Gift-giving and bureaucracy : the British policy against corruption in Malay administrative services, 1900-1940

Abstract

The thesis will discuss about the era of 1900-1940 had witnessed the clash of norms on lifestyle and cultural mentality that was expressed in a bureaucracy and government amongst two races British and Malay specifically, and classes; superior-subjugated. Malay Administrative Service and the reformed government had also become the epitome of social mobility in administration back then and was said to be the British’s colonisation tool in Malaya. The reformed governmental system played a major role in realising the dream which was introduced through the propaganda of British indirect rule. The dream had been regulated by major modifications starting with the inclusion of residence and advisory witnessing the reformation attributed to other social classes. This replaced the older era which only regulated royals and aristocrats of the elite group from incumbent bloodlines. Furthermore, what has become the major aspect of study is how the bureaucracy depicted the Gift-giving either it is a corruption or not, still left indefinite by previous researchers. Therefore, this study fills this gap by examining the motion and compares inter alia corruption; its forms and types, through retrospectively and introspectively probing the element of gift-giving. The incumbent power and position of hierarchical organisation had given rise to the expression of competence and reformation of administration and governance. Since corruption was not only regulated on what was known as presenting gifts during that time, the cronyism and favouritism were believed to intricately moving along and influencing each other. The findings in this study broaden the concept and scope of the previous researches upon the co-existence of corruption and gift-giving conceptuality therein in Malay Administrative Service (MAS) under British policy of Anti-Corruption.