The Legacy of MARDEC : Origin, Development and Contributions to the Natural Rubber Industry

Author: Jeyaraj C. Rajarao
Subjects: History, Malaysia
Pb 280 pp
Condition: Good
Publisher: UM Press
Published: 2013
This is a valuable book which is a broad exposition unraveling the origin, growth, and privatisation of MARDEC, the largest rubber conglomerate in Malaysia. It records MARDEC’s many-sided impact on the natural rubber industry and the attention that was given to elevate the socio-economic well being of the smallholders. It underlines MARDEC’s multifaceted legacy to the natural rubber industry.
The book also considers the significant roles played by individuals who built MARDEC. The linkages between various organisations involved in improving the processing of smallholders’ rubber. The expansion of the rubber product manufacturing industry is also studied amidst the many changing and challenging situations that confronted MARDEC. Its significant contributions to promote the rubber product manufacturing sector are admirably considered.
The backdrop for the book includes historical information concerning the introduction of natural rubber to Malaya, and its earliest development by the pioneering planters. This account is well documented, keeping the economic, political and sociological situations as integral to the development of the Malaysian natural rubber industry and eventually MARDEC.
The book, therefore, is of real value for its own sake and because of the obvious significance of the Malaysian natural rubber industry. Interestingly too, it provides pleasant and provocative reading as it is illuminated with splashes of wit and a cultivated humane intelligence.