Transcript GREEN GOLD’ OIL PALM MIGRATION AND MORAL PANIC

OIL PALM THE IMMIGRATION INDUSTRY
AND MORAL PANIC
Fadzilah Majid Cooke
Paper presented at the 9th International
Symposium for Society and Resource
Management at the University of Natural
Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU),
Vienna , 5 – 9 July 2009
WHAT THIS PAPER IS ABOUT
Describes Results of An exploratory study that:
Examines dominant and minority views concerning labour
migration from Indonesia and the Philippines to the
state of Sabah, East Malaysia.
Provides the political and economic context for the
shaping of such views
Uses an ethnographic approach in examining such views
which means privileging the perspectives of the group
that the researcher works with as an initial step in the
study of the phenomena of migration
OBJECTIVE
• An exploratory study to gauge the opinion of
different ‘publics’ in Sabah for a larger scale
study to follow on :
• the transnationalism of oil palm focussing on
the nature of social interaction between in
and out groups and their effects
METHOD
• A: Systematic survey of the English language newspaper , the Daily
Express, from January 2005 to January 2009, a paper selected
because it does not belong to any political party or economic interest
is Sabah based and focussed;
•
PURPOSE: to extract dominant themes (what) about migrant labour and the
key players (who)
•
B. INTERVIEWS with Sabahan Publics, using the themes extracted from
the newspapers. Interviews lasted from 20 to 25 minutes.
• SAMPLING: purposive sampling of two groups of workers because of
their having direct experience in their economic lives of:
•
servicing migrants , or of working alongside them
• The 2 groups were:
• unlicensed taxi drivers in rural areas – piret
17 informants ,
• workers in oil palm plantations - 23 informants
• ALL IN THE KINABATANGAN AREA, SABAH EAST COAST
• Approach: Qualitative, Using Semi Structured and Key informant
Interviews. Work in Progress. Preliminary Findings
FIELDWORK LOCATION- THE KINABATANGAN
THE KINABATANGAN DISTRICT
• Located in East Coast Sabah where most of large oil
palm plantations are found (along the Kinabatangan river
at Bukit Garam and further inland at Sukau)
• In 2000, 73 % of the Kinabatangan Population is
migrant, almost all employed by oil palm estates.
•
Lahad Datu 34% population is migrant (4th highest in
Sabah)
SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
1
• Newspaper: Dominant themes: MORAL PANIC
• Migrant workers as ‘demons’ – illegals, opportunists, crime prone;
• Opprtunists – Overstay their permits, buy fake Identity cards; try to
become citizens; then apply for land rights under customary land;
bring their families or breed profusely;
• Crime prone – drugs;
• “Filipino refugees and Syabu are the same: UPKO” (Daily Express;
25.08.05: 1)
Sabah demography is fast changing, a feeling of being swamped by
migrants
• Migrants overtaxing health, educational services and infrastructure
facilities through illegal use of electricity, water (usually without
paying dues)
FINDINGS 2
•
If not deported, migrants will take over many aspects of
economic and social life.
• WHO ARE THE MAJOR SHAPERS OF VIEWS
CONCERNING MORAL PANIC?
• An element of Sabahan (not federal) political leadership
• Some Sabahan non government organisations- e.g.
Consumer Association of Sabah
•
• An element of Sabah Suhakam (The Malaysian Human
Rights Commission)
FINDINGS 3
• MINORITY VIEWS (given less prominence in newspapers)
• Estate/plantation; construction and restaurant sectors of the Sabahan
economy dependent on migrant labour.
• Migrants have rights as workers
• Stateless children and street kids are not criminals, ‘wedlock’,
responsibility of the nation;
• WHO HOLD THESE VIEWS
• Some employer associations (but they change their minds often)- e.g.
Sabah United Chinese Chamber of Commerce
• Some NGOs e.g. Yayasan Islam
• Some politicians whose electorates are overwhelmingly ‘migrant’ in
character – e.g. Assemblyman for Morotai, Mr. Pang Yuk Min
• Some Federal government ministers
FINDINGS 4 – A THRIVING IMMIGRATION INDUSTRY
• The ‘immigration industry’ – making citizens out of noncitizens.
• Produce documents – especially Mykad - ‘genuine’ (obtained
illegaly from the national registration office - NRD). Or fake
ones produced by a ‘cottage’ industry
• involves a range of interests: business, political,
bureaucratic/administrative and non citizen out groups.
• In 2008 Applicants who have problems in obtaining a
‘genuine’ i.c can get one for RM 18,000 (Director of the Anti
Corruption Agency cited in the Daily Express 25 Jan
2008:p.1).
• A fake i.c. produced by the ‘cottage industry’ such as the one
in at Kg. Hidayat, Milestone 4 Jalan Apas, Tawau can cost
RM 300 each (District Police Chief of Tawau cited in the
Daily Express 19 January 2008:1)
FINDINGS 5 - PIRET
WHO ARE THEY?
Drivers who provide an informal service to transport people and things mostly
without a permit , with or without driving licence, insurance or road tax.
Most drivers tend to be small holder oil palm growers themselves, having
Land ranging from 3 to 15 acres. A few do not have land.
• Arose out of the flows of ‘people and things’
• Things refer to oil palm Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) the urgency of
• getting to mills on time – 4 wheel drive vehicles owned by small holders for
transporting their own FFBs to mills
• ‘People’ refer to plantation workers mostly foreign (Indonesian mainly
Bugis - and to a very small extent, Filipinos) working with or without permits or
permits that have expired. Workers need to shop to visit, to organise
documents, to go to clinics and hospitals.
FINDINGS 6 – PIRET VIEWS OF MIGRANT WORKERS
• Total of 17 respondents , 10 Full time drivers and 7 part time
• A range of views
• NOTE: AN Indicator of friendship/trust : when a piret gives his mobile
ph. No. to a foreign worker
Full time 10
Part time 7
How many times in a month do
you transport foreign workers?
8 = daily
2 = 4x/mth
1 = 4x/m,
3= 8-12x/m,
2 = ne, 1 = dly
Can you survive economically
without them?
No = 8
No Answer 2
No = 1
Yes = 6
Have you ever had bad experience
when driving them?
No = All
No = All
They are mostly criminals,
do you agree?
Disagree 6
½ Agree 3
Agree 1
4
2
1
SOME VIEWS OF MIGRANT WORKERS: PIRET
•
•
MIGRANTS AS LEGITIMATE SEEKERS OF ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT
Saya baru balik dari KL 6 bulan, di tempat orang tidak mau cari gadoh. Mereka pun
sama tidak mau cari gaduh. Saya ada kawan semasa saya kerja estet – 10 tahun.
Kawan tolong buka tanah, saya mau bayar tetapi kata mereka yang penting
persahabatan. (ENCIK LUSLI at Kota Kinabatangan taxi stand, Feb 09)
•
•
•
MIGRANTS AS CRIMINALS
Disagree (10/17)
Tidak boleh kata orang asing yang punca jenayah. Kadang kadang orang kita pun
boleh kacau. Mereka pun boleh berfikir. Kalau semua penjenayah yang ada disini
sekarang pun jahat lah tapi maseh boleh bersemuka, kalau penjenayah sudah lari
semua kami (ENCIK AMAT AT Kota Kinabatangan taxi stand, Feb 09).
•
•
E.g. of ½ Agree (5/17)
Orang kampung pun pandai cari gadoh juga. Tapi dia orang stail lain, dia orang
tidak sedar dia ditempat orang. Tidak semua dalam 10 ada 3.
(Encik Alimi , Kota Kinabatangan taxi stand, Feb 09)
•
•
•
•
E.g of Agree (1/17)
Setuju, Kalau di TV kebanyakkan pendatang buat kacau. Orang Malaysia jarang
berlaku. Kes bunuh di Borneon , orang kita tidak bunuh
(Encik Sinamin, Kota Kinabatangan taxi stand, Feb 09).
FINDINGS 7 - PLANTATION WORKERS
• 23 informants
• 1 in management, 9 mandor (block
supervisors), 4 labourers, 2 office workers
2 carpenters, 1 each of road/infrastructure
supervisor, livestock worker, security guard,
security officer, security guard and
despatcher.
Men = 19, Women = 4 (3 mandor ‘loose fruit’
and 1 office cleaner)
• Range from 8 months to 25 years of service
SABAHAN WORKERS - VIEWS OF MIGRANT
CO WORKERS
Can you achieve your work
No = 13/21
objectives if you don’t have migrant
co-workers
Do you agree that they are all
9 = Disagree
criminals?
7 = Agree
2 = ½ agree
Have you personally experienced No
problems at work with migrant co
workers
Do you have friends who are
Yes = 70%
migrant workers
(gitu sahaja)
ANALYSIS 1 - A NOTE ON ILLEGALITY
• In 2005, plantations in Sabah employed 79,549 foreign
nationals; 73 % of them in the Kinabatangan. They are a
second factor contributing to the sustaining of the
informal transport industry.
• In 2005, total no. of foreign workers in Sabah: 102,265
(Dept. of Immigration statistics 2007)
• In 2008, estimated no. of foreign workers was 360,00
(Dayag Suria 2008);
• Working without documentation of documentation
expired – ‘illegal’ - estimated 130, 000 (close to one
third – could be higher).
ANALYSIS 2: NOTE ON ILLEGALITY (CONTD)
• The border between legality and illegality is fluid.
Many workers enter the country with valid
documents, but become illegal when overstaying
(Wong 2005) or when Immigration rules change
(Hilsdon 2008).
• Wong (2005) 46% of migrants sampled in her
study originlly entered legally.
• Many enter illegally; recruited by licensed
businesses – as staging points for entry into
Peninsula Malaysia through fake Identity cards.
• Piret tend to Question official treatment of migrants.
• They often have direct experience of the ‘immigration industry’ at
road blocks or being arrested for transporting migrant workers.
Runding or duit kupi
• Tend to question the view that migrants are morally suspect, not to
be trusted or are criminals. They acknowledge that there are some
bad elements but have had no direct experience as such.
• Plantation workers tend to distinguish between migrants who are
employed and unemployed. The unemployed are the perceived to
be trouble makers.
DISCUSSION 1: WHY CREATE MORAL PANIC?
• The political and economic context of demonisation
• Federalism: Immigration a Federal Issue. Fear of Federal agenda –
• suspicion of demographic change in Sabah
• THE ‘USEFULNESS OF ILLEGALITY’
• 1) Cheap and flexible labour regime (Saravanamuttu 2008 )
• 2) The ‘immigration industry’ – Sabah as ‘borderland’ –Eric Tagliacozo
(2005) – a space where opportunities are seized by migrants, officials
in a creative way (Project I.C., runding and duit kupi)
3) Opportunities exist because
A) Malaysia’s effort of defining citizenship in Sabah (as it is in Sarawak)
is problematic because many of Sabah’s own citizens cannot get
citizenship (not having the right documents).
A) Many bureaucratic errors e.g. where citizens lose citizenship because
of wrong documentation.
USEFULNESS OF ‘ILLEGALITY’ (CONTINUED)
4)
Documentary citizenship – the process through which citizenship status is awarded to non
citizens (Kamal Sadiq 2005). In much of political theory documentation has been
overlooked as an important site for contestation and a realm of opportunity for citizens and
non citizens alike. (Acknowledge WansSha)
•
The political aspirant (‘illegals’ a viable political platform)? (slide )
•
The political parties – the votes (project I.C. - Mutalib 1999
•
To Sabahan workers – provides a basis for identifying themselves as different from the ‘Other’ (quotes)
•
Diana Wong (2005) on Germany: A useful framework fo analysing nationalism. In this instance,
nationalism in Sabah is being fashioned out of a sense of siege, of being swamped by foreigners who
are morally ‘not like us’.
Nationalism and the politicisation of the migration issue carefully screens out the complex interplay between
labour requirements of the Sabah plantation and construction sector, and the political clutch that migrants
provide to many political parties through the mobilisation of votes at key moments (Mutalib 1999)