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Change

The Theory of Political Change & the Example of Malaysia

In today's world, affluence and poverty exist side by side, or more correctly, one on top of the other. The vast majority of the world's people are poverty stricken. They do not have adequate food, shelter, clothing or medical treatment. The only things they have in abundance are problems. The following table shows that the condition is clearly an international one.

These figures underestimate the amount of inequality that exists. Income is not only distributed unequally between countries, but within each country. Within the low-income countries there is enormous inequality, and the poorest section of their populations is much poorer than the average figure of $127 suggests.

The exploitation of underdeveloped countries by developed countries, and the exploitation of workers and peasants by foreign and local capitalists is a natural consequence of an economic system based on profit instead of social needs. A good deal of capitalist production is based on planned obsolescence as well as profit. For example cars and fashion clothes are made to last for only a short time so that production can keep on growing. Many consumer products are sold in expensive and elegant packaging which cannot be re-used. A huge advertising industry has grown up to persuade people to keep on buying new consumer goods. Milk is thrown away, butter is dumped into the sea, coffee is burnt, wheat is fed to animals, spindles for textile machines are destroyed; all to keep prices high.

While these things are happening in the industrially developed countries, raw materials representing natural resources as well as human labour are drained away from the underdeveloped countries to keep the absurd process of production-for-waste going. Thus people who create wealth experience poverty, while the minority who have control over land, machinery and therefore labour, wallow obscenely in opulence.

It is often said that poverty is unavoidable because even if the total wealth of the world was equally distributed there would not be enough to go round. But this is not true.

The world's average income is $652 per capita per anum ($2,608 for a family of four), which means that there is nothing in principle to stop everybody in the world receiving an income just about sufficient for basic needs and a reasonable standard of health, though not much more.

But this is not all. When profit is not the motive for production, labour and natural resources can be used for producing essential goods rather than superfluous ones. Commodities which have been destroyed to keep prices high can be used to satisfy people's needs. Unemployed labour and idle machines can be put to productive use for social needs. In the interests of the majority of mankind the capitalist economic system must be thrown into the museum of history and a new system based on social needs created.

How does change come about? Some say that if men's ideas are changed, society will automatically change. But although the importance of ideas in changing society cannot be denied, ideas do nor exist independent of society.

People's ideas come mainly from their relations with other people, their problems in life and in their jobs. For example, a worker who toils all day and has problems feeding his family will definitely think and act differently from a banker's wife who plays mahjong all day. In a word, "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, it is their social being that determines their consciousness."

Basically political, social and cultural changes in society come about as a result of changes in the relations of production, brought about by the development of new productive forces. This can be seen by briefly looking at the development of capitalism in European societies.

Capitalist relations of production began to grow in feudal society with the development of commodity production in the towns. As agricultural techniques developed, resulting in the growth of large-scale landholdings and more efficient farming, an increasing number of people left the land to work as commodity producers in the towns. Whereas the peasant was virtually a slave of his landlord, the commodity producer was master of his own house. His products belonged to him and he obtained other commodities by trading.

In England the breakdown of feudal relations of production resulted in political changes. By the early 16th century the feudal nobility had lost most of their independent political power. During the 17th and 18th centuries the monarchy also lost most of its absolute political power as the bourgeoisie grew in economic strength.

The Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century marked the unfettered growth of capitalist relations of production. With the invention of steam mills and power looms, large scale manufacture of commodities came into being. Small-scale producers were forced out of business and into the factories as property-less wage-labourers whose products were expropriated by the capitalists. Society became divided into two groups: the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production, and the proletariat who were forced to sell their labour to survive.

The political results of the Industrial Revolution were first seen in England, when the bourgeoisie won the right to vote in 1832. Throughout the rest of Europe the rise of liberalism and nationalism were largely the demands of the emergent bourgeoisie for a share of political power.

The second half of the 19th century saw the growth of the working class movement in Europe through trade unions and social democratic political parties. The working class became a force which, if united in the right direction, could radically transform society. This period also saw the growth of the logical extension of capitalism, European imperialism in Africa and Asia. The First World War was the culmination of political struggle between the European imperialist powers, and with the collapse of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires revolutionary movements seized power throughout Eastern Europe. In Russia the revolutionaries managed to hold onto power and started building the world's first socialist state.

This very general picture of the history of capitalist developments shows that changes in the relations of production brought about by the growth of new productive forces, are the basic cause of political change in society. However this is not to say that all forms of social change are directly determined by economic changes.

For a country like Malaysia, change is definitely desirable for the vast majority of people. But what sort of change must be brought about to rapidly benefit the people? To answer this question we must first of all look at Malaysia's economic situation.

For over a century Malaysia has been the world's chief supplier of rubber and tin. These two main industries, which accounted for over 40% of total exports in 1971, were mainly developed by the British colonialists. Sixteen years after the 'independence' of Malaya, about 50% of the rubber production and 60% of tin production comes from European owned estates and mines. Recently Malaysia has begun to establish several large scale manufacturing industries, most of which are owned by foreign firms. These factories mainly produce consumer goods aimed at the middle class market at home and abroad.

A large part of Malaysia's population is engaged in rice farming. However due to backward farming methods and inefficient organisation, not enough rice is produced for the nation's consumption and the deficiency has to be imported.

Thus Malaysia's is a distorted economy which is not self-sufficient in food and many other commodities, and has to import what it lacks by exporting mainly rubber and tin.

Most of the production of these export industries is owned by foreign companies which deprive the country of the chance of accumulating enough funds to set up new industries and develop a prosperous economy. Malaysia is an underdeveloped country which is described as relatively well-off in Southeast Asia by official economists.

The bulk of the population is engaged in agriculture, especially in the production of rice and rubber. The average daily wage of a rubber worker is about $3 (Malaysian) or $0.85 (New Zealand), with which a worker has to support his wife and family. As a result of a fall in the price of rubber many, workers have been dismissed. The work load of those who remain is increased, but their wages are not.

The farmer who owns a small plot planted with rubber trees is also badly off. Forced by circumstances to sell his product through a middleman, the price he gets is less than the price on the international market. When world prices for rubber are down to about 70c per kilo, these small farmers get no more than $2 (Malaysian) a day.

Rice farmers do not fare any better. Although some own small plots of land, most of them are tenant farmers. Land rents vary from 30% to 60% or more of the yield. On top of that farmers have to pay about 20% of their yield on fertilisers and insecticides. Then there are the religious taxes, the Fitrah and the Zakat, which amount to about 11% of the total of the yield.

At best the rice farmer is left with about 39% of his yield to sell on the "free" market, where he gets a poor price for his padi. In good times his life cycle is one of debt and no debt. In bad times it is a life of near starvation.

While most Malaysians still work in the agricultural sector the number of manufacturing workers has grown in recent years, large groups of school leavers are employed by factories, which are mainly foreign owned. Frequently these workers are termed 'unskilled' or 'trainees' and paid as low as $1—$2 (Malaysian) for an eight hour day.

Taking into account the rate of inflation in the country and the introduction of sales tax on essential commodities, the low standard of living of the majority of the population is deteriorating.

But this is only one side of the picture of modern Malaysia. While the peasants and workers are getting poorer, the middle class and the aristocracy are getting richer. Hotels, bowling alleys and night clubs are mushrooming, and there are an increasing number of expensive cars, TVs, cameras and other luxury goods. The New Zealand trade commissioner in Kuala Lumpur mentioned this phenomenon in a recent article in the Trade and Industry Department's magazine Export News. "The spin-off from industrialisation is a new consumer wealth. The new consumer is brand-conscious and prefers foreign products. This is reflected in the demand for imported food lines, fashion clothing for boutiques, and car acessories such as lambskin car seat covers."

Foreign companies in the rubber industry do not appear to have suffered from the drop in the price of rubber. In 1971 the average profit of 26 rubber companies based on London was 21.7% of capital invested, which was a slight increase over the previous year.

(Financial Times, October 27, 1972)

Similarly foreign investors in other industries are making huge profits out of the Malaysian people. While they are enriching themselves the Malaysian people are becoming more and more impoverished.

The productive forces of Malaysia are stunted by the present relations of production. In order that the Malaysian people can develop their economy for social use, foreign domination must be overthrown.

But the foreign capitalists, backed by their governments' military power, will not peacefully leave Malaysia and go home. They will not throw down their knives and become Buddhas overnight. Social and economic change in Malaysia will only come about through political struggle by the exploited people of the country, the great majority. However at present a large number of people still do not understand the objective situation in which they live, and until enough people do so, the political struggle will be defeated.

The most important task of those Malaysians who want change and understand how their country is being exploited is to convince the masses of the importance of overthrowing foreign domination of our economy, and the local parasites who live off the foreigners' profits, so we can build a new society which works for the benefit of the majority.

by G.N.