Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Orginal Publication Date
1983
Journal Title
Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Volume
3
Issue
ess/vol3/iss1
First Page
1
Last Page
2
Abstract
On December 3, 1974, 2000 Malaysian university students staged demonstrations on the playing field of the Selangor Club in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. They were demonstrating their sympathy for the peasant rubber growers of Kedah, who had been brought to a state of desperate poverty by inflation and the low price of rubber, and protesting government policies which were ostensibly designed to improve the economic condition of all Malays, but had apparently succeeded only in enriching a small group of Malay politicians and businessmen. They demanded a fundamental reorganization of the political and economic system to ensure that the enormous profits being made in the country-mainly by tin mining, rubber and palm oil cultivation, and related industries-should flow to the common people rather than to the wealthy elite and powerful foreign-owned companies.
Rights
Copyright, ©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1983