Weapons of the Weak

In James Scott's novel Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance he plainly describes what can only be viewed as the worsening of the lives of the village poor in Sedaka, Malaysia. He attributes the increase in economic inequality to Malaysia's green revolution. Consequently, Scott analyzes the impact of these changes on the poor, sighting several causes.

The green revolution began in the 1970's in Malaysia. It was brought about by an advance in technology, a new form of high yielding seeds. These new seeds led to the ability to double crop, or have more than one crop yield per season. Also, many of the large farmers opted to bring in combine harvesters to increase the speed at which they could harvest, making it easier for them to double crop. These new technologies may seem economically beneficial to all if viewed by the untrained observer. However, those who benefited were few. These new developments only benefited the wealthiest in society, consequently leaving the poor even poorer for many reasons.

More than anything the combine harvesters led to the increased troubles of Sedaka's poor. "Combine harvesting has meant, then, a loss of nearly half the wages previously received for paddy work by the poorer strata of Muda's peasantry (76)". Combine harvesters were valued by many large farmers as brilliant new technology. It allowed for them to eliminate the need of a labor force for cutting and threshing. "By the irrigated season of 1979 Ð'... they (combine harvesters) were harvesting fully 60 percent of Sedaka's patty land. A year later they were harvesting more than 80 percent (115)". Transplanting was the only work left for patty workers in Sedaka. Thus a problem presented itself for the one-quarter of Sedaka's population who subsisted solely from wage labor.

Combine harvesters also allowed for large farmers to take up the practice of broadcasting, which took work away from those who helped with the pre-season planting. The lack of work led to a decrease in the need for laborers. Since there was less demand for laborers, the price of wages went down. This greatly affected those who did not have enough land to provide year round subsistence for their families. This group of poor who farmed less than 3 relong, in other words those considered below the poverty level, had to struggle to survive. Some peasants had to move temporarily or permanently to larger cities to find work to provide for their families. The mechanization of the farming industry in Sedaka led to many other problems for the poor. Mechanization encouraged large scale farming and the move from land patty post harvest payment to up front payment for the lease of land.

Before the green revolution it was very common for those renting plots of land for farming rice patty to pay their rent after the harvest. This provided a definite advantage to poor peasants. First, they were able to have their rent adjusted at the end of the season if a crop had not been as plentiful as expected. Second, the payments were often made in the form of rice patty, thereby not forcing the small farmer to have to go to market with the rice patty to attain cash. This was beneficial given the constant change in the market price given for patty. Both of these advantages have disappeared since the green revolution. Now rent is often expected up front before the patty season begins. Land is now rented out on long term leases. Often peasants are asked to pay for several seasons in advance. This forces poor peasants to scramble to come up with funds to pay the person they are renting the land from. In order to do this they must have a plentiful harvest the season before, or risk losing the land they farm. Also, since up front payment is demanded there is no longer an adjustment in rent in relation to whether the crop is plentiful. Large farmers are able to demand this of their tenants because of the decrease in land available for farming, and the increase in people who now need more land to farm due to the decrease in available wages. Tenants are thus forced to absorb the cost of a bad crop even though the large farmer is much more capable. Up front payment led to a drastic increase in rent. However, when the large farmers increased their tenants rent they stood to gain a lot more than just cash, instead they were aiming to raise the rent high enough that the tenant could not pay it and would thus have to remove themselves from the land.

Before the green revolution a farmer could only farm as certain amount of land, based on how many laborers he was able to hire to work that land. It would have been previously to his benefit to rent out this land to tenants thus gaining money through rent without having to pay for labor. Large farmers attained the use of combine harvesters, making them more capable of farming larger plots of land. Farming these larger plots of land would in turn provide them with larger

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