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

A JAPANESE FIRM IN MALAYSIA 125
Ridzuan was employed as a process worker in 1966, thinking he could still study
to become a teacher. However, with the 3-shift system and the prohibitive cost of
fees and books, he found it impossible. He tried to find other employment that
would enable him to study, but was not successful. After marrying in 1970,
Ridzuan gave up his teaching plans and decided to stay at Iroha (M).
The Japanese preferred their male employees to be married as they saw it as a
sign of stability and maturity. Ridzuan’s wife, Suriani, became a ‘housewife’ in that
she did not work for wages, but like many Malay wives she supplemented the
family income by engaging in small business activities. Despite Ridzuan’s
disapproval, Suriani became a dealer in Pyrex plates which she sold on a hire
purchase scheme to neighbourhood wives and friends.
Ridzuan received good evaluations, and a double pay increment in 1974. In that
year he was promoted to assistant charge hand, the first supervisory role after
process worker. Then in 1975 he was promoted to assistant unit chief, a
management category. This sudden promotion, which bypassed three supervisory
grades, caused people to be very suspicious, as Ridzuan was active in the national
union at the time, and the promotion meant he would have to leave behind his
union activities. Ridzuan had become deputy secretary of the works committee in
the company when one of the other Malay leaders left the company for another job.
This was halfway through the first collective agreement negotiations in 1974. At
the time, Ridzuan said, he was respected by both his fellow workers and by
management. Although he supported the union, he was worried about becoming a
union official: ‘If I come to the union, I may lose my good name. I just want to have
a peaceful life, rest, enough food and money. But I didn’t see anyone else who
could do the job.’ When he was offered the management position, Ridzuan realised
he would have to resign from his union posts and was placed in a dilemma. The
dramatic leap in status made his position even more suspect:
People said, ‘You are betraying the union and being bought out by
management’… I am a simple man. I thought about it for six months. I
considered it might be better to get out of the union and the company
altogether, get a job in Monsanto or Magnolia [other large multinational
companies, but not Japanese]. But my father-in-law advised me, ‘If you are
scared, you had better not live.’
Ridzuan accepted the promotion but had to survive his loss of face for several
years. The substantial pay rise he received was most welcome at the time as his
wife had just had their second child, and his father-in-law was helping him to buy a
house (a small bungalow) in a new lower middle-class housing estate on the
outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Yet Ridzuan was to suffer from the responsibility of his
position because he was now expected to be available at all hours to deal with any
technical problems that arose in his production section. The Japanese managers
were always prepared to do this and they expected Ridzuan to follow suit. Part of
the problem for Ridzuan was that, like many Malays of his generation (see Chew