From an image of a Milo tin (Milo being a famous beverage in Malaysia), the chapter discusses the taken-for-grantedness of tin as a piece of colonial history in that country. Tin today is commonly seen as canned goods, a container for the country’s beloved chocolate drink. Sometimes, people joke that the Malaysian car manufacturer, Proton, makes cars out of Milo tins, reflecting on the country’s abundance of the metal commodity (and, unfortunately, the low quality of Proton cars). Many Malaysians have forgotten, and non-Malaysians do not know, how sought-after tin was a century ago. Malaysian tin mines brought unwanted colonization by the British empire, then masked under a business partnership between the Malayan royals and the British rulers. Tin was shipped through the Suez Canal in the 1800s and contributed to the staggering growth of London Metal Exchange, as well as the establishment of the Malayan Stockbrokers' Association in 1937. With tin comes the story of the hold of the ghosts of colonial empire on a tiny country in South-East Asia.
Abdul Rahman, Syahirah
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year of publication: 2023Date of RADAR deposit: 2023-05-09