Politik Pengeluaran Felda

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain why the settlers in Felda land schemes retaliated against Felda. Arguing against conventional analysis, it shows that the system of land schemes constitutes a form of labour control system for large scale cash crop production which is dominated and controlled by the state as capital. The legal, economic, management and social controls imposed by Felda, as an agent of the state, indicate that the settlers are regulated for capital accumulation to the extent that they are essentially turned into proletarians. This contradicts the idea of rural (peasant) development as it is understood by the settlers: seeing themselves as part of the so-called privileged Malay citizens, the settlers retaliated and demanded changes in Felda-settler relationship in order to control their land, labour and the produce or in short, to deproletarianise the land schemes. In conclusion, this paper argues that the development of the peasantry in Felda land schemes is inherently contradictory because the  reproduction of the land schemes system itself depends on a continuous struggle between Felda and the settlers.