The Malay labourer : by the window of capitalism / Wan Zawawi Ibrahim

The ethnography presented in this book deals with a specific historical period in the development of plantation society in Terengganu on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, that is, from its phase of 'frontier capitalism' in mid-1960 until about a decade later to mid-1970. The book explores the ethnography of the emerging proletarian social consciousness and resistance as Malay peasants from east coast peninsular Malaysia found themselves reconstituted as a 'class' not only as an economic category but also as a 'community' in plantation society. The plantation as a window to capitalism, serves as testing ground to probe how Malays responded to both industrial class-status authority and wage labouring work, and subsequently analyses how the nuances of Malay proletarian moral economy and dignity are articulated with their notions of class, culture, ethnicity and humanism.