This article presents an analysis of contemporary struggles over the use of
pesticides in Malaysian agriculture. Drawing on Michel Foucault's
genealogical analyses of power/knowledge relations in modem societies in
general, and governmental rationalities evolving around the management of
populations (bio-power) in particular, the article presents three main
arguments. First, in order to tell the truth about pesticide poisoning one had
to resort to medical and toxicological discourses which proved to be
important for validating and invalidating claims made on the poisonous
effects of pesticides. The possible modalities by which the use of pesticides
could be contested were, in effect, technicalized and importantly restricted.
Second, the attempts to govern and contest the use of pesticides on the
grounds that it presented a threat to public health had as an important
precondition the recasting of development discourse in Malaya between
1945 and 1955. The associated transformation of public health policies,
which implied that the promotion of the population's health standard
became a domain for regulatory intervention, at one and the same time
created a possibility to regulate and protest over the use of pesticides. Third
and finally, contestation over the use of pesticides, on the basis that it
presented a threat to public health, tended to be reduced to a conflict over
the effectiveness and implementation of regulatory techniques.
