Mengungkap kelestarian pertanian kecil Melayu pada zaman penjajahan British (The sustainability of Malay small - scale farmers in British Malaya)

Abstract

Kertas ini mengaplikasikan konsep kelestarian arus hidup Buttimer(2001) yang menuntut pertautan objektif integriti ekologi, pertumbuhan ekonomi, dan vitaliti sosial kepada pengalaman hidup petani Melayu semasa penjajahan British (1874-1948). Dapatan penelitian menunjukkan bahawa kapitalisme penjajah British telah mengherotkan arus hidup petani peribumi : mereka dijadikan petani kecil saradiri berbanding dengan peladang komersil berskala besar penjajah. Perendahan secara sengaja status petani Melayu ini mewajarkan layanan buruk berupa berbagai diskriminasi dan peminggiran seperti termaktub dalam dasar tanah pertanian, dasar bantuan kewangan, dan dasar pembangunan dan P&P penjajah. Namun, dalam segala kepincangan dan kedaifan ini petani kecil Melayu telah membuktikan kelestarian mereka. Sebagai pesawah dan pekebun kelapa mereka berjaya membekalkan makanan kepada seluruh penduduk bukan tani Malaya. Sebagai pekebun kecil getah pula mereka telah membuktikan keampuhan mereka bersaing dengan peladang-peladang besar anak emas penjajah. Bagaimanapun, segmen akhir zaman pentadbiran penjajah British telah menyaksikan layanan yang lebih mesra petani Melayu. Generasi kedua pentadbir penjajah yang lebih berideologi sosialis telah bertungkus lumus mengetat dan memantapkan lagi Enekmen Tanah Resab Melayu yang justru itu menjamin asas geopolitik bagi kelestarian pertanian kecil Melayu.

Katakunci: arushidup, integriti ekologi,kapitalisme penjajah,kelestarian pertanian kecil, pertumbuhan ekonom, vitaliti social

This paper applies Buttimer’s 2001 conception of sustainable lifeway (genre de vie), which integrates and harmonises the objectives of ecological integrity, economic growth and social vitality to the experience of Malay farmers in British Malaya (1874-1948). It was found that British colonial capitalism had structurally transmuted the indigenous farmers’ lifeways : they now became small-scale subsistence farmers vis-à-vis the colonial large-scale commercial planters. This newly acquired inferior status justified the discrimination and marginalisation of the Malay farmers by the colonial administration as witnessed their agricultural land, financial and R&D development policies. Yet, against all these odds the small-scale Malay farmers had proven their resillience. As rice cultivators and coconut smallholders they managed to feed the entirenon-farming population of the colony. As rubber smallholders they managed to compete with the privileged colonial planters. At the latter part of the colonial administration , however, the long suffering Malay small farmers benefited from the benefiction of a more socialist oriented cadre of colonial administrators. The latter went through lengths and breadths to strengthen the Malay Reserve Land Enactment which thus ensured a geopolitical basis for the sustainability of the Malay small-scale farmers.

Keywords: colonial capitalism, ecological integrity, economic growth, lifeways, social vitality,sustainability of small-scale farming