The People of Malaysia
Figure 1: Map of Malaysia (geographia.com)
Figure
2: Puma Jacket
Introduction
In this paper I describe the housing, education, and health conditions of a worker of the indegiounous Orang Asli of Malaysia. The people of the Orang Asli are poor and live by their ancient, traditional values. Their socio-economical situation is the same as from which Puma recruits employees to work in their factories that produce apparel and jackets. Thus, I will discuss how the traditional lives of the Orang Asli are being affected not only by large transnational corporations using inexpensive labor in undeveloped markets, but also by how the government is attempting to assimilate these people and bring them in to the dominant urban lifestyle of Malaysia. By studying the native people of Malaysia after the recent economic boom of the mid-1990s, I hope to understand how poor workers employed by transnational companies are being treated and their quality of life while trying to explore how their current treatment will affect their chance for survival or assimilation in the future.
Context of Malaysia
Malaysia , the combination of the Malay Peninsula and the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo , was formed of former British colonies in 1963. Located in Southeast Asia surrounding the South China Sea , the areas gained their first independence following Japanese occupation in 1957. (CIA) Soon after the creation of the Federation of Malaysia, Singapore , located on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula , succeeded. As seen in Figure 1., the current form of Malaysia has not changed since 1963 and remains to be a federation split into two landmasses. The landmasses are comprised of costal plains which form into hills of forests and mountains further inland. The climate of Malaysia is tropical with annual monsoon seasons. Resulting from the tropical environment the indigenous people of the Malay Peninsula lived on agriculture and forest-related occupations (Nicholas 2000:5)
Indigenous people of Malaysia are commonly referred to as the Orang Asli (translated ‘natural people') and are comprised of nearly 18 ethnic subgroups that are linked through socio-economic indicators and social histories (Nicholas 2000:5) Archeological remains date the indigenous people arriving on the Malay Peninsula nearly 10,000 years ago (Nicholas 2000:6). Near 1000 A.D. the Orang Asli were forced inland off the coast of the peninsula as Indian and Chinese traders reaped the benefits of the natural lush habitat. (Nicholas 2000:11) With the recent industrialization of the dominant population of Malaysia , the Orang Asli continues to struggle for their traditional resources such as the forest, sea and arable land.
Brand: Puma
Puma is an international ‘Sportlifestyle' (Puma.com) brand which produces shoes as its main line of products but has recently put greater interest into apparel. Puma's business structure strives to be the first truly virtual sports company, meaning there is no centralized headquarters but smaller decentralized headquarters located in the United States , Germany , Hong Kong . Other offices are also held in regional areas that oversee distribution and marketing aspects for different global markets. Formed in 1924, Puma has for a long time been a prominent figure in the sport shoe market.
Currently, Puma, along with other large shoe and apparel manufacturing companies such as Nike and Reebok have been under pressure from labor rights activates to monitor the production of their products more closely. Non-governmental organizations such as Global Unions, Clean Clothes Campaign and Oxfam are accusing Puma of violating rights to their labors in order to increase their revenues. (Deutsche Welle: 2005) Puma, on the other hand, joined the Fair Labour Association in January of 2004 and has been making strides to commit to abiding by decent labor laws (Cleanclothescampaign.org : 2005). Yet activists continue to persist that significant abuse of labor is still taking place at Puma's factories. Abuse reported by the Clean Clothes Campaign such as “excessive working hours and compulsory overtime: 120 and 180 hours of overtime per month in the peak season, without being paid overtime premiums as required by law; excessive production targets, which workers are forced to be meet by working unpaid overtime; and women working to the point of exhaustion, which in some cases we were told, led to them suffering miscarriages.” (Cleanclothescampaign.org: 2005)
Puma currently outsources 100% of its shoes manufacturing and 98% of its apparel manufacturing (Play Fair at the Olympics: 2005) For its manufacturing partners and internal relations, Puma has created and maintained a code of ethics which demands that the manufacturers not employ labor of minors under the age of 15, maintain a healthy and clean workplace, not allow more than 12 hours of overtime and no more that an average work week of 48 hours, enforce equality between race and sex, not allow harassment but allow freedom of association with unions (puma.com). Additionally Puma created a Social Accountability and Fundamental Environmental Standards (S.A.F.E) which is in charge of implementing and monitoring the code (puma.com). Run by Puma, the S.A.F.E. is in charge of background checks of manufacturing factories and also routine checks of the conditions of the factories. Although these measures and checks are in place, research of a Chinese factory showed that although it had passed S.A.F.E. standards more that 15% of the employees earned under the minimum wage and broke two additional codes of conduct (Play Fair at the Olympics: 2005).
People
The textile industry of Malaysia has declined in recent years because of successful industrialization and movement of wealth into the nation's market. Additionally, there has been a migration of the large manufacturers to areas of Asia where cheap labor is less regulated by the government and readily available. Although a portion of the textile industry has left Malaysia , many textile factories still exist and provide meager wages for the poorest people of the country. Among the people working in the remaining textile factories and living in poor conditions are the Orang Asli. Although only a small portion of the total population of Malaysia , 80.8% of them live below the poverty line (Nicholas 2000:30). Because of their extreme poverty there has recently been a movement of the jobs Orang Asli into the more urban areas of Malaysia supplying labor to the textile industry.
For the Orang Asli, a young woman would most likely be employed by a textile manufacturing company. Men of the Orang Asli would most likely be occupied with the major traditional roles of fishing, agriculture and foresting. Young women working in textile manufacturing plants either ride bikes, take buses, or walk to industrial estates in nearby villages and receive wages below the poverty line at the end of six-day work weeks (Dentan et al.:6) In comparison to the economic boom of information and business in Malaysia the Orang Asli have been left behind in the rising prosperity of the nation eking a living from wage-labor and the dwindling profit of forest produce (Dentan et al.:7)
The high rate of poverty amongst the Orang Asli has lead to substandard living standards. For instance, in a recent study by Nicholas, only 46.4% of the Orang Asli hade any type of piped water into their homes and only 36.2% had electricity (Nicholas 2000:30). Most homes are constructed 2 to 7 feet off of the ground preventing from the monsoon season and protecting from snakes and lizards. (Laderman 1983:10) Additionally, the floorboards are not fully flush and allow openings enabling circulation throughout the house and easy clean-up of spills. (Laderman 1983:10) Government intervention from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (JHEOA) has made attempts to help improve the home of the Orang Asli. ‘Modern' homes, consisting of tin roofs and loose walls, are constructed with government funds next to the current homes, yet the Orang Asli prefer to live in their traditional homes and will only use the new, modern homes for show or for storage reasons. (Dentan 2004:42)
The JHEOA has also tried to intervene in the education of the Orang Asli. By 1995, the result proved to be a great disaster (Dentan 2004:37). By 5 th grade 80% of the students had dropped out of the school (Dentan 2004:37). International organizations have blamed the faculty, which wasn't properly trained to teach the Orang Asli nor introduced to their culture. Regardless, the ability for the Orang Asli to improve their social position through assimilation into the dominant Malaysian society has been greatly reduced.
The Orang Asli are primarily Muslim, although only in name. An Islamic movement in the mid-1970s sponsored by the JHEOA promoted the spread of Islamic beliefs throughout the Orang Asli tribes hoping to promote a cultural assimilation with the dominant population. The traditional behavior that the Orang Asli has practiced over the last thousand years continues to prevail over the assumed Islamic beliefs. These beliefs worship numerous gods that protect and provide the land and elements for the Orang Asli.
Marriage among the Orang Asli begins at a very young age. By the age of 18, 96 percent of girls are married, and pregnancy almost follows immediately (Laderman 1983:13). Amongst the Orang Asli it is very uncommon for a household to have no children. Grandparents and childless couples are often given children to raise, for a home without children is considered unbearably lonely. (Laderman 1983:10) Thus, childbearing is encouraged once puberty is reached. Many females will bear children their whole lives and average around 10 children.
Health concerns also plague the Orang Asli. The JHEOA has attempted to help with medical programs that create health centers within traveling distance and routine checks by physicians, yet in comparison to Malaysians the Orang Asli are still lacking the effect of modern medicine. In 1994 an Orang Asli mother was 119 times more likely to die during childbirth than a Malaysian mother. (Nicholas 2000:27) Additionally, the life expectancy for an Orang Asli was only 52-54 years, nearly 20 years lower than the national average (Nicholas 2000:28).
In recent years JHEOA has been evaluating their tactics and reformulating new plans in which they can help the Orang Asli. Improvements by the indigenous leaders has also helped increase the communication and formulate common goals between the government's hope for assimilation and the wish of the Orang Asli to continue their way of life while enjoying the benefits of the 21 st century.
Process
I was unsuccessful in trying to contact Puma. On Puma.com contact information is listed only as e-mail addresses, one for each country in which they are in business. Thus, after trying multiple times to contact info-malaysia@puma.com using different topics of inquiry, I reluctantly gave up. When phoning the U.S. office for Puma I met similar results. No one could answer questions about the company, but only provided apparel help and location information. I feel that having not being able to receive contact from the company in Malaysia could be a result of the criticism that they get from non-governmental labor organizations. For example, the Clean Clothes Campaign had a direct link on their website to contact Puma and complain about the situations in their factories and such. Thus, my e-mails most likely were grouped in with the complaint e-mails. I did find the suppliers of large portions of Puma's shoes and apparel gear. One supplier, Li Fung ( http://www.lifung.com ), had extremely general information on their website pertaining to their business and operations. No information or specifics were given pertaining to the location of neither any factories nor the people who worked in them. Li Fung simply gave broad statistics of the number of workers employed but not information pertaining to who the workers were, or how much they were paid.
Because of the challenges I faced about receiving any information about the operations of Puma in Malaysia , I felt that studying the Orang Asli would help me understand the life conditions from where the Puma jacket was made. The Orang Asli were also chosen because they represent a population of the poor, rural society in Malaysia and are also unique in how they are being pushed by the government to assimilate into the dominant society while trying to maintain their traditional way of life.
Conclusion
The Orang Asli are in a very complicated situation. They are living under the stress of multiple forces: the government, their traditional beliefs, and pressures of the new economy of Malaysia . Their reduction into textile factories and other meager wage-paying jobs only hurts their socio-economic status and their unwillingness towards and lack of education creates additional boundaries from assimilating into Malaysian dominant culture. The future of the Orang Asli is threatened. Is it the responsibility of large international companies such as Puma to provide help for their secondary employees, or does ethics not play a role in corporations? If help doesn't reach the Orang Asli soon, their chance of survival will be slim.
Internet References Cited
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Clean Clothes Campaign 2005
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/puma.htm
Accessed February 25th 2005
-Homepage for the Clean Clothes Campaign which fights for improving working conditions in the global garment industry.
Duetsche Welle
2005
Accessed February 25 th 2005
-German journalism and media organization.
Fair Play at the Olympics2005
http://www.fairolympics.org/en/
Accessed February 25 th 2005
-Homepage of Play Fair organization which examines the exploitative business practices in the international sportswear industry.
puma.com
2005
http://www.puma.com/
Accessed March 3 rd 2005
-Homepage of Puma, international sportswear company.
Peer-Reviewed References Cited
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Nicholas, Colin
2000 The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources. Copenhagen : International
Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
Laderman, Carol
1983 Wives and Midwives. Berkeley : University of California Press
Dentan, Robert K. and Endicott, Kirk
2004 Into the Mainstream or Into the Backwater? Malaysian Assimilation of Orang Asli. In Civilizing the Margins. Duncan, Christopher R., Pp. 24-55. Ithaca : Cornell University Press
Dentan, Robert K. and Endicott, Kirk and Gomes, Alberto G. and Hooker, M.B.
1997 Malaysia and the “Original People”. Needham Heights : Allyn and Bacon