Ethnicity, popular democratic movements and labour in Malaysia

This article uses framing theory to examine how activists and trade unions have framed labour’s political agenda in Malaysia. A polity grounded in ethnicity continues to hinder the formation of cross-ethnic collective worker identities and labour politics. However, inclusive popular democratising movements have strengthened in recent years, providing a favourable context for greater emphasis on non-ethnic political action by trade unions. The latter have shifted in this direction, adopting elements of the popular movement’s ‘human rights’ internationalism. Thus, the democratic movement’s frame has influenced that of the trade unions, with implications for framing theory

The Social Relations Approach, empowerment and women factory workers in Malaysia

This article discusses the empowerment of women factory workers in Malaysia through the lens of Kabeer’s Social Relations Approach. The approach offers an institutional analysis of how gender inequality is produced and calls for the overall terms of exchange and cooperation to be shifted in women’s favour. Its application shows that Malaysian women factory workers face significant challenges, due to the character of institutions, and women’s difficulties in adopting and internalising the notion of ‘empowerment’

The historical origins of corruption in the developing world: a comparative analysis of East Asia

A new approach has emerged in the literature on corruption in the developing world that breaks with the assumption that corruption is driven by individualistic self-interest and, instead, conceptualizes corruption as an informal system of norms and practices. While this emerging neo-institutionalist approach has done much to further our understanding of corruption in the developing world, one key question has received relatively little attention: how do we explain differences in the institutionalization of corruption between developing countries? The paper here addresses this question through a systematic comparison of seven developing and newly industrialized countries in East Asia. The argument that emerges through this analysis is that historical sequencing mattered: countries in which the "political marketplace" had gone through a process of concentration before universal suffrage was introduced are now marked by less harmful types of corruption than countries where mass voting rights where rolled out in a context of fragmented political marketplaces. The paper concludes by demonstrating that this argument can be generalized to the developing world as a whole

Development as Eradication: The Pillage of the Jakun ‘People’s Bank’ of Tasik Chini, Pahang, Malaysia

The political rhetoric of social and economic development in Malaysia is used as a dominant and largely unquestioned discourse to justify the industrialised exploitation of the traditional territories of the indigeneous people of West Malaysia. This paper explores social policy drivers in respect of findings from a condensed ethnography of the Jakun Orang Asli people of Tasik Chini in the State of Pahang. Tasik Chini provides an important example of a wider problem affecting many Orang Asli communities in Malaysia relating to industrial exploitation, but is a case of special interest in respect of its significance as a site of rich and unique biodiversity as well as being the home of one of only two freshwater lakes in West Malaysia. Notably, Tasik Chini is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, of which there are only two in Malaysia, and where the lake and surrounding forests have provided the Jakun villagers with abundant natural resources for subsistence, but now the area is badly eroded and polluted by the ravages of big business. This presents a serious dilemma for the Jakun concerning resisting the destruction of their traditional way of life or to comply with State agendas and collude with their loss of self-sufficiency and autonomy and in so doing raises important questions regarding national social policy drivers and the position and welfare of indigenous people in Malaysia