MALAYSIA: Abdullah Plans to Make Poorest of Poor ‘Millionaires’

By Baradan Kuppusamy Reprint | | Print |

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 2004 (IPS) - Small Malay farmers, struggling daily to make ends meet, are now within the sight of newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The premier has reprioritised agricultural development in a bid to fight Islamic fundamentalism in the country – that has its roots in rural poverty – in order to wean poor Malays away from the opposition.

The change in direction recognises the fact that over one million Malay Muslims had backed the opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or PAS in the March general election. PAS’ party platform includes turning multi-racial Malaysia into an Islamic theocracy.

Kelantan and Terengganu states, that border violence wrecked South Thailand, is where rural poverty, conservatism and fundamentalist Islam dictate the pattern of life. It is also where the opposition PAS holds sway.

Among the PAS faithful is Pak Yusuf, 58, a traditional Malay rice farmer struggling to feed his family of nine on a three-hectare plot in Pasir Mas district in the east coast state of Kelantan.

Pak Yusuf wears his Islamic piety with honour and he is also unashamed of his poverty.

”What we are and what we get is ‘rezeki Allah’ (Allah’s gift),” he says when met at roadside tea stall in Pasir Mas recently.

”I pray as required, donate to the mosque and vote for PAS,” he tells IPS.

Besides his rice plot and a ramshackle hut he calls home, Pak Yusuf’s other worldly possession include some chickens and three goats. He catches fresh water ‘haruan’ or snakehead fish to supplement his meals.

The government estimates over two million Malays – farmers and fishermen – are trapped in a vicious cycle of low income, poverty and Islamic conservatism, similar to Pak Yusuf.

”A 20-year economic boom from the late 1980s and founded on electronics and manufacturing had lifted millions of Malaysians from poverty into the middle class but had by- passed people like Pak Yusuf,” Mahfuz Omar, a PAS leader told IPS. ”It is lopsided development…development by the rich for the rich.”

The statistics, however, tell this lopsided story better.

The agriculture industry’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product or GDP shrank from 30 percent in 1960 to 9.8 percent in 1996 and to about four percent now.

In 2003 the country’s food import bill was 13 billion ringgit (3.42 billion U.S. dollars) and it is forecast that by 2010 the amount could rise to 20 billion ringgit (5.26 billion U.S. dollars).

The word ”agriculture” and ”farmers” became a dirty word during former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s so-called ‘Great Leap Forward’ to accord the country a First World status by the 21st century.

”He (Mahathir) envisaged Malays evolving into Japanese businessmen jet-setting around the world in coats and suits and briefcases in hand – selling the country and its industrial wares. Farmers for that matter did not figure in his scheme,” said an economist specialising in agriculture who did not want to be named.

”Mahathir even renamed the country’s only agricultural university removing the word agriculture from it,” the economist told IPS. ”Now we are trying to turn the clock back.”

The drive for rapid industrialisation made the people of Kelantan and Terengganu, mostly Malays rooted in agriculture and fisheries, the poorest of the poor in the country.

Since taking over from Mahathir last October, Abdullah has relentlessly pushed to regenerate and modernise the agriculture sector with an infusion of capital, bio-technology and the introduction of new, genetically modified (GM) seeds that proponents claim would turn poverty stricken farmers into millionaires.

Last week Abdullah got together Malaysian and international experts at a five-star hotel to kick start his Green Revolution. The two-day seminar saw the country’s top political leaders, chairmen and CEOs of giant private companies and international agriculture experts meeting together to discuss how to rejuvenate agriculture into a wealth generation powerhouse for the poor.

”The Green Revolution would narrow the income gap between urban and rural Malaysians,” Abdullah said when opening the seminar.

Government statistics show that many farmers earn less than 265 ringgit (69 dollars) per month – a paltry sum and far below the national poverty line of 350 ringgit (92 dollars) fixed 30 years ago.

”We want to eradicate the association between Malay poverty and agriculture,” Agriculture and Agro-based Industies Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told IPS. ”Many developed countries are wealthy because they modernised agriculture…we want to walk on the same path.”

”Look at Taiwan, Australia and Japan they are able to create millionaire farmers and able (at the same time) to market their produce internationally,” the minister said. ”We can do the same.”

The forthcoming national budget in September is expected to have numerous incentives and tax breaks to jumpstart Abdullah’s version of a ‘Green Revolution’.

”Everything possible is being done to make agriculture big, successful and a source of national pride,” wrote prominent columnist Ahmad Talib in the government-controlled ‘New Straits Times’ daily. ”Abdullah is turning agriculture into a strategic industry.”

While government planners and the government-controlled media are full of enthusiasm for this Green Revolution, environmentalists, however, express worry that such a ”high tech, money driven” revolution would not benefit poor farmers like Pak Yusuf.

They also worry that the ”revolution” would be driven by advances in genetics and bio-technology and that Malaysia could end up as an experimental guinea pig for giant food conglomerates.

”There are issues of food safety, environmental health and role of the giant international companies in agriculture that have not been fully investigated in this drive to regenerate agriculture,” said the agricultural economist. ”Only big corporations would stand to benefit if the regeneration is driven by bio-technology and GM seeds.”