MALAYAN BORDERS : COLONIAL INNOVATION OR RE-AFFIRMATION

Abstract

The slow languid tempo of traditional rural life was decisively disrupted by the turbulence of the nineteenth century large-scale commercial farming. The Europeans and all other foreign elements that came to the Malay Peninsula introduced radical innovations that were alien to the preceding cultural systems. A clash of values was inevitable, with traditions and indigenous systems assuming the role of victims in the pages of history. This 'standard pattern' of interpreting events provides a seductively simplistic explanation for the evolution of Malayan borders-we label them 'colonial' because we were told that the British pioneered them. This Academic Exercises seeks a refinement, not a revision, to the idea that a border oriented system was something heretical to the indigenous Malay society. Viewed from the context of the nineteenth century transformations, one could discern a willingness within certain sectors of the indigenous population to abandon the traditional notion of a porous and ambiguous border. In a period of political instability, population increase and commercial expansion, precise and well-defined borders served not only the colonial administrative interest but also the need of indigenous society to re-define its spatial strategy towards a more precise and stable pattern of articulation. There is an element of innovation, of course. The colonial border system was something previously untried and it represented an excision of the familiar with new forms of social organisations and new values subverting those of the past. Yet, it is possible to re-direct research towards a greater appreciation of indigenous motivations behind the evolution of Malayan borders. It is upon this statement that this study, "Malayan Borders: Innovation or Re-Affirmation" has been forwarded. It is a rather modest task and therefore seeks the analysis of tl1ose more knowledgeable in this field to judge if the arguments put -forth is sustainable beyond the historical experience and geographical confines of the Malay Peninsula.