Roads

Roads in colonial Malaya formed an integral component of the transport infrastructure that underpinned the extractive economy of the peninsula. From their earliest construction as feeder tracks linking tin mines to river systems in the western states, through their expansion into a network of metalled highways serving rubber plantations and administrative centres, roads evolved in close relationship with the railway system that had been built to carry the colony’s principal exports to the ports. By the 1930s, the rapid growth of motor vehicle traffic had made road transport a direct competitor to the railways, prompting a series of regulatory interventions by the British administration that sought to coordinate the two modes without resolving the deeper structural problem of the economy’s dependence on export trade [1, pp. 45–46].

Origins and Early Development

Before British intervention, land transport in the Malay peninsula was little developed. Malay settlements were either riverine or coastal, and the rivers and seas functioned as the main highways of commerce and transportation. The dense tropical rain-forest was difficult to penetrate, the mountainous interior presented a further obstacle to movement, and there was no suitable beast of burden available to the ordinary population; elephants were occasionally used by royalty and the wealthy, but peasants could not afford them. Consequently, movement on land was limited to footpaths between villages, minor trips to the outer fringes of settlement to collect forest produce, and occasional excursions into the interior by river and thence by land to the tin and gold diggings [1, p. 49].

The first roads in the western Malay states were built in the mining regions and functioned as feeder lines to the main river systems. As alluvial tin deposits near the river systems became depleted, mining activity was pushed into the interior, necessitating the construction of roads to link the mines with the river networks. These early roads were built by the miners themselves and had to be maintained regularly because of the limitations of the road construction materials then in use. They were subsidiary to the rivers, serving to extend the basic transport network formed by the rivers rather than existing as a separate network. Human porters were employed to carry goods and equipment until the introduction of oxen (bullock) cart carriers [1, p. 49].

The extension of British rule to the western Malay states was accompanied by further developments in road construction. The British continued the earlier pattern of building roads to navigable rivers, and road construction in the various states followed an independent, though similar, pattern. Initially, cart roads with a maximum gradient of 1 in 20 were constructed. These roads were designed for the slow-moving bullock-drawn carts and, since the aim was to avoid steep gradients rather than to run in a straight line, they were narrow and winding. The roads were built by putting a layer of clay over a foundation of tree trunks and topping this with a layer of sand; in some areas, waterworn stone and quartz were also utilized to provide a rough metalled surface. Subsequently, as traffic increased, the roads were widened to the usual width of twelve feet and improved, with provision made for future improvements by keeping road reserves on either side [1, p. 49].

The advent of the railway in 1885 resulted in a shift in road construction. Roads were now built from the mines to link up with the railways, but their function as feeders remained unchanged. The consolidation of British power in the western Malay states with the formation of the Federation in 1896 witnessed a parallel development in the integration of the road systems of Province Wellesley, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Malacca. By 1902, this road had been converted into a highway, 360 miles long, which provided through communication from Province Wellesley to Malacca [1, p. 50].

Road development during this phase served three main purposes. Firstly, the roads functioned as feeders both to the rivers and the newly constructed railway lines. Secondly, the roads opened up land for agricultural enterprises, which tied in with and facilitated the large-scale economic penetration of the country made possible by the development of railways. Finally, by increasing accessibility, roads helped establish the peace that was essential for the expansion of the extractive-colonial economy in Malaya [1, p. 50].

Expansion and the Automobile Era

Road transportation came into its own after 1902. The development of the internal combustion engine, the introduction of pneumatic tyres, technical advances in road surfacing and maintenance, and the convenience of road haulage services resulted in a rapid growth of the road network in the country. Politically, the ending of the first decade of the twentieth century witnessed the extension of British authority to the northern Malay states of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis, and to the southern state of Johore [1, p. 50].

In Pahang, the poorest state in the Federated Malay States in terms of mineral resources, a cart road linking Kuala Kubu in Selangor to Kuala Lipis had been completed in 1898. In the following years, extensions were made southwards from the Kuala Lipis road to Tras and Bentong; this road was subsequently known as the Pahang Trunk Road. Construction was also started on an east-west road to link Kuantan on the east coast of Pahang to Bentong on the Pahang Trunk Road. The Kuantan-Benta Road, completed in 1915, established through communication between Kuantan and Selangor and thus enabled the east coast of Pahang to have land connections with the rest of Malaya during the monsoon season [1, p. 50].

In the northwestern Malay states, by 1908 a good metalled road linked Kulim in Kedah with Province Wellesley. In the following year, a road construction programme was undertaken to link Alor Star with Kangar, the capital of Perlis. To the south, the extension of the railway line through Johore was followed by the implementation of a comprehensive road construction programme: seventeen sections of road, totalling 327 miles, were planned for the state to draw traffic to the railway. The scheme was implemented in stages, depending on state revenues [1, p. 50].

Road construction in the east coast states of Kelantan and Trengganu lagged behind that of the other states. In Kelantan, early road construction was carried out around the town of Kota Bharu to open up agricultural land for settlement in the Kelantan delta. The need for more effective control of the outlying regions resulted in the extension of the Kota Bharu road to Pasir Puteh in 1915, a measure undertaken as a security response after the outbreak of the Pasir Puteh Rebellion that year. Communication with the western states was by sea until the completion of the east coast railway line from Gemas to Tumpat in 1931. Trengganu had no roads to speak of until the end of the third decade. In 1931, a road between Kuala Trengganu and Kota Bharu was completed, thus establishing land communications between the two states. In the same year, a road linking Kuala Trengganu to Kuala Brang was built to enable the more effective administration of the Kuala Brang district and to provide employment to peasants and labourers hard hit by the Depression [1, pp. 50–51].

The great increase in road mileage in the country was accompanied by a phenomenal growth in automobile traffic. The number of motor vehicles licensed throughout Malaya increased by 300 per cent during the interval 1910–1915, a further 150 per cent during 1915–1925, and a further 60 per cent during 1925–1930, representing a total increase of 1,500 per cent over the twenty-year period. The largest increase was recorded in the Federated Malay States, followed by Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and Perlis in that order [1, p. 52].

Competition and Regulation

The expansion of road transport can be attributed to greater internal freight and passenger movement in the country and an important shift in producers’ and consumers’ preference for road transportation services over rail. Road transportation services were more flexible compared to rail services and were also available in areas not served by the railway. Other advantages included packing, door-to-door delivery without intermediate handling, ease of handling with mixed consignments, lack of formality, and sometimes even greater speed of delivery [1, p. 52].

The problem of competition was intensified by the physical configuration of the peninsula. Divided longitudinally by a range of mountains rising to 7,000 feet, the lowest reach of which is at no place further than fifty miles from the west coast, the configuration necessitated that the main road and the main railway be practically parallel. The road and the railway met or came within half a mile of each other at no fewer than 121 places and were never more than fifteen miles apart, making direct competition over the major portion of the west coast line structurally inevitable [1, p. 52].

The decline in railway passenger volume, which fell from a peak of 14.7 million in 1916 to 4.5 million by 1933, was caused primarily by competition from road transportation services—by private automobiles, buses, and long-distance taxis. The hire car, in particular, had become the most popular unit of passenger travel; no limitations were placed on the issue of licences, and when finally applied in 1934 the restriction was confined to certain states only. An old automobile could be purchased for about $100 and converted into a hire car, which meant that the number of vehicles on all routes exceeded the traffic requirements and resulted in strong competition between hire-car operators [1, pp. 54–55].

The British administration’s response was shaped by the structural dependence of the railway system on export trade and the political fragmentation of the Malayan states. Cumulative expenditure on railroad construction from 1884 to 1930 amounted to more than $233 million, of which over three-quarters was derived from the ordinary revenue of the FMS government. In 1920, construction costs came to about thirty-seven per cent of total government expenditure [1, p. 55].

In 1926, the High Commissioner appointed a Communications Board for the FMS to co-ordinate communications policy. The board was specifically authorized to consider and advise on proposals regarding future road and rail extensions in order to eliminate duplicated services and undue competition. The FMS Communications Board was largely ineffectual because, although it could advise on communication policies affecting the whole peninsula, its decisions were enforceable only in the FMS. The new Governor, Cecil Clementi, therefore appointed a Malayan Communications Board in 1930 which had more authority and broader functions, empowered to deal with the subject of trunk communications throughout the country and to advise on Malaya’s external communications system [1, pp. 56–57].

In 1931, the Governor appointed a committee comprising top officials in the Straits Settlements and the FMS to enquire into the conditions affecting the systems of road and railway transport in British Malaya and to make recommendations as to the action necessary to co-ordinate both systems in the interests of public economy, and public and private convenience. The Committee concluded that the railways operated under many statutory obligations which were onerous and acted as encumbrances, while road transport agencies were independent operators who, apart from petrol tax, paid nothing for the upkeep of their right of way. The main recommendation was that government intervention was necessary in order to redress and equalize the conditions under which road and rail transport operated [1, pp. 59–60].

The Committee’s recommendations drew mixed reactions from the different administrations. The Residents of the FMS endorsed most of the main recommendations but were opposed to the imposition of highway tolls. The Johore government agreed in principle to several recommendations but was totally against the imposition of tolls. Perhaps the strongest opposition came from the Automobile Association of Malaya, which summarized the conclusions of the Committee as “a direct invitation to the administrators of Malaya to impose greater burdens upon road users” [1, pp. 61–62].

The principal legislative outcomes included Enactment 4 of 1933, which empowered the FMS Railways to quote preferential rates and to refuse to carry unremunerative freight for shippers who sent their more valuable goods by road. A uniform petrol tax was agreed across all states, replacing the previous disparity of ten cents a gallon in the Straits Settlements and unfederated states against thirty-five cents in the FMS. The Road Traffic Enactment 1937, based largely on English Road Traffic Acts, established a Transport Board to co-ordinate road transport in the FMS and introduced compulsory third-party insurance, which by the end of 1938 had also been adopted in the Straits Settlements, Johore, Kedah, and Perlis [1, pp. 62–63].

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on roads is concentrated in a single major study by Amarjit Kaur, published in 1980, which traces the development of road and rail transportation in Malaya between 1909 and 1940 and evaluates the measures taken by the British administration to control and regulate competition between the two modes. Kaur’s argument is that the regulatory framework ultimately produced was a compromise that addressed surface-level competition while leaving the deeper economic problem of export dependence unresolved [1, pp. 45–46].

The article draws on a substantial body of primary archival sources, including FMS Railway Annual Reports, Federal Council Papers, Colonial Office correspondence, and state-level administrative records from Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, and Perlis. Kaur’s analysis links transport policy to the broader political economy of extraction and demonstrates how the fragmentation of Malayan statehood constrained the British administration’s ability to implement coherent transport regulation. The study situates the road-rail competition within the wider context of spatial dualism between the western and eastern halves of the peninsula, a pattern of regional inequality that, as Kaur notes, has persisted since that time [1, pp. 44].

A secondary contribution to the literature on roads appears in J. B. Scrivenor’s 1927 geological survey of Malacca, which notes that the Settlement’s area of 720 square miles contained over 250 miles of roads at the time of his survey. Scrivenor’s paper is primarily concerned with the geological sequence of the Settlement and the practical utility of laterite as a building material, but his observation of road mileage provides a useful quantitative benchmark for the state of road development in a single settlement in the late 1920s [2, p. 276].

MBRAS Sources

• Amarjit Kaur (1980). Road or rail? Competition in colonial Malaya, 1909–1940. JMBRAS 53(2): 45–66
• J.B. Scrivenor (1927). The geology of Malacca, with a geological map and special reference to laterite. JMBRAS 5(2): 278–287

References

1. Amarjit Kaur (1980). Road or rail? Competition in colonial Malaya, 1909–1940 JMBRAS 53(2): 45–66. Read on JSTOR
2. J.B. Scrivenor (1927). The geology of Malacca, with a geological map and special reference to laterite JMBRAS 5(2): 278–287. Read on JSTOR