Content uploaded by Poline Bala
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Poline Bala on Apr 08, 2021
Content may be subject to copyright.
tlt;l Farrl l'{ trlw,rrrlr
I ViAI llathttte,: ('ru,tl,utu Models, Climate Data, and the politics of
li, lU*lr, \lnulois: ltecipes for Reatity
Btslmart, ed , 'llrtw l)tttu" Is an oxwnoron
Ihn llHltl,rrr, ,\\,t,t: A Sttudow History of the Intemet
l{ll ltf rr rr prrrl lilir Kranakis, eds., Cosmopolitan Commons: Sharing Resources and Risks
tlttt,!s lhatfu.s
( ierlrer llrtrtrrr Jensen and Brit Ross Winthereik, Monitoing Moyements in Develop-
tttt ttl Ald: Rccursive partnerships and Infrastructures
,lirrrrcs Leach and Lee Wilson, eds., Subversion, Conversion, Development: Cross_
()ttltural Knowledge Encounter andthe politics of Design
Subversion, Conversion, Development
Cross-Cultural Knowledge Encounter and the Politics of Design
edited by James Leach and Lee Wilson
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
6 Redeploying Technologies: ICT for Greater Agency and
Capacity for Political Engagement in the Kelabit Highlands
Poline Bala
lntroduction
This chapter turns its gaze on the Kelabit in Central Borneo to highlight
their ongoing engagement with information and communications technol-
ogies through the electronic Bario (eBario) initiative. eBario was a frontier
ICT-based community development proiect implemented in 1999 to bring
not only the Intemet and computers but also the telephone to physically
remote communities. Initiated as a paftnership between researchers from
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and the Kelabit people of Bario, the
proiect's main objective is to examine in what ways the new information
and communications technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet, computers,
printers, and VSATs can bring social and economic development to rural
communities in Sarawak. It was initiated within the context of the ICT
hype (Keniston 2OO2) of 1990s in which the new forms of ICT are seen as
economic and social ddvers that can further boost the economic and social
development of societies. This has been substantiated by arguments that
better telecommunications wili induce rapid economic development (Barr
1998; Abdul-Rahman 1993).
Nevertheless, as the new technologies extend their reach, it raises ques-
tions of how the Kelabit in the highlands use or appropriate ICTs. Can
engagement with ICTs change the ways in which communities like the
Kelabit view themselves? Do ICTs give communities like thq Kelabit hope
and tangible evidence that externai agencies are facilitating giqter agency
and self-advocacy? What happens to non-Western perspectives a\1le new
technologies extend their reach? What is the impact of technologiEs-on
Iocal notions of development and modernity? What do the Kelabit's expe-
dences say about Malaysia's vision of a knowledge society, which teflects a
messianic vision of societal transformation and economic progress through
the embrace of technology? In what ways do Kelabit experiences disturb
I06 Poline Bala
popular discourse in which technologies are perceived as ,,black boxes,,, or
fixed entities that irresistibly change society and culture? To this end, is the
assumption that technological developments are generally coercive struc-
tures more hindrance than help in analysis?
Based on data collected during twelve months of fieldwork (Septem_
ber 2OO5-September 20O6), I aim to explore some of these questions. My
argument is that it is the Kelabit,s own desire for, and expectations of,
"development" and "progress" that have conditioned their adopting and
deployment of eBario. It is a quest that ties in closely with two fundamental
Kelabit concepts: doo-ness (goodness) as social icleals and lyuk, or movement
in social status among the Kelabit. I argue that the images and ideals of r/oo_
ness, togcther with the interweaving processes between doo-ness arrd iyuk,
have generated and sustained Kelabit modes of engagement and interaction
with ideas, peopie, institutions, and objects from the ,,outside world.,,This
includes their ongoing engagement with ,,development,, and their recent
responses to participative development, the Internet, telephone, and com-
puters introduced through eBario. From this perspective, technologies do
interact deeply with society and culture, but these interactions, whether in
the form of resistance, accommodationr acceptance, and even enthusiasm,
can be mediated and reconfigured by webs of social relations and the intri_
cate interplay of social, political, and cuitural conditions of specific society
and culture. This is made clear in the way the Kelabit community in Bario
engaged with the eBario Project.
The remainder of the chapter explores these various issues in more detail
and is structured as follows. The next section highlights who the Kelabit
people are, focusing especially on the social pi.actices of traveling far and
the bringing-in of novel objects, ideas, and technologies to the highlands_
and how these relate to the fundamental concepts of r/oo-ness and iyak.
Both embody Kelabit images and ideals of doo-ness in terms of social honor
and prestige in their society and goodness in conditions of life. Therefore,
I suggest, an analysis from the perspective of practice theory (e.g., Ortner
1984) of how social honor and wealth are socially organized, and why they
relate to images and ideals of goodness among the Kelabit, is necessary.
Such an analysis can provide insight into, as Ortner has noted, ,,the context
for understanding actors' motives, and the kinds of proiects they construct
for dealing with their situations" (152). Clarnmer (2001) also suggests that
value constructing and generating activities can shape actors, responses to
current changes in contemporary world.
This is followed by an exploration of what constitute ,,progress,, and
"development" for the Kelabit and what social and historical processes
Redeploying Technologies 't07
have given dse to theil particular notion of development. Central to my
argument is that it is through and within the traditional notions of iyuk and
doo-ness that the Kelabit have internllized and engaged with new tropes
of success and progress. Following on this argument, the third and final
section will address the question of why the Kelabit wanted eBario to be
brought into the Kelabit Highlands. I argue that the arrival of the Internet
at Bario in the highlands represents a fulfillment of thd Kelabit's own quest
for development. As will be made clear by narrators in Bario, these technol-
ogies are both the means for, and signs of, what the Kelabit consider as iyuk,
part of their continuous attempts and strategies to be associated with the
larger world of progress (redeployment of technologies for greater agencr.
The Kelabit Situation: Doo-ness, lyuk, and Obiects of Desire
\
The Kelabit population, numbering a\5,240 in 2000, traditionally lives in
longhouses or villages dispersed across &e remote, densely forested, hilly
plateau of Central Borneo. Today these villles are Bario Lembaa, Pa' Umor,
Pa' Ukat, Pa' Lungan, Pa'Mada, Pa' Dalih, Ramudu, Long Lellang, Long
Seridan, Long Napir, and Long Peluan. Covering approximately 2,500
square kilometers with an average altitude of 1,000 meters above sea level,
the plateau is located close to the international border between Kalimantan
and Malaysia in Miri Division of the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
As usual in rural Borneo, the Kelabit historically were self-dependent
or subsistence farmers: producing their own salt, planting their own rice,
hunting, and gathering iungle produce for food and,as a main source of pro-
tein and other nutrients. Although for years they have been far removed, in
Tom Harrisson's words, "from what most people call'the world"' (1959, 5),
like many other Bornean societies, they have a long history of contact (or
exchange, in the words Rousseau [1989]) and have shown a general inclina-
tion to appropriate the new and exogenous into their culture and ways of
Iife. The assimilations of obiects from outside are greatly facilitated by the
existing cultural world of the Kelabit, which is pervaded by a concern for
iyuk and doo-ness.
An ethnohistorical analysis reveals that it has been the images and ideals
of doo-ness, together with the interweaving processes between doo-ness and
iyuk, that have generated and sustained Kelabit modes of engagement with
ideas, institutions, and obiects from the outside world. While iyukbroadly
refers to the notion of movement and specifically to status mobility, doo-
ness embodies notions of goodness, success, and better well-being, or rather
the qualities required to constitute a good person, such as knowledge,
't08 Poline Bala
endurance and perseverance, self-discipline, hospitality, generosity, and
strength. Attaining doo-ness and demonstrating these qualities associated
with doo-ness underlie ail social status among the Kelabit. In tandem with
this, the Kelabit over the years have a created vadety of strategies, activities,
channeis, and traditions through which to adopt and appropdate nonlocal
or new ideas/ people, and objects.
These are then "absorbed" into the Kelabit social systems and given new
meanings to improve their well-being in the highlands. Examples are the
adoption and appropriation of objects such as the bela nai ma,un (old dragon
jars'1, ba'o (beads), fungul (machetes), and angai (Chinese iugs).1 Once these
obiects reach the longhouses, they are adapted into the Kelabit way of life_
as visible signs of prestige in the community (S agitg 197611977;Talla 1979;
Janowski t99l,1.
One immanent and relevant activity through which obiects of desire are
absorbed into the Kelabit longhouses is the cultural practice of traveling far
(me ngerang mado) to establish trade affiliations ancl build cultural contacts.
It is arguably one of the most im.portant strategies and traditions used by
the Kelabit to forge connections with the rest of the world to attain iyuk and,
doo-ness. Through these trade affiliations, iourneys, and cultural contacts, a
diverse assortment of cultural borrowings and interactions have taken place
between the Kelabit and the world outside, often obscuring the origin of
these borowings in the process (Bala 2002). This has included their ready
embrace of Christianity, cash cropping, and also the kinds of material cul_
ture I discuss here.
5hiftinE Cor'ltexts
It is important to note that at the same time as the I(etabit absorb others,
the Kelabit themselves, over the years, have been integrated to be part of
a wider economic and political terrain. These simultaneous processes of
assimilating and being assimilated have been long, dynamic, and complex
and have great implications for the Kelabit social world, including what
their notions of iyuk a:nd doo-ness constitute in the contemporary world.
Turner's insight regarding perfonnance and its transformative ability
can perhaps contribute a lurther understanding: ,,To perform is to bring
something about, to consummate something, or to carry out a play, ordeq
or proiect. But in carrying it out ... something new may be generated. The
performance transforms itself. The ruies may frame the per{ormance but
the flow of action and interaction within that frame may conduce to hith_
erto unprecedented insights and even generate new symbols and meanings,
Redeploying Technologies 109
which may be incorporated into subsequent performances. Traditional
framings may have to be reframed-new bottles made for new wines"
(Turner lc)8o, 160). )
One area where Turner's analogy of new bottles for new wines is particu-
larly revealing is the increasing importance of educational achievement,
occupational prestige, wealth, and money among the Kelabit. The Kelabit
today are eager to collaborate with the world of progr"s lr{A development
to attain better well-beitg (doo ulun) in the highlands. These new tropes of
progress, success, and development are internalized as indicators of social
status and prestige within the contemporary political and economic ter-
rain. In a sense, they have also become the new contrastive measure by
which the Kelabit define their local understanding of doo-ness and measute
their own iyuk. .\
In this chapter, I highlight two siqtions that require the Kelabit to
engage with new forms of defining iyuk a\d doo-ness, which emanate from
beyond the locai community. The first situa\n is the high level of rural-
urban migration among the Kelabit, which has led to a geographically dis-
persed community. A survey conducted in 1998 revealed that 63.8 percent
of the total Kelabit population has migrated out of the highlands (Murang
1998), and findings by Lee and Bahrin (1993) from ninety-three house-
holds in the highlands reveal that each household had at least one person
who had migrated or moved away. They found that "about one-third had
at least two members who had migrated; one-third had at least three-four
members; and another one-thir:d had between five and ten migrants fuom
their househotd" (118). As argued by Amster (1998), large-scale popuia-
tion movement has colored the Kelabit social iandscape today. In 2010,
for instance, only 1,000 Kelabit remain in the highlands, while others have
moved away for further education and better iob opportunities in urban
and town areas of Malaysia and beyond. These trends have not oniy trans-
formed the Kelabit from a rice-farming-oriented community to one that
produces professionals, religious leaders, and intellectuals who play impor-
tant roles in the wider Malaysian society; they have also created a clear
distinction between the Kelabit who remain in the highlands (rural Kelabit)
and those who have left to live in urban areas (urban Kelabit).
The other situation is the incorporation of the Kelabit homeland into
Malaysia ir 1963.2 The integration is a watershed in Ketabit social history,
for it means engaging with Malaysia's comprehensive national planning for
rapid economic progress and social change. As noted by Anderson ([1983]
1997, 72), "nation-ness is the most universal iegitimate value in the politi
cal iife of our time."
110 Poline Bala
The interweaving of these two different yet interrelate<I occurrences
had direct implications on the Kelabit,s notions of iyuk and rioo_ness. For
instance, if in the past the Kelabit treasured and traveled in search of Chi-
nese iars, beads, and other valuable items as part of their strategies for
advancement, nowadays, of course, it is the pursuit of education, not barter
trade and obiects of desire, that is the main catalyst for the outward migra_
tion from the highlands (Murang 1998).
The Kelabit and Malaysia's Planned Development
Scholars such as Robertson (1984), Hilley (2001), Larsen (1998), Scott
(19t95), King (1999), and Brosius (2003) share a common view that cen_
trally planned development underpins Malaysia,s policies, programs, and
visions for modernization, providing a ,,vision discourse,,, or discourse of
futurity, for the nation. Describing its dominance, Brosius (2003), after Bel-
lah (1975, 3), suggests that the development paradigm in Malaysia today is
a kind of "civil religion." An important dimension to Malaysia,s national
planning and policy is its ethnic framework of development. The policy
signifies a development pattern, which is tilted toward allocation of scarce
lesources in the form of land, manpower, skills, capital, and development
aid, albeit along racial lines. Conversely what this entails is identification
of persons based on their ethnic and religious affiliation for the purpose
of accessing political and economic resources in Malaysia (|omo 1.9g5).
As noted by Chandra (7986, 33), ethnic and religious categories therefore
"carry deep meanings for people" in Malaysia and concurrently force eth_
nic groups into a competitive reiationships with each other, in which one
goup's advancement can mean another group,s falling behind.
This competitiveness raises questions about how small communities
like the Kelabit are integrated into the national quest for rapid economic
growth. Although under articie 153 (Kedit 1989) the Kelabit are ,.granted,,
Bumiputera (lit. the sons of the soil) status vis-a-vis non-Bumiputera (e.g.,
the Indians and Chinese), which guarantees the Kelabit certain privileges
under the New Economic Policy (NEp), the eminent position of Malay
adat istjadat and Islamic religion in the national agenda tends to draw the
Malays close to the center of power, where they stand to get the most from
the implementation of development under the NEp (Shamsul 19g6). The
sense of hegemony and superiority on the part of the Malays has often
placed other ethnic and religious groups in a difficult position culturally.
For the Kelabit of Sarawak, their ,,peripheral situation,, as ,,seconc1-class
Bumiputera" in relation to particular (Malay) political cultures is aggravated
Redeploying Technologies 111
by the highlands' physical distance from centers of power. Without num-
bers, constituencies, pressure groups, or lobbies, and with their out-of-the-
way location (Tsing 1993), there is a corrcern that the Kelabit are not heard
in the context of a national integration discourse, which places the Malay-
Muslim Bumiputera at the top of the hierarchy.
The Kelabit Response
The Kelabit have responded on two levels. The first level concerns a desire
among the Kelabit as a minority group for collective political agency and
social status within Malaysia's economic and political terrain. This is
because a new form of iyuk competition has emerged, in which the Kelabit
must engage competitively with other citizens who are not Kelabit for eco-
nomic and political resources in the form of government financial support,
government grants, development proiects, and schemes (cf. Despres 1975,
2-3; Nagata 1979). Consequently a desire for what other ethnic groups
have obtained and achieved because of their ethnic and religious back-
grounds becomes a strong communal aspiration among the Kelabit in the
highlands.
Conversely, the dynamics of the ethnic framework of development not
only become a new contrastive measure by which the Kelabit define their
local understanding of doo-ness and measure their own iyuk,blut also pro-
vide a means to articulate and strengthen the Kelabit notions of ethnic
identity and its boundaries (Barth 1969) and proiect their identity in rela-
tion to others in Malaysia and globally. The political features of Malaysia's
ethnic framework of development has been, borrowing Goh's words, "reap-
propdated as idioms to derive power, class and cultural status from their
positions within the state's modernizing discursive practices" (Goh 2002,
1 Bs).
The second levei is the of the Malaysian government's
development apparatus as a similar for iyuk and another way of
achieving doo-ness in the highlands. In case, instead of voluntarily
reiecting the iniustice imposed by the center, iust as the Kelabit
have incorporated iars, institutions, and other ideas as a means to enable
iyuk, so the economic and social visions and strategies introduced by the
government have been incorporated into the aspirations of those living in
the highlands. The extent of this adoption can be gauged from the defini-
tion the Kelabit accord to the local notion of iyuk today, which is largely
about development, in terms of getting or bringing progress to the villages
through various development proiects. In fact, to reiect or even to question
112 Foline Bala
development is derided as not liking progress. A common phrase used to
express this intermeshing of meaning is: ,,Without development we will not
be able to miyuk l,Tulu naim pembangunan, naam teh tauh kereb miyukl, and,
we will be left behind by the others lketedtan teh tauh let ngen lun beken).,,
It/uk today has come to mean rnore: more security, economic growth,
and employment; more pay, houses, and cars; and more and better educa_
tion for their children. This is particularly prevalent among the younger
generation, for whom being progressive and becoming modern, in their
experience during the past thirty years, have been synonymous with eco_
nomic boom. This is reflected in terms of lifestyle, educational achieve_
ment, and greater general prosperity among the Kelabit.
In other words/ the Malaysian government,s centrally planned develop_
ment program has become a poiitical and economic context within which
concerns for status and prestige among the Kelabit are transformed to
incorporate the desire for success and progress. The constitution of doo-ness
has shifted: becoming modern has become the ,,appropriate,, stage of being
doo, associated with economic betterment, the acquisition of commodities
and new technologies, and an affluent, successful, progressive and presti_
gious lifestyle.
The significance of all this is translated into the important roles of local
power brokers, like the council of elders, the village headmen, the chiefs,
the church council, the women,s group, the educated elite, and the busi_
ness class (e.g., shop and tourist lodge owners) in the highlands in the
positioning and repositioning of Kelabit interests in relation to the state
and the outside world. The aim is to ensure that development, in terms of
funding and proiects, do come to the Kelabit. Cohversely, success in getting
development, whether in the form of introducing new ideas or bringing in
development proiects and other resources to the highlands, has emerged as
a political, economic, and social strategy to extend Kelabit collective agency
within a wider political and economic context. These new things are all
seen as means for enabling individuals to attain and enioy an affluent, pres_
tigious lifestyle, and at the same time for enabling the whole collective
(the Kelabit society) to command high standards of living and respect from
others within Malaysia's multiethnic setting. In fact, there is a sense of com_
munal pride in being considered a progressive and successful community.
The interweaving of these aspirations and benefits has conditionecl the
Kelabit response to the idea of eBario in the Kelabit Highlands. As described
earlier; the physical remoteness of the highland region means living with
limited access to modern means of communication. As a result, the Kelabit
desired a means to participate in an increasingly interconnected political
Redeploying Technologies 113
and economic world. It was this desire, expressed as "wanting to be the
same with the rest of the world and to be recognized as partners by oth-
ers," that shaped their responses to thocomputers, telephone, and Internet
provided by the eBario proiect. In line with their quest for progress, the
Kelabit have adopted these new technologies to attain doo-ness arl.d iyuk
in the highlands, and likewise doo-ness afid iyuk shape the way in which
the Kelabit interpret or give meaning to these new technologies in their
environment.
What ls the eBario Proiect?
Simply put, eBario is an offshoot of Maiaysia's commitment to a centrally
planned development for rapid economic development, which culmi-
nated in the institutionalization of Vision 2O2O, a road map for Malaysia to
become a fully developed nation by the year 2020 (Mahathir M. 1991; Goh
2OO2,790). The vision embodies the government's quest to be a part of the
emerging knowledge-based global economy and society and ultimately the
creation of a Malaysian knowledge-rich society.
In relation to this, the new information and communications technolo-
gies are seen as important keys to unlock opportunities and potentials to
advance the process of development, and a platform needed to create a
knowledge and information society (United Nations Economic and Social
Council 2OOO, 9). Accordingly, ICT is aggressively being adopted for the
creation of a Malaysian knowledge society.
As a result, one important aim is to expose every segment of Malaysian
society to information and communications technologies (Larsen 1998;
Goh 2002). This goal is being attempted through a collection of central-
ized, careftllly planned and integrated initiatives. These include the Mul-
timedia Super Corridor (MSC), has seven flagship applications to
demonstrate how ICT is expected affect every Malaysian citizen's life and
Iivelihood.
It was in response to this need in national development plan-
ning that eBario was implemented as aproiect to explore the economic,
social, and cultural potentials of ICTs such as telephones, computers, very
small aperture terminals (VSATS), and the Internet for rural development
in Sarawak. Since access to ICTS is predicted to promote new social, eco-
nomic, and cultural opportunities in rural areas (Ernberg 1998), eBario has
grown to include the following physical and technological components.
Computer laboratories were set up at the two schools in Bario, equipped
with computers and printers. Telephonic equipment was installed within
't14 Poline Bala
the existing communications network; for instance, telephones were placed
at strategic locations or important meeting places in Bario, such as the air-
port, the shop area, the school, and the clinic. Very small aperture termi_
nals (VSATs) and network configuration were installed by Telekom Malaysia
Berhad, located at the shop area, the clinic, the school, and the airpori. A
telecenter knorn,n as Gatuman Bario (Bario Link) was set up in 2001 and
equipped with computers, an inkiet pdnter, a laser printer, a laminating
machine, a photocopieq and Internet access;..since Bario is outside the
national grid, the telecenter,s alternative power supply was installed in the
form of solar panels and diesel-run generators.
A IT literacy program was introduced in coniunction with COMServe,
a local company based in Kuching. The training included word process_
ing, keyboard usage, e-mailing, browsing the Web, and the management
of technologies, including troubleshooting. Moreover, management and
administration have been put in place to manage the proiect in Bario and
also the community telecenter. To achieve this, a proiect coordinator-cum-
manager has been appointed by the council of elders, JKKK, and UNIMAS
to oversee the workings of the initiative in Bario. In addition to the proiect
coordinator, a technicai assistant was also trained and appointed to oversee
the technical aspects ofthe proiect, such as troubleshooting and managing
all the equipment and software.
Redeployment of eBario in the Kelabit Highlands
At this point it is important to ask: in what ways have the Kelabit appropri_
ated eBario as means to attain doo-ness and, iyuk inihe trigtrlands and as a
political, economic and social strategy to extend Kelabit collective agency
within a wider political and economic context? To explore this, I turn to
Miller and Slater's idea of the ,,dynamics of positioning,, (2000, 1B). It is
a term used to describe people,s ways of engaging with Intemet media to
position themselves within networks that transcend their immediate loca_
tion, placing them within wider flows of cultural, political, and economic
resources.
Among the Kelabit, these ,,dynamics of positioning,, of eBario are obvi-
ous on twc fronts. One is that it helps to ensure that the Ketabit in the
highlands are not left behind but are on a par with the rest of the world
(i.e., with other non-Kelabit group in Malaysia), by being connected to
sophisticated modern means of communication and information exchange
via the Internet and computer. The arrival of these obiects and facilities
in the Kelabit Highlands indicates that the villages have progressed: thev
Redeploying Technologies 115
are markers of collective iyuk and have placed them at the forefront of the
more dynamic situations of competition for economic and politic resources
in Malaysia. i1
Second is the way in which eBario helps and supports the community in
relation to the far wider context of state and national development plans.
In these situations, eBario has become both a forum and a stage, allowing
the Kelabit to represent their aspirations for cultural and pblitical recogni-
tion and for more development proiects to be brought into the highlands.
eBario as Marker of "Progress" and Success in the Kelabit Highlands
The first part of redeployment lelates to the way that eBario is seen as iyuk
and marker of progress and success among the Kelabit in Bario. All of this
was made apparent by Tama Maren Ayu, the headman of Arur Dalan vil-
lage and a prominent member of the council of elders. He said: "The arrival
of these new technologies is an iyuk to us here in the highlands, similar to
the arrival of chain saws many years ago. You see, before the era of chain
saws, we were using ax (kapek), and before axes, it was the uwai (axbow).
Uwai was to us a prestige item; it came in through trading with people in
the coast. Only those who were of high status (doo) }rad uwai as their posses-
sions. These people were those who have endured the hardships of travel-
ing far to the coast. Without uwaiyort couldn't make planks for your house,
and as a result one could only build a small hut or even farmed on the hill
slopes where the trees are smaller and easy to clear, but what you planted
would not grow well. Without uwai yotu house would be smaller and thus
couldn't house your relatives when they visited, your farm would be on
the hill slope, and you would not have enough rice, which was important
to feed others especially during feasts (irau). On the other hand, if a per-
son had an uwai, he was able to ngiyuk (move) his social standings in the
society."
Maren Ayrr's remarks reflect that iust as uwai was both a marker and an
enabler of social status and mobility in the Kelabit village, so the new tech-
nologies are also seen to enable the Kelabit to move in their social stand-
ings in the highlands. It is a mark of their ability to attract progress to the
Kelabit Highlands.
This perception was made more apparent through a dialogue session
in Bario to discuss a site for the community telecenter. It was insisted that
the new technologies be placed in a 4ew building, not in the old aipott
terminal building, as suggested by the\\research team. This was because
these machines were not merelv sonhisf\cated fhings for fhe l(elahit hrrt
116 Poline Bala
also markers of their sllccess. tsalang Radu said: ,,We are the proud recipi_
ents of these new technologies in our area. It is sirnilar to the arrival of
the school in Bario in 1945. Tom Harrison came parachuting in. We didn,t
know who he was, but he brought us the school. We built new buildings
for the school in those days. Just as now you have all arrived here with us,
bringing in these new obiects, we also need to build a new house for these
new things that are arriving in our land.,, The insistence on a new building
suggests a particular attitude toward modernity and deveiopment in the
highlands: the Internet, computers, and printers were seen not merely as
tools of developmert as proposed by the project team but also as signs and
indicators of deveiopment arriving in the Kelabit homeland.
This view was shared by those who saw the adoption of the technologies
in the Kelabit Highlands as empowering; it was considered a determined
step toward charting a future for the highlands and Kelabit identity (llarris
et al. 2001). This was based on the rationale that the proiect could improve
the Kelabit economic and political position in Bario by acting creatively
with development. In the words of Maren Tapan, ,,It is about movihg in
tandem with development, as opposed to being left behind by others [non_
Kelabitl." Besides, according to Melay,ung Ulun of Bario Asal, ,,The Kelabit
cannot affbrd not to adopt these new technoiogies. We need to be part of
the change that is taking place; otherwise we will be lagging behind tech_
nologically and continue to find it difficult to communicate with the rest of
the world. " In the words of eighty-year-old Balang Radu, eBario has enabled
further progress (ipk) for those living in Bario by providing the means to
forge connections with the rest of the world.,He stated, ,,With these new
means of communications, our lives are made much easier, although we
live isolated in the headwaters of Baram. We can now liaise with the outside
world from our villages, including talking to our children in KL, Kuching,
and throughout the world. T'his is progress (i7ak) for us. It has made our life
easier; and we are connected to the rest of the world in a new way. There_
. fore we are basically very, very pleased with its arrival. We are now on a par
with the rest of the world.,,
Balang Radu,s remarks demonstrate that the new technologies are being
incorporated into the Kelabit,s ongoing pursuit for iyuk in the highlands.
This is attained by using eBalio as a mechanism to position themselves
within wider networks of interaction that transcend their isolated posi_
tion in the highlands. In this way the Kelabit can continue to be integrated
within (and be part ot) the space of global flow of technologies, skills, com-
munication, and information. As described earlier, Kelabit society has long
been connected to the outsicle world through their seosranhic mohilitrz
Redeploying Technologies '117
and the dispersal of families. In tandem with their experiences, the Kelabit
also see themselves as a part of the wider world of progress. Just as the
cultural practices of traveling far aild the adoption of obiects and ideas
have expanded their horizons, so too the contemporary acceptance of tele-
phones, the Internet, VSATs, and computers in the highlands is seen as
extending their existing connections to the rest of the woIld.
eBario and the Maintenance of Kelabit Doo-ness (in the Form of ldentity)
Being connected to the rest of the world through these new technologies
is perceived not purely as a means of obtaining better-quality information,
connectedness, and iyuk but also as a symbol that the Kelabit are not being
left behind by others. In this context, eBario is taken as a signifier of recogni-
tion by higher and other agencies-researchers, government departments,
and nongovernmental organizations at the national and international
leve1. This is palticularly significant within the Malaysian ethnic framework
of development, in which ethnic groups have to compete for economic
and political resources from the government, as discussed earlier. In other
words, eBario represents a recognition of the Kelabit's distinct status as a
people or ethnic group within Malaysia and within the international com-
munity. Seen in this light, the proiect is enabling, allowing the Kelabit to
proiect their identity and status within Malaysia's multiethnic setting and
within global flows of information and a larger world of progress.
This view was clearly expressed by the former paramount chief Pemanca
Ngimet Ayrr when addressing the council of elders, the team of researchers,
and other Kelabit in June 1999. He said, "About thirty years ago Christian-
ity, a new faith, came to us. We are now following the Lord. Our parents
were very excited to embrace the new faith because it gave us better life.
With the new faith, the school also came to us. We were also very excited to
embrace the school because we foresaw that the school could help our chil-
dren. Therefore we sacrificed to send our children to school. Today many of
our children are doing well in school. In fact, many nowadays are in high
positions. Again, today a new technology has arrived in our midst. Let's
embrace it and see how we can use it in order not to be left behind by the
rest of the world. We need to train our grandchildren to acquire these new
skills and knowledge."
The paramount chief's statement reflects a general inclination among
the Kelabit to explore computers and the internet as a means of provid-
ing new skills and knowledge to the younger generation. 'fhese technolo-
cioc cro lm.aLdr. +h-+ +} - 76l.hi+.n^ -^,i+L ^+L^-. i- ^-L-^^:--
118 Poline Bala
worldwide shifts of perspective and influence. In other words, the arrival
of these technologies in the highlands signifies not only that progress and
development have arrived but, most importantly, that the Kelabit are active
participants on a more global stage.
This sense of achievement is important for the cornmunal status and
collective interests in relation to others, especiaily within Malaysia,s mul_
tiracial setting. As I have suggested, one of the ways in which the Kelabit
engage with this is by positioning themselves on the same level as others
in their pursuit of progress and success. With their capacity to attract new
ideas and technologies into their environment/ and their ability to adopt,
incorporate, master, and re-create them, the Kelabit poltray themselves as
a successful and progressive people. eBario in this sense serves as a strategy
for the image management of Kelabit doo-ness, in terms of their prestige
and social status both locally and on the larger stage of Malaysia and the
expanding world environment. It is a marker and signifier of Kelabit com_
munal status, and a means of advancing Kelabit claims for access to more
progress and development in the highlands. Although the Kelabit in Bario
do not yet use the Internet to position their farming or hunting activities
within wider farming networks, eBario as a developmental proiect has pro_
vided the means to advance their status and strengthen thefu identity in
relation to a far wider context, and in a way that is much more dynamic
than ever before.
The significance of this third aspect was made clear in a conversation
with Gerawat Gala, the current president of Rurum Kelabit Sarawak. We
were discussing how the media had misunderstpod the meaning of the Top
Seven Intelligent Communities Award given to the Kelabit in 2001. The
media had leinterpreted the award as a tribute to the Kelabit for being a
highly intelligent people based on their Ies. As the team leader, I was not
particularly pleased with the media hype and its misreplesentations, but
Mr. Gerawat's reply revealed a different perspective. ,,Let it be. It is a good
thing for a small community like ours. We need the coverage of the proj-
ect-both the image it createcl for us and the awards as a strategy for us_to
encourage us to move on as a minority group, and also to position ourselves
at par with the rest. The government can now witness that we are open to
progress and are moving with the flow of development, and the others can
see that we are not backward, but a progressive people.,,
Taking Gerawat's view a little further, good image management is of great
importance to a community like the Kelabit, whose smali numbers risk
rendering them inconsequential in Malaysia,s political processes and the
global economy. I have described how NEp policies have shaned erhnic anrt
Redeploying Technologies 1',t9
religious categodes as a means to access economic and political resources in
Malaysia, and how this in tum is regulating interethnic relations between
diverse ethnic groups, and betweenthe society and the state in Malaysia.
It is in relation to these competitive and ethnic conditions that eBario car-
ries great significance for the Kelabit: the program represents international,
national, and regional recognition of the Kelabit elistence (peoplehood)
and their active participation in the world of progress, rather than being
seen as marginalized onlookers limited by their remote location and small
numbers. It is a marker of the Kelabit's being at the forefront of competi-
tion for development in Malaysia, in which the presence of ICTs in the
villages is associated with Kelabit openness and inclination toward progress
and modernity. In other words, the Kelabit take pride in the proiect, for it
promotes a notion that they are adventurous and willing to embrace oppor-
tunity and take risks, attributes that they wish others (non-Kelabit) would
respect and emulate.
The last point is instantiated in the ways that the Kelabit aIe beginning
to use ICTs to assert their cultural identity and their cultural rights. Like
the Trinidadians observed by Miller and Slater (2000), the Kelabit have also
become actors in global arenas through the Internet. The Kelabit are using
the Internet to build their communal doo-ness and maintain communal
networking and solidarity. One site that is used regularly by a number of
the Kelabit community is the Online Kelabit Society (OKS). The significance
of OKS in reproducing and maintaining solidarity among the Kelabit has
been likened to the traditionalroles ol ruma' kadang (the longhouse) by one
of its regular users. This is because it provides spaqe for the traditional prac-
tice of social greeting or peburi and for the exchange of ideas and advice,
which are important elements of communal living in a longhouse. As an
online ruma' kadang, the site features discussions on various issues that face
the Kelabit. One maior topic or theme is Kelabit culture and identity: what
does "being Kelabit" mean in a contemporary context, with high rates of
rural-urban migration and high levels of intermarriage betvveen Kelabit and
non-Kelabit? This online forum and the discussions that take place within
it allow for exchanges of ideas between members of the community both
within Malaysia and beyond.
Other activities and pursuits include efforts to create family trees-not
by one person but through group effort, as different members of the long-
houses, now dispersed throughout Malaysia and also abroad, attempt to
identify kinship relations between families. There are numerous online
groups consisting of family members, close or distant cousins, and also
(no.ial in+6aac+ n.^irnc r.o a ralfa+< n- +L^"-.^,h^ --^ ^^-^-*-^i ^L^,,+ +h^
120 Poline Bala
encroachmelt of commercial logging and the impact of development in
Bario). Other communal proiects include the mapping of Native Custom_
ary Land and cultural sites in the Keiabit Highlands, and the documenta-
tion of the Kelabit language, tasks that are increasingly being managed via
the Internet.3
The significance of the Internet is further illustrated by the ways in
which eBario has been integrated within the local political apparatus to
become a versatile platform for the Kelabit to position and reposition their
interests within the contemporary political and economic terrain. The
Internet, computers, and software are becoming useful tools and means to
form networks, to acquire new skills, and to strategize the Kelabit,s actions
in their encountels particularly with new notions of development that
include commercial iogging and large-scale, futuristic development plans
for the highlands. This differing concept of development has begun to
shift attention away from socioeconomic development among the Kelabit
to their legal rights and governance in relation to their lancl and cultural
heritage in the highlands. This has stimuiated individuais and groups to
speak up after many years of rnoving in tandem with state-initiated plans
for development.
The Kelabit have significant concerns about the potential impact of log_
ging in the highiands. These include the effects on watersheds for wet rice
cuitivation, the Kelabit's dependence on the forest for iungle produce and
wild game, and the rapid growth of ecotourism in the area. Many people
provide guiding and lodging services for Malaysian and international tour-
ists, many of whom are attracted by thc opportunities for long-distance
trekking. Seen in this light, demands for land for timber concessions are
bound to come into conflict with highlanders who are competing for the
same resources. This is because the very nature of logging is in complete
contradiction to the new types of tourism that the Sarawak Tourism Board
and the Kelabit themselves want to attract.
At the same time, there is a feeling that the Kelabit are dealing with the
limitations of available local institutions and practices for confronting the
many problems that commerciat logging and road building are generating
and will continue to generate. One critical issue is the shifting notion of
land ownership, which on the ground is seen as a steady alienation of the
Kelabit from their heritage land and, if left unaddressed, could become a
growing arena for political conflict at the village level.
A11 these social and political processes are beginning to shape Kelabit
modes of engagement with iCTs and their outcomes in the highlands.
The use of the Internet, computers, and the telephone Dermits a form of
Redeploying Technologies 121
political agency, especially as new forms of interuention threaten to change
the physical and cultural landscape of the highlands. The new technologies
inspire those in Bario to reach out tothose who have left the highlands but
still maintain a strong interest in the affairs of the village. These commu-
nications technologies have become a new means to maintain solidarity,
within an increasingly stratified and occupationally.,mobile population, in
the face of the new types of development interventi6n I have described.
This suggests that ICT makes it possible for the Kelabit to form new net-
works and to reproduce effective organization and actions. At the same
time, the presence of ICTs facilitates a greater agency and capacity for politi-
cal engagement to question, assess, and debate these developments, and to
form links with other agencies that might be useful.
Examples of this are the documentation of oral histories and the record-
ing of images relating to all the cultural and historical sites found in the
highiands, as well as the marking of their GPS points. These provide useful
historical documents in negotiations with commercial logging as a new
industry in the area. It is an example of local empowerment, whereby the
use of ICTs has facilitated greater agency for political engagement in the
face of this shifting notion of development. The new technologies are seen
to increase the Kelabit's opportunities and abilities to make choices and to
translate them into desired actions and outcomes.
Over the last ten years, the eBario project and in particular its telecenter
has emerged to take on multiple meanings and functions in Bario. The
proiect has become a symbolic compensation and a symbolic resource for
the Kelabit's reiative smallness in numbers, their, political marginalization
within Malaysia's ethnic framework of development, and the geographic
isolation of the highlands from centers of power. At another level, it has
become a meeting place, a community office, and a new platform to negoti-
ate Kelabit interests and aspirations in the face of new notions of develop-
ment being introduced in the highlands. Notably, the teiecenter has been
appropriated to facilitate greater agency and capacity for political engage-
ment as the Kelabit engage with a glowing tourism industry and the appear-
ance of other large-scale commercial industries in the Kelabit Highlands.
Conclusion
We can draw a number of significant conclusions from the Kelabit expe-
riences with the eBario project. First, what the l(elabit say and think of
development points to a particular shortcoming in the critiques of the devel-
oDment industrv. which is the tendencv to krse sisht of the exDeriences and
122 Poline Bala
perceptions of the very people under study, particularly their definitions
and understanding of development, and thefu reasons for desiring it. As
has been argued, the Kelabit have incorporated the modern government
apparatus as part of their strategies for iyuk (advancement) and as a means
of connecting to, and collaborating with, the world of progress to attain
better well-being (doo ulun) in the highlands.
In a sense, although they have been transformed in their meanings and
forms, it is the continued significance ol iyuk lor status and doo_ness in the
Kelabit social world that provides a rationale for the present-day attitude to
change and the future, which in turn provides a basis for the adoption of
ICTs in the social and economic environment in Bario. At the same time,
the way in which the Kelabit provide meanings to the technologies deeply
reflects how the Kelabit are eager to collaborate with the world of progress
and development to attain better well-beitg (doo ulun) tn the highlands
and put themselves on a par with the rest of the world. This is particularly
significant in the context of the Kelabit,s marginal or even displaced posi-
tion within the broader policies and discourse of the Malaysian state,s eth_
nic framework of development. Although many do not use the Internet in
relation to daily activities such as farming and so forth, the presence of the
new technologies in Bario represents the Kelabit success in their pursuit of
progress and development. It signifies that ,,we are at par with the rest of
the world and people."
All of this resonates closely with Norman Long,s transformative process
of planned development, which he describes as ,,constantly reshaped by
its own internal organization, cultural and political dynamics and by spe-
cific conditions it encounters and itself creates, inciuding the responses and
strategies of local groups who may struggle to define and defend their own
social spaces, cultural boundaries and positions within the wider power
field" (Long 2007,72).
Moreover, ICTs as tools of development do not necessarily or simply
open communities like the Kelabit to the outside world. Instead the Kelabit
encounter with development as a hegemonic force closely resembles Michel
de Certeau's understanding of agency ,,in exhibiting devious, dispersed,
and subversive 'consumer practices,,which are not manifest through their
own products, but rather their ways of using the products imposed by the
dominant economic order" (1984, xiii). placed within local social processes
and circumstances, the new forms of technology as drivers of globalization
have neither been used as a means of control (in the form of development
as a tool of control by the state) nor heralded a new form of society (the
cleation of a knowledge-based society in the context of Malaysia). Rather,
Redeploying Technologies "t2t
they have been partly integrated with, or subordinated to, existing prac-
tices, internal values, sociopolitical arrangements, and products in the com-
munity. Their continued use and adapfution have also provided for new
forums of dialogue and communication, rekindling a sense of communal
identity. They are therefore not sepalate entities but part of an ongoing and
interactive process of change, which involves initiatives, responses, debate,
occasional conflicts, and constructive resolutions. It is i^/fthin these social
processes that computers, the Internet, and the telephone have been given
meaning, and their application modified and developed within the com-
munity's social context. In this sense, the visions of outside policy makers
for introducing ICTs as tools for social and economic development may
differ markedly from the actual realities of their use and effectiveness in dif-
ferent political and economic settings. ICTs are engaged with locally, inter-
preted, represented, and woven into the fabric of daily life of the Kelabit
communities. As we can see, it is the Kelabit's own agency and skills that
partly determine the impact and effects of the eBario proiect in the Kelabit
Highlands.
Notes
1. Many of these valuables were acquired from other traders like the Kayan, Kenyah,
Berian, Potok, Kerayan, Murut, Malays, and the Chinese in return for tobacco, salt,
rice, gutta-percha, and resin from the highlands. These dynamic relations of
exchange crossed cultural and ethnic borders and were important not only for the
Kelabit but also for the various groups in the interior, including the Malays and
Dayaks (Rousseau 1989).
2. Elsewhere I have described how the process of this integration started with the
expansion of the Sarawak territory beginning with James Brooke (1841,1868). How-
ever, it was only in 1920s and 1930s, through "headhunting raids," that the high-
lands were brought under Sarawak's rule. The Japanese occupation of 1943-1945
and the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation in 1963-1,966, in which the highlands
became a center for military operations, have permanently rooted the Kelabit's posi-
tion within Malaysia.
3. A recent example of this is an Internet forum to revive the use of the Kelabit lan-
guage among the younger generation. The initiative was launched by a Kelabit
woman living in Miri, who is concerned about the declining interest in, and use of,
the language among migrant Kelabit. The Internet discussion list includes Kelabit
who are living in Miri, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Bario, Bintulu, and Singapore. The
main concern is to find ways of documenting "extinct" Kelabit words, terms, and
phrases while at the same time promoting the use of the language.
"124 Poline Bala
References
Abdul-Rahman, Omar. 1993. Industrial targets of Vision ZO2O: Tbe science and tech-
nology perspective. ln Malaysia's Vision 2020: Understanding the Concept, Implications,
ancl Chollenges, ed. Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid. Petaling Jaya: pelanduk publications.
Amster, Mathew H. 1998. Community, ethnicity, and modes of association among
the Kelabit of Sarawak, East Malaysia. Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology,
Brandeis I Jniversily.
Anderson, Benedict. 11,983) 1991,. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Oigins and
Spread of Nationallsm. London: Verso.
Bala, P. ZOO2. Changiflg Borders and ldentities in the Kelabit Highlands: Anthropological
Reflections on Growing Up in a Kelabit Village near the Intemational Boriler. Dayak Stud-
ies Contemporary Series no. 1. Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak.
Barr, D. F. 1998. Integrated rural development through telecommunications. In Th?
First Mile of Connectivity: Advancing telecommunicotions for rurat development through a
Porticipatory communication approach, eds. D. Richardson and L. paisley, 152-767.
Rome, Italy: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. http://I,!ryw
.f ao. org/docrep/x029 5e I xO29 5 e7 2htm.
Barth, F. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Bounilaries: The Social Organization of Culture Differ-
ence. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Bellah, R. N. 197.5. The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial. New
York: Seabury Press.
Brosius, P. 2003. The forest and the nation: Negotiating citizenship in Sarawak, East
Malaysia. In Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia: Nation and Belonging in the
Ilinterland, ed. R. Rosaldo,T6-133. Berkeley: University of California press.
Chandra, M. 1986. Territorial integration: A personal view. In The Bonding of a
Natiotr: Federalism and Tefitoial Intcgt'ation in Malaysia. proceedings of the First ISIS
Conference on National Integration, Kuala Lumpur, October 31-November 3, 19g5.
Malaysia: ISIS.
Clammer, J. 2007. Values and Deyelopment in Southeast Asia. Subang Jaya, Malaysia:
l'elanduk Publica tions.
de Certeau, M. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Despres, L., ed. 1975. Ethnicity and Resource Competition in plural Socfety. The Hague:
Mouton -
Redeploying Technologies 125
Ernberg, J. 1998. Empowering communities in the information society: An interna-
tional perspective. ln The First Mile of Connectivity: Advancing Telecommunications for
Rural Development through a Pdrticipatory Cqmmunication Approach, ed. D. Richardson
and L. Paisley, 191-211. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations. http://m.fao.org/docrep/x0295e/x0295e15.htm.
Goh, B. L. 2002. Rethinking modernity: State, ethnicity, and class in the forging of a
modern urban Malaysia. ln Local Cultures and the New AsiaitThe Society, Culture, and
Capitalism in Southeast Asia, ed. C. J. W.-L. Wee, 184-216. Singapore: Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies.
Harris, R. W., P. Ba1a, P. Songan, and G. L. Khoo. 2001. Challenges and opportuni-
ties in introducing information and communication technologies to the Kelabit
community of North Central Borneo. New Medio and Society 3 (3):27l-296.
Harrisson, T. 1959. World Within: A Bomeo Story. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Hilley, J. 2OO1.. Malaysia: Mahathirism, Hegemory), and the New Opposition. London:
Zed Books.
Janowski, M. 1991. Rice, work, and community among the Kelabits in Sarawak, East
Malaysia. Ph.D. thesis, London School of Economics, University of London.
Janowski, M. 2003. The forest, source of life: The Kelabit of Sarawak. British Museum
Occasional Paper 143. The Sarawak Museum.
Jomo, K. S. 1985. Malaysia's New Economic Policies: Evaludtions of the Mid-term Review
of the 4th Mp. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Economic Association.
Kato, Tsuyoshi. 1,982. Matriliny and Migration: Evolving Minangkabau Traditions in
Indonesia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Kedit, P. M. 1989. Ethnicity in multi-cultural society: Dayak ethnicity in the context
of Malaysian multi-cultural society. Sarawak Museum loumal 4O (61):1-7.
Keniston, K. 2OO2. IT for the common man: Lessons from India. M. N. Srinivas
Memorial Lecture, Indian Institute of Science. Bangalore: NIAS Special Publication
sP7-02.
King, V. T. 1999. Anthropology and Development in South-East Asia: Theory and Practice.
Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Larsen, A. K. 1998. Discourses on development in Malaysia. In Anthropological Per-
spectjves on Local Development: Knowled&e and Sentiments in Conflict, eds. S. Abram and
J. Waldren, 18-35. London: Routledge.
Lee, B. T., and Tengku Shamsul Bahrin. 1993. The Bario exodus: A conception of
Sarawak urbanization. Borneo Review 4 (2): L12-127.
Long, N. 20O1. Development Sociology: Actor Perspectives. London: Routledge.
'126 Poline Bala
Mahathir, M. 1991. The way forward. Wolking paper presented at the Malaysian
Business Council, February. http://www.pmo.gov.my/?menu=page&page=1904.
Miller, D., and D. Slater. 2OOO. The Intemet: An Ethnographic Approach. Oxford: Berg.
Murang, O. 1998. Migration in Sarawak: The Kelabit experience. presented at Work_
shop on Migration in Sarawak, organized by the Sarawak Development Institute,
Jrne 25-26, 1998, Parkcity Beverly Hotel, Bintulu.
Nagata, J. 1979. Malaysian Mosaic perspective from a poly-ethnic Society. Vancouver:
University oI British Co]umbia Press.
Ortner, S. B. 1984. Theory in anthropology since the sixties. Comparative Studies in
Society and History 26:126-166.
Robertson, A. F. 1984. People and the State: An Anthropology of phnned Development.
Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
Rousseau, J. 1989. Centrai Borneo and its relations with coastal Malay sultanates. In
Outwittingthe State, ed.P. Skalnik, 41-50. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction publishers.
Rousseau, J. 1.99O. Central Bomeo: Ethnic ldentity and Social Life in a Stratifieil Society.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Saging, R. L97611977 . An ethno-history of the Kelabit tribe of Sarawak: A brief look
at the Kelabit tribe before World War II and after. Graduation exercise submitted to
theJabatan Sejarah, University of Malaya, in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Saging, R., and L. Bulan. 1989. Kelabit ethnography: A brief report. Sarawak Museum
loumal 4O (61):89-118.
Scott, J. C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of peasanf Resisfance. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Shamsui, A. B. 1986. From Brttish to Bumiputera Rule: Local politics and Rural Develop-
ment in Malaysia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Talla, Y. 1979. The Kelabit of the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak. Ed. Clifford Sather.
Report no. 9, Social Anthropology Section, School of Comparative Social Sciences,
USM, Pulau Pinang.
Tsing, A. L. 7993. In the Realm of the Diamond eueen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way
Place. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University press.
Turner, V. 1980. Social dramas and stories about them. Citical Inquiry 7 (l):
14 1*1 68.
United Nations Economic and Social Council. 2000. Draft Ministerial Declaration of
the High-Level Segment Submitted by the president of the Economic and Social
Council on the Basis of lnformal Consultations, New york.
ln
