Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

124 WENDY A.SMITH
the NEP era, people usually did not perform the haj until they were elderly, and
when they had accumulated enough savings to make the trip. The haj can be quite
dangerous–often accompanied by injury or death as a result of heatstroke,
stampedes and unavoidable physical exertion–and pilgrims set off with the
expectation that they may never return. With the rise of prosperous young middleclass
Malays, it became financially possible for couples with young children to
perform the pilgrimage. To do so became a simultaneous public demonstration of
status and piety: Hajis (male pilgrims) wear a small white skull-cap and hajas
(female pilgrims) a white headscarf in daily life as a symbol of their new ritual status.
The social expression of Malay identity had become crucial given the NEP
bumiputera policies. As the NEP era progressed, Malay identity was articulated
more and more through Islam. For the NEP-generated new middle-class Malays,
prosperity and Islamic piety went hand in hand. Making the pilgrimage tied these
two phenomena together, and it has become commonplace for professional Malay
couples to leave even very young children with relatives or servants in order to
perform the haj.
Upon his return to Iroha (M), Rahman wore his white haji skull-cap to work.
Despite his absence, he was promoted to deputy production manager and became
the first of the NEP new graduates to achieve this level of seniority. While
maintaining a stronger loyalty to his religious beliefs than to Iroha (M), Rahman
still reaped the benefits of the Japanese system in his career.
Ridzuan: worker to manager
The Japanese were not averse to promoting veteran workers to management
roles. All the unit chiefs were from the rank-and-file worker levels except for four in
engineering who were recruited at unit chief level by the Japanese factory manager
in the 1980s. Three veteran workers were promoted to assistant section chief level
and one to deputy manager level. This follows the Japanese management strategy
of taking advantage of long-term relationships and loyalty by promoting capable
veterans to areas such as security, sales and marketing. Ridzuan’s case
exemplifies this. It also exemplifies the Japanese practice of transferring
employees between quite disparate areas in the organiation, as was also the case
with Sanusi.
Ridzuan was born in 1947, as one of four children, thus in a small family by
Malay standards of the time. His father worked for a European firm making air
conditioners in Kuala Lumpur. This gave the family an entry into the urban
lifestyle, quite unusual for Malay families from rural origins in the pre-NEP era.
Ridzuan was able to attend an English-medium school and passed Form 5. He
wanted to go on to teacher training, but at that time his father was on strike, and
was left with no income to support the family. Thus Ridzuan had to get a job. A
neighbour who was working at Iroha (M) saw the family’s predicament and gave
Ridzuan some application forms.