Menraq as foragers

The decisive change in economic focus among the Menraq since 1972 is perhaps the most immediate step we can see in their confrontation with modernity. Broadly speaking, this alteration is related to the wider transformations in the Malaysian economy in general and Kelantan State in particular, which are in turn responses to the changing global economic system. In specific terms, the economic shift in Rual is more directly an outcome of resettlement and changing ecological conditions. As noted earlier, the Menraq are not unaccustomed to the market economy, as they have been involved in the trading of forest products and the purchase of commodities from merchants and shops for a very long time. However, resettlement and the various accompanying development programmes implemented in the past three decades have pushed the people deeper into the market economy. Consequently, they now engage more and more in the production of goods to earn cash. This is because their need for money has grown immensely as they now have to buy most of the things they need, including food, from traders and shops. In the process, they have been entrapped in the commodity ‘exchange’ or circuit. They have to work to produce commodities to sell in order to buy other commodities, which they are increasingly dependent on. This focus on commodity production has engendered many changes in Menraq economy and society. In economic terms, it has, among other things, led to a decline in subsistence-oriented foraging as people devote more time and effort to growing cash crops and participating in other market-oriented activities.