Reinventing Dualism: Policy Narratives and Modes of Oil Palm Expansion in Sarawak

The twenty-five fold expansion of oil palm cultivation in Sarawak over the past two and a half decades constitutes the most rapid and radical transformation of the agrarian landscape ever seen in that state. From 23,000 ha in 1980, mostly in government schemes, the area planted with oil palm has increased to over 580,000 ha in 2006, mostly in private estates, closing in on an official target of one million hectares by 2010 (Figs. 1 and 2). Oil palm now accounts for about 5 per cent of the total land area and 55 per cent of the area under agricultural crops. What processes are driving this transition? The policy narrative consistently propounded in Sarawak since 1981 implies a dualistic conception of the agrarian transformation underway, such as prevailed among development economists in the 1950s. In this view, a dynamic, large-scale, capital-intensive, technologically advanced modern sector drives the process of economic development, drawing in and thereby transforming the resources (land and labour) of the small-scale, capital-constrained and technologically backward traditional sector. This 1950s dualism is combined with a contemporary “neo-liberal” twist, emphasising the (ostensibly minimal) role of the state in brokering “joint ventures” between the two sectors to facilitate the transformation, otherwise hindered by an outmoded tenure system and an undisciplined, unmotivated labour force.