Modern Arts of Governing the Use of Pesticides in Malaysia

Authors

  • Peter Triantafillou Asian Research Centre

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v12i1.2175

Abstract

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.

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Published

1997-03-10

Issue

Section

Articles