CONTENT
List of Tables xii
Preface xv
1. Small Arms Fire in the Class War 1
Razak 1
Haji "Broom" 13
The Symbolic Balance of Power 22
2. Normal Exploitation, Normal Resistance 28
The Unwritten History of Resistance 28
Resistance as Thought and Symbol 37
The Experience and Consciousness of Human Agents 41
3. The Landscape of Resistance 48
Background: Malaysia and the Paddy Sector 50
Middle Ground: Kedah and the Muda Irrigation Scheme 59
Landoumership • Farm Size • Tenure • Mechanization • From Exploitation to Marginalization • Income • Poverty • Institutional Access
4. Sedaka, 1967-1979 86
The Village 86
Rich and Poor 91
Village Composition 100
Land Tenure 100
Changes in Tenancy 103
Changes in Rice Production and Wages 110
Local Institutions and Economic Power 125
The Farmers' Association • The Ruling Party in Sedaka
5. History according to Winners and Losers 138
Class-ifying 138
Ships Passing—and Signaling—in the Night 141 Two Subjective Class Histories of the Green Revolution 147
Double-cropping and Double Vision 148
From Living Rents to Dead Rents 151
Combine-Harvesters 154
Losing Ground: Access to Paddy Land 164
Rituals of Compassion and Social Control 169
The Remembered Village 178
6. Stretching the Truth: Ideology at Work 184
Ideological Work in Determinate Conditions 184
The Vocabulary of Exploitation 186
Bending the Facts: Stratification and Income 198
Rationalizing Exploitation 204 Ideological Conflict: The Village Gate . 212
Ideological Conflict: The Village Improvement Scheme 220
Argument as Resistance 233
7. Beyond the War of Wbrds: Cautious Resistance and Calculated Conformity 241
Obstacles to Open, Collective Resistance 242
The Effort to Stop the Combine-Harvester 248
"Routine" Resistance 255 Trade Unionism without Trade Unions • Imposed Mutuality • Self-help andlor Enforcement • Prototype Resistance
"Routine" Repression 274
Routine Compliance and Resistance that Covers Its Tracks 278
Conformity and the Partial Transcript 284
What Is Resistance? 289
8. Hegemony and Consciousness: Everyday Forms of Ideological Struggle 304
The Material Base and Normative Superstructure in Sedaka 305
Rethinking the Concept of Hegemony 314 Penetration • Inevitability, Naturalization, and Justice • Conflict within Hegemony • Trade Union Consciousness and Revolution • Who Shatters the Hegemony?
Appendixes
A. A Note on Village Population, 1967-1979 351
B. Farm Income Comparisons for Different Tenure and Farm Size Categories: Muda, 1966, 1974, 1979 355
C. Data on Land Tenure Changes, Net Returns, and Political Office 356
D. Glossary of Local Terms 361
E. Translation of Surat Layang 362
Bibliography 364
Index 375
Photographs following page 162
Maps
1. The Muda Irrigation Scheme Area in Peninsular Malaysia 60
2. Kedah and the Muda Scheme Area 61
3. Kampung Sedaka 88