the developing countries was meant to be reduced by the Law of the Sea, but this has not been achieved. Nevertheless, jurisdictional application of the Law of the Sea brings along innovations in economic, political and military matters. Therefore, one is surprised how little this topic is known to the public and also to the politicians in many countries. It is hoped that this book will interest the reader in further scientific research (Archer and Beazley 1975; Paffen 1964; Prescott 1975) and increased political engagement on the subject.

Changing Japanese Policies on Industrial Restructuring vis-à-vis ASEAN Countries

Japanese postures on industrial restructuring and co-operation vis-à-vis ASEAN countries have undergone significant changes over the last two decades or so. The period since 1967 when ASEAN was established can be divided into three: 1967–73; 1974–77; and 1978 and thereafter.

The Years 1967–73

While there was a steady increase in Japan's official development assistance (ODA) since 1965, especially to Southeast Asian countries, Japan did not exhibit any positive postures on economic and industrial co-operation with ASEAN. The White Paper on Economic Co-operation by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) thus stated in 1968 that “although we recognize the necessity of expanding economic co-operation through both economic aid and trade, it is impossible to increase it rapidly because it entails a large financial burden and adverse effects on domestic related industries”.

Japan's position, however, underwent a gradual change in line with the continued expansion and upgrading of the national economy. A phrase “international division of labour” appeared for the first time in the 1969 White Paper, which considered it to be fundamentally desirable that an international division of labour between Japan and Southeast Asian countries could be realized for the long-term development of the Japanese economy and Southeast Asian countries. Japan's positive view toward the international division of labour was reinforced in the 1970s. The 1970 and 1971 White Papers were sub-titled respectively as “The Necessity for International Division of Labour” and “Promotion of Rational Division of Labour”.

The Years 1974–77

The energy crisis in October 1973 had a significant impact and revelation on the Japanese posture on an international division of labour. Japan was one of the industrial countries most adversely affected by the energy crisis. The rapidly increasing Japanese direct investment overseas since 1972 especially in developing countries therefore reflected a growing concern with the secure supply of energy and other natural resources for domestic industries.

Introduction

This chapter examines the symbolic action of boria in relation to the social action of the community which is its milieu. That is, I will try to relate the meaning of the performance to the ideals and behaviour of the society in which it is performed. In South- east Asia there is a complex and closely integrated relationship between symbolic action and social action; western mainstream drama largely lacks this — with its stress on the relationship between dramatic action and the audience.

The urban kampung Malays in certain areas of Penang have been involved in boria to such a degree as audience and performers and actors that virtually all the community members have at one time or another been participants. This being so, the question of relating to an audience, and which part of a community to the total community to establish relationships (between drama and society) does not arise; the audience, actors and performers are the community. In this situation symbolic action can be related directly to social action. The relationship exists; the problem lies in exposing the ways in which it is manifested. This can be established by examining involvement with and reaction to the symbolic action both inside and outside the theatre.

Boria Participation

In terms of the experience of the audience with boria, the Sungai Pinang troupes regularly interact with the Datuk Keramat, Air Itam (town) 1 and Jelutung Malays both during the show, when their communication takes the form of role player and active recipient, and in daily life as socially interacting categories of people. It was in these areas of deep involvement with the boria that the research was most intensive. In all, there was a random sample of 340 people from the Datuk Keramat area, 174 from Jelutung and 137 from Air Itam town with a total audience sample of 651 people. A special survey of actors and performers of troupes in those areas was taken and 79 of them formed the sample for the theatre.

INTRODUCTION

The discussion has been confined so far to the padi economy of the village, which has been and remains the major source of livelihood for the village households. Apart from padi, 90 re of village land is under rubber cultivation and provides income for twenty-five households, either as owner-operator, rentier or tapper on a share- cropping basis. Other than padi and rubber however, there are limited employment opportunities within the village economy since neither animal husbandry nor handicrafts are carried out on a large scale.

Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that the boundaries of the village economy have seldom, perhaps never, corresponded to the economic horizon of the villagers. To begin with, the nature of the marriage, residence and inheritance patterns (see Chapter 12) provide many villagers with access and /or claims to resources outside of the village. Shadli's data on marriage patterns, quoted below, indicate the potential significance of marriage in transcending village economic boundaries:

Another “traditional” means of gaining access to resources outside of the village was to “pioneer” new land. As the surrounding jungle swamps were completely cleared by the early sixties, a group of about eighteen villagers went to open up uninhabited government land in Merbok, about forty miles away from the village, in 1965. This land was later repossessed by the government. Since then, the attempts of the villagers to stake claims to new land have been confined to the remaining state-owned jungles of the north, which they buy in the form of beli usaha for rubber cultivation. Fourteen village households, belonging to the well-to-do and middle categories, have acquired land in this way, in the full knowledge that this acquisition has no legal basis.

Our intensive household studies reveal that trading has to be considered as part of the household's endeavour to ensure its reproduction. Trading, however, is only one source of income among a variety of economic activities comprising mainly cash-cropping, subsistence production, wage labour, and handicraft. The contribution of each sector to reproduction varies from household to household in such a way that trading is inversely proportional to the importance of farming: for peasants who own no land or who only possess marginal land tenure, trading may even be the only source of money income, while rich farmers live by selling their cash crops and do no trade at all.

This complementary quality of economic factors raises the question of whether there is any hierarchical order among them. Obviously among most peasants, cash-cropping comes first in priority. This may contradict Scott's theory, according to which a peasant pursuing his “safety first” strategy never endangers subsistence production as the major and reliable basis of reproduction (Scott 1976). However, it has to be noted that firstly most peasants still follow a mixed production scheme, albeit with subsistence production on a reduced scale, and secondly, clove growing for over a period of thirty years has proved to be reliable and fairly stable in terms of market forces.

The complementary, even dependent, character of economic sectors would imply that the household's search for security has to be understood within the totality of its variant economic activities. Elwert (1983, 1984) and Elwert, Evers, and Wilkens (1983) have shown that economic sectors permeate into one another, at the same time undermining and perpetuating one another in pursuit of mere reproduction. Undoubtedly the whole system of combined sectors is dominated and transformed by the logic of the capitalist world market, and it is only seemingly paradoxical that the persistence of the more “traditional” sectors, such as subsistence production and small-scale trading, is in its favour, as will be explained.

The field-work was carried out in the village of Kakas, District of Minahasa, from August to October 1983, preceded by two months of orientation work in August and September 1982. Kakas was chosen for various reasons: Firstly, the village has one of the oldest market-places in the region founded by the Dutch in the second half of the nineteenth century, hence permitting an insight into the historical development of a market-place since colonial times. Secondly, Kakas is one of the major “clove villages” in Minahasa, and the impact of cash-cropping, including the accompanying commercialization on the local economy, society, and culture could well be investigated here. From observation, socio-economic differentiation within the village seemed to have proceeded relatively far. Thirdly, the village peasantry has traditionally lived on a multiplicity of subsistence activities, such as fishing on Lake Tondano, growing rice in well-irrigated sawahs near the lake, and the cultivation of ladang in the mountains, thus providing the prerequisites of subsistence safety for the introduction of cash crops. Fourthly, Kakas is a fairly small rural market — large enough to provide the occasional job opportunities to peasant pedlars and to secure the necessary provision with primary goods; too small, however, to withstand the economic dominance of the more attractive larger markets in nearby Langoan, thus reflecting the ambivalent quality of the typical rural market-place in the area.

We stayed in the house of one of the larger farmers in the village, only a few minutes’ walk from the market-place. The people accepted our presence in the village and were very co-operative and friendly. During the first two weeks of our stay we visited the market-place on each market-day. Only on the first few market-days did we attract a crowd; we were perceived as part of the local market scene thereafter. The very informality of meeting people in the market-place made it easy to get in contact with not only traders but also informants from peasant households.

A discussion of the context of Malay literary development in the 1970s inevitably begins with mention of the racial riots of 13 May 1969. Among other things, the ethnic disturbances of this time highlighted what was perceived as the basic problem of Malay poverty and the pervasive issue of economic imbalance among the ethnic groups. Dissatisfied with their inferior economic position, Malays became more vocal in their demand for greater share in the wealth of their country. In the face of mounting pressure, the government introduced several economic strategies outlined in the New Economic Policy (NEP). Implemented on 1 July 1969, the question of eradicating poverty, especially that of rural poverty, which had featured persistently in economic planning, was to receive emphasis yet again. Alongside this issue was that of eliminating the close correlation between ethnic group and economic activity. As such, the NEP strove to make it possible for bumiputera(s) or the indigenous population and the Malays to own thirty per cent of the corporate sector by 1990. To bring about these objectives, the policy introduced several measures geared towards generating a more progressive rural economy, reducing dependence on semi-subsistence agriculture and providing economic opportunities for greater participation in both the rural and the urban economy. For the Malays, the 1970s was to be a period of better opportunities and expanding prospects. As underlined in the NEP, the government saw its task as that of maintaining steady economic growth, developing the country and forging a nation in which the twin issues of poverty and identification of race with economic activity could begin to be resolved. The era of “giving substance to independence” of the 1960s was now to give way to what was commonly known as zaman pembangunan (an era of development). Modern While on the one hand, the period was marked by some measure of perceived economic success and also promises of even greater progress in the economic sphere, it was also a time in which continuing problems seemed to defy solution.

The dichotomy in the colonial education policy meant that the élite were distanced from participation in the on-going production of Malay literature. Literature came to be centred in the Malay-educated, who were largely teachers and journalists. A study of modern Malay literature has to take cognizance of this fact. Modern Malay literature was the product of the non-élite who were predominantly of rural background and whose education upheld the rural bias with its intention of strengthening the tie between the land and the village world. This close link between literature and the peasantry was to have a far-reaching effect on modern Malay literature as a whole.

Prior to the appearance of the Penulis Guru, as the teacher-writers were known, and the Penulis Wartawan (journalist-writers), the Malay literary scene already bore the imprint of the efforts of a group called Penulis Agama (religion-writers). These were Middle-Eastern educated Malays who, influenced by the Islamic reformism of Turkey and Egypt, took home with them a new understanding of an insight into Islam. Their ideas were vigorously expressed and debated in the newspapers and magazines, foremost amongst which were Al-Imam (1906-09, terminal date is unclear) and later Al-Ikhwan (1926-31) and Saudara (1928-41). The old ulama or authorities on religion, who were closely allied to the traditional élite as advisors on matters of religion, did not accept the new ideas, and the disagreement culminated in the famous Kaum Tua - Kaum Muda clash (Roff 1967). Syed Sheikh Al-hadi, a prolific campaigner of the new understanding, carried his ideas into the realm of fiction in the first Malay novel, Hikayat Setia Asyik kepada Maksyuknya atau Syafik Afandi dengan Faridah Hanum [The story of a lover's faithfulness to his beloved or Syafik Afandi and Faridah Hanum], which was well received. Finding fiction writing a lucrative enterprise, he produced a series of romantic stories, mainly adaptations from Egyptian and Turkish literature, under the title, Angan-Angan Kehidupan [Life's fantasies], and also a series of detective stories entitled, Cerita Rokambul [The story of Rokambul], all of which were published by his own Jelutong press.

Since the national appropriation of large sea areas has become more and more usual, and since the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea has revealed that the fixation of straight baselines, the enlargement of the territorial sea to a distance of 12 nautical miles, the establishment of EEZs with a maximum breadth of 200 nautical miles, and the association of the continental shelf, in some cases even beyond this, may become international law, all the coastal states, as to be expected, have pursued an extreme seaward expansionist policy. Every state can convincingly point to its urgent need for maritime resources. This especially applies to the 23 island states and island territories in the South Pacific, which, apart from a few exceptions, do not have any other natural resources of economic significance. The exceptions are Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Nauru, and to a lesser extent Fiji and the Solomon Islands, where mineral resources are being exploited. Vanuatu certainly also possesses undeveloped deposits. Hawaii, as part of the United States, has had a totally different economic development, and therefore the adjacent sea areas must be regarded as being of less importance to the country. All the remaining islands, however, are suitable for only limited agricultural utilization. The sea, on the other hand, contains fish as a reproductive resource for the world market. Up to 95 per cent of these fish are caught, manufactured and sold by foreign long-distance fishing fleets (in 1983, approximately 1,200 ships, almost entirely from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the USSR, and the United States) (cf. Buchholz 1983). The instruments of the newly established Law of the Sea Convention can be effectively applied in order to increase the economic potential of these small insular countries.

The South Pacific insular states began only recently to place their adjacent sea areas under their sovereignty. In contrast to the East and Southeast Asian sea areas at the periphery of the oceans, the maritime law declarations by the island countries related to the column of water, rather than to the continental shelf.

The study of agrarian transformation, which could well sum up the theme of this book, has been dominated by two opposing paradigms: one associated with the name of Lenin, the other with Chayanov. Both concurred methodologically in employing the household as the basic unit of analysis (defined as the unit of production and consumption) while differing in their analytical focus: for Lenin, relations of production, which were open to the influence of external factors, structured relations between households; for Chayanov, relations of reproduction, which were generated by internal, demographic factors, structured relations within rather than between households.

In keeping with the first model, the process of change in a peasant economy is usually envisaged in terms of the confrontation between a “traditional society” embedded in a “subsistence economy” and the capitalist market economy, represented, for most Third World countries, by the so-called “Green Revolution”. This integration of the peasantry into the market economy or commercialization of agriculture “generally sets in motion a tendency towards the concentration of land in fewer hands” via the dispossession of the smaller and marginalized peasants. A process of social differentiation begins resulting in the constitution of large capitalist farms on the one hand, and landless agricultural labourers on the other. The elimination of the peasantry is its historical product. This model has also been applied to studies of the Malaysian peasantry.

The second model locates the peasant in a toiler or family labour farm which is embedded in supportive kinship or village structures and whose productive activities are directed towards subsistence rather than profit. Such a farm would be impervious to capitalist encroachment and thus resistant to its otherwise transformative effects in the direction of polarization and elimination. Echoes of this position also rebound in the Malaysian literature.

This study of a Muda village which was subject to the tremendous forces of change unleashed by the “Green Revolution” comes to the same conclusion as that of another Malaysian scholar, namely, the possibility of alternative trajectories of change.

Corporate Responses to Industrial Restructuring at Home and Abroad

All business corporations, in order to survive and expand in competitive markets, have to adjust their strategies and policies constantly to changes, both internal and external to themselves. Among the major internal factors changing perceptibly in recent years in Japanese corporations are the composition, mentality, attitude, and work ethics of the work-force; labour-management relations; and the composition and business concerns/priorities of major shareholders. Concrete examples of these are found in the ageing and an increasing female participation, particularly married women, in the labour force; a weakening in the bargaining power; and an increasingly defensive posture of labour unions vis-à-vis corporate management. There has also been a growing dominance of institutional and corporate ownership of equity shares that has had a significant impact on the priorities of top management in running corporations.

Among the major external factors that have confronted Japanese business corporations with conspicuous changes in recent years are the level, diversity, and cost of new technologies available; the level of per capita income and the patterns of income distribution; the consumer preferences and spending patterns; the intensity of factor and product market competition at home and abroad; the range and direction of foreign exchange rate fluctuations; and government economic policies affecting the domestic and overseas markets.

Since nearly all the internal changes can be managed within the guidelines of corporate policies on personnel management, industrial relations, and financing, it is those changes due to major external factors to which business corporations would have to respond most effectively, in order to survive and expand in competitive markets. Particularly relevant among such external factors arc product market competition and governmental competition policies, since these determine the rates of economic growth, technological innovation, and productivity improvement as well as income distribution, which in turn affect most significantly the process of industrial restructuring.

This chapter gives some details on ten popular stories from boria sketches. They illustrate the shows considered suitable for various occasions and for the range of stories employed. Essentially they are foundation plots used by many troupes; within the basic framework each troupe will vary the story to suit the particular audience and to bring out the skill of its performers. The dialogue is extempore. It is for these reasons that generalized stories are presented; transcribing and translating entire stories apart from increasing the bulk of the text, would tend to conceal the features common without giving the reader any clearer idea of the content of the sketches. I have also noted some of the audience reaction beyond the normal amusement encouraged by the actors in certain roles.

Examples of Stories

A. Kisah Kenduri Kahuwin [Wedding story]

The scene opens with a middle-aged couple discussing the impending marriage of their daughter. The focus of the argument is on the type of wedding they are going to have. The bride's mother wants a big wedding. She argues that her daughter will be feted but once in her lifetime, and that is on her first wedding. As a mother she does not want to suffer the shame of a small wedding feast. She must be better than her neighbours, and if they can have big wedding feasts for their daughters, she must have a better one for hers. The father is all for a small kenduri selamat (thanksgiving) in view of the fact that a big ceremony is beyond their means and would involve going into debt.

This disagreement leads them into repartee. This word battle is the important comic element in the sketch at one level, complemented by their clothes, countenance and gestures at another. The type of argument most popular with both actors and audience alike seems to run in a thrust and parry dialogue, as demonstrated in the example below: