Preparación y redacción del manuscrito original

instructions on producing good quality rubber sheets. He encouraged people

in Maju to put the methods into practice, and also experimented with adding

sodium crystals during the coagulating process. He had observed this

during his visit to Nakhon Si Thammarat, and it gave a fine, transluscent

quality to the finished sheets. The result was that much of the rubber

produced in Maju was first grade or better, a much higher quality than that

produced in any other part of Yala province. During the latter half of 1986,

nearly three-quarters of Maju's rubber was best qualit)^, and by the time I

was due to leave the area in April 1987, this proportion had increased to

nearly 90%, a s t a g g e r i n g figure considering that most GPM groups produced little or no top grade rubber at all.

Cik Rashid also advocated that members should sell all their rubber through the group, a n d not divide their stocks between buyers, in order to maximise the profit margins offered by RCM sales. The founding members of the GPM group were households that had sold their rubber to Cik Rashid as a private t r a d e r , so they were able to increase their profits while maintaining their links with him and the credit he could extend. Because the former trader had become head of the GPM group, sellers had no need to divide their stocks between him and the RCM sales, so that the benefits of h i g h e r prices flowed with maximum effect to group members. As the scheme p r o s p e r e d a n d the n u m b e r of members steadily increased, Cik Rashid's personal assets, even when combined with those of his deputy Cik Yusoff, were n o t sufficient to meet all demands from members for short-

term loans. T h e 3% levy on sales was thus introduced and the GPM committee was able to lend small amounts to a large segment of the membership. This m e a n t that landless sharetappers and owners of small holdings incurred less risk in joining the group and at the same time were able to reap the benefits it offered. There was certainly no fundamental change in the s t r u c t u r e of Maju's economy. Land distribution was as uneven, a n d household incomes as disparate, as they were in Khala. The major difference was that in Maju, Cik Rashid had adopted and carried out policies that enabled the benefits of the government's scheme to reach a far greater n u m b e r of people. This in turn had enhanced his own leadership position and extended his influence both within the village and eventually

beyond. T h e scheme had n o t transformed or replaced the traditional rubber economy, but had been used to strengthen and develop it.

5.3 RCM sales in Raman

T h e GPM group from Maju originally sold its rubber as a co-operative to visiting buyers, but in late 1985 RCM sales were organised, and these took place outside the government's district offices in Raman. Sheets were set out according to grade in a large open pavilion, making it easy for merchants to inspect them, or if groups h a d particularly large amounts to sell, as was often the case with Maju, they could display samples of each grade and leave the remainder at h o m e for the successful bidder to collect later.

During 1986, the n u m b e r of GPM groups participating in the sales rose steadily from four or five at the beginning of the year to fifteen by the end, a n d remained in the range of ten to fifteen groups in the first quarter of 1987. While this rate of participation was much higher than that in Yaha, it was still well below the generally accepted figure of about twenty-three active groups in the district, and a long way short of the official figure of fifty-one. While some sellers brought only small amounts to the sales, a few brought substantial quantities, so that the sales of late 1986 and early 1987 had an average of 25,000 kilogrammes on offer, a figure u n h e a r d of in Yaha. T h e Maju g r o u p ' s c o n t r i b u t i o n to these impressive sales was considerable. Their r u b b e r regularly amounted to one third of the total quantity for sale, and on some occasions accounted for over half.

Although participation by GPM groups was good, the RCM sales in