I may premise by saying that though the system of "debt-slavery," as
it has been called, exists to some extent in all the States, it is only
seen in its worst light where a Rajah or chief is the creditor and a
subject the debtor.
Few subjects in a Malay country are well off. The principal reason of
this is, that as soon as a man or woman is known to be in possession of
money, he or she would be robbed by the Rajah; or the money would be
borrowed with no intention of future payment, whether the subject
wished to lend or not.
Thus, when a Ryot (or subject) is in want of money, he goes to his
Rajah or chief to lend it him, because he alone can do so. Either money
or goods are then lent, and a certain time stipulated for payment. If
at the expiration of that time the money is not paid, it is usual to
await some time longer, say two or three, or even six months.
Should payment not then be made, the debtor, if a single man, is taken
into the creditor's house; he becomes one of his followers, and is
bound to execute any order or do any work the Rajah as creditor may
demand, until the debt is paid, however long a time that may be.
During this time the Rajah usually provides the debtor with food and
clothing, but if the creditor gives him money, that money is added to
the debt.
Often, however, the Rajah gives nothing, and the debtor has to find
food and clothing as he can.
Should the debtor marry - and the Rajah will in all probability find him
a wife - then the debtor's wife, his children, his grandchildren, all
become equally bound with himself to the payment of this debt.
Should the debtor be originally married, then not only he, but his wife
and children, are taken into the Rajah's house, and are his to order
until the debt is paid.
Should the debtor be a woman, unmarried, or a widow, the same course is
taken, and whoever marries her becomes jointly responsible for the
debt; and this goes on through generations - the children and
grandchildren of the debtor being held in the same bondage by the
children and grandchildren of the creditor.
Should at any time the debtor succeed in raising the amount of the debt
and proffer it to the creditor, then it would be customary to accept
it. If, however, a large family were in bondage for the debt, one whose
numbers seemed to the Rajah to add to his dignity, then he would
probably refuse to accept payment, not absolutely, but would say
"wait," and the waiting might last for years.
Debtors once absorbed into the Rajah's household are looked upon as his
property, just as his bullocks or his goats, and those who alone would
have the power to interfere look on and say nothing, because they do
the same themselves.
In different States this debtor-bondage is carried to greater or less
extremities, but in Perak the cruelties exercised toward debtors are
even exclaimed against by Malays in other States.
Many chiefs in Perak have a following principally composed of young men
and girls, for the most part debtors.
The men are treated as I have already described - either food and
clothes are found for them or not; they are usually found - for the
Rajah's power and his pride consists in the number of arms-bearing
followers he has at his beck and call; men, too, are useful to him in
many other ways. Those who have grown old in their bondage, whether
men or women, either for very shame the Rajah provides for, or he
compels their children to support them.
The men either (1) follow because they like it (a very small percentage
indeed); or (2) they are debtors, or the children of debtors; or (3)
they are real slaves from Sumatra or Abyssinia, or the children of
slaves.
The girls are treated differently; they are (1) either slaves or the
daughters of slaves; or (2) debtors, the daughters or granddaughters of
debtors; or (3) the Rajah has simply taken them from their houses into
his own house because he wanted them; or (4) they follow him for
pleasure.
In Perak some of the chiefs do not provide their girls with food or
clothing, but they tell them to get these necessaries of life as best
they can, i.e., by prostitution - for the labor of the debtor being the
property of the creditor, prostitution is in this case a necessity and
not a choice.
Each Rajah in his own district claims the privilege of fining, either
for a capital offence or for a trifling misdeed. Should, then, a man be
fined and not pay the fine, he and his family, if he has one, are at
once taken into this debt-bondage, not to work out the fine, but to
toil away their lives amid blows and upbraidings - the daughters driven
to prostitution, the sons to thieving, and even greater crimes.
This is no exaggerated statement, but the plain truth.
When the Rajah gives nothing, neither food nor clothes, or when he is a
passionate man, and threatens to kill one or other of his followers for
some trivial offence, or for no offence at all, it often happens that
one will seek refuge in flight. If caught, though, it may be said to be
the received custom to inflict only some slight punishment; yet that
would not deter a Rajah from punishing such an offence even with death
should it seem good to him.
