There is always someone unforgettable in our life time and I have always wondered just how these unforgettable persons be they good or bad could have impacted our life some time or other, directly or otherwise. On looking back, we always wonder if we should try to retain only their good side and erase the negatives so that they will always be in that sector of fond memories as the saying goes. Hence when I decide to write this short article on a memorable character I start to look for one that is colourful enough to be considered balanced and yet interesting enough to be remembered as both a friend, and a brother-in-law.
When I first met and get to know him during my early College days, he struck me as a lively person to be acquainted with since he seemed very happy go lucky and mixed well with all his form mates. Unlike his elder brother who always remained somewhat quiet and reserved unless in his right company when he would open up, this younger brother is just the opposite. Even as a young boy, he had shown inclinations to be inventive and found the way to express this talent of his by joining the College carpentry society which comprised of very few members during and after its formation, but it was brave enough to have a display of its products on Governors Day when the College displayed the various curricular activities of its students to the Governors and the public. I recalled seeing special carpentry items made by him as well as some clay modeling works. He modeled a Minangkabau house and a special jug Arabian style, both of which were very catchy indeed. It is no coincidence that in his later working life, he continued to display these aptitude towards inventiveness This was apparently so when at one of the National Agriculture and Cultural Show held in Kuala Lumpur in 1967, he pioneered the design of umbrella, fans and ties using Batek Kelantan.He also displayed a couple of drift woods designs and table lamp shades using sea shells. All were all fine workmanship, however given the occassion they were somewhat ahead of their time then, when the Malaysian public was not about to appreciate them. But he never showed any sign of disappointment at their sales reception. Befitting the generocity side of his character, he simply gave all these away to relatives and friends, not minding the losses he incurred by doing so. He remains generous to a point even in his later life, a side of his character that propelled him to fame and destruction.
As a young Collegian, he excelled both in his studies and games with the latter focussed on soccer and the new game of rugby introduced to the College. The newly formed College rugby team underwent rigorous training by its rugby teacher-cum-trainer-cum coach Mr. N.J. Ryan ( who was our history teacher ).Twenty two specially selected students were chosen to pioneer this team. He was especially chosen because he seemed to look tough and well discipline. His aptitude to discipline was aptly shown by the fact that he was ranked corporal in the newly formed College Cadet Corp. and this leadership status was a welcome trait to captain the new College rugby team. As team captain, he displayed loyalty to the coach’s orders and ably carried out and impart all these instructions to his team mates, whilst he himself displayed great skills and courage in the game as clearly displayed when this young team came home victorious after beating a leading and established rugby school team of King Edward VII of Taiping on its maiden match outing ! When next it had a match against another established team of Anderson School Ipoh, it came back again victorious. And so the tallies went on with victories wherever it went. The Free School Penang, Sultan Abdul Hamid College Alor Star, High School Johore Baru, and not forgetting the Clifford School Kuala Kangsar, all felt beaten by this new boys on the block - the new Malay College Rugby team. The credits of all these winnings could only be due to his superb captainship. He had displayed courage and discipline and complete team spirit to his team mates, who in the later years continued to be loyal and patronized him.
He left the College before completing his sixth form because he was attracted by an offer to be a cadet planter trainee by a Dunlop company in Sungei Petani, Kedah. He was joined by my best friend who left the College after completing the fifth form. He did very well at first in this new career until he lost his temper one day and punched his senior cadet planter over an argument. Unfortunately for him, this guy happened to be English and Dunlop being then an English company, it could not tolerate insubordination especially by a local. Hence he had to leave. However lady luck being at his side, he managed to get a job with United Malayan Bank in Kuala Lumpur. He became a credit officer with the Bank and like his previous job, he showed initiative and talents in his new job. Just as everything seemed looking well for his new career, he over exceeded his credit limits authority on loans approval and was called up for loans postmortem, to which he completely refused to attend and instead decided to tender his resignation, which was just as well as the outcome of the meeting could not be of any good for his future career with the Bank.
Luck being still good with him, his cousin’s husband who operated a travel agency and chartered aircrafts for pilgrimage to Mecca, offered him a job at his travel agency in Kuala Lumpur. This kind of job which involved public relations seemed very suited for his life style which always portrait the successful executive with a penchant for love and romance. Again he was doing very well to attract travellers, until he forgot to limit extravagance expenses which were not within the purview of his job reference. He was found out to have incurred extravagance flower gifts expenses - gifts which he showered to virtually all female travellers who patronized his travel agency. When confronted by his so called boss to explain this extra flair of hospitality, he lost his temper and left the job. Anger took the better part of himself as always
It was after this job that I was approached by my College senior who also happened to be a very close friend to me and my family, that he was looking for someone who could handle his import and export business which entailed traveling to neighbouring Brunei and had the personality to be acceptable to the general public. Without hesitation I recommended him to my friend who accepted my recommendation without any question. Thus he became an executive officer of this company and remained so for quite some time. Occasionally when I met my friend he had only praises for his new executive who had a flair for business development and public relations. I felt very happy indeed until one day I received a call from my friend that he had just fired his new executive for exceeding his authority and nearly causing the company to close down. Our friend who was then in Brunei was told to return home for a very urgent business discussion. Not finding any available early flight home, he chartered a whole plane for himself to return home ! That kind of extravagance became the trademark of his character.
By this time, it became obvious that he was not the kind of person that could work with anybody. It was just as well for him. Being a person who was always full of ideas to develop or acquire things for business, it was no surprise that one bright day, he was known to his friends as a timber merchant who seemingly owned timber concessions in Pahang. His apparent success was shown by ownership of a brand new Mercedes Benz car saloon , which was a symbol of business success in those days. Of course by then he was already married and owned a house and land at Sungei Pencala, Petaling Jaya. My in-laws one day decided to pay him a visit. It so happened that he was away in Pahang but his wife was at home. After spending the early morning at his house, my in-laws decided to take his wife out for lunch. Just as they were about to, leave to do so, he suddenly arrived home. Instead of greeting his own parents, he confronted his wife by asking her just where she was heading to, to which she replied for lunch with his parents vis-a- vis her parents-in-law. To everyone's surprise he banged the nearest table and scolded his wife for failing to alert and ask his permission first before accepting the lunch invitation. His parents answered him politely to the extent of apologizing for the intrusion, but to no avail as far as he was concerned and instead he made an uncalled remarks asking them to leave his family alone. The old people shamefully came down from the house and headed for my car where I was then waiting and getting ready to take them to their eatery. When I heard and saw what took place, I lost my patience and I stepped into the house and confronted him over his rudeness. He got hold of a hockey stick and threatened to hit me. I immediately cautioned him that he would himself get hurt if he did that and I told him to go ahead and hit me. Somehow he hesitated and put the hockey stick aside. After I gave him a piece of my mind about his rudeness and boastful attitude and that it would not be long before he would fail in his business venture which was not blessed by his parents, we left his house without his wife. That incidence and episode was the beginning of his life’s failures in everything that he did after that.
His timber business flopped and he was very heavy in debt and had to hide from his creditors. Of course the Mercedes Benz was repossessed by the finance company. He had to sell off the house and land due to local pressure. Apparently he was a very unsociable resident of the neighbourhood who in his pompousness showed tendency to look down on all of them. As a result he was threatened by them to leave the place if he wanted his wife and family to be safe. Again as luck had it, and due to his special talents to look for suitable land elsewhere, he managed to sell his land at a profit and bought a piece of land in Puchong at a price that needed his wife’s input to share the cost. It was at this new home that he ventured into animal husbandry of sorts. He experimented with all kinds of animal breeding including frogs, goats and eventually deer rearing, which took him as far away as New Zealand to look and buy these deers. How he managed to get financial aids from financial institutions such as the Bank Pertanian and the Agricultural Ministry’s support was something which was unique to his business acumen and human relationship. It became obvious though he made use of his ex-rugby friends to help him achieve his goals. They all had faith in his ability to organize and handle business well enough to succeed, to which for all in sundry would have seen great success if not for another flaw in his character. He wanted to grow and be rich fast ! In fact this became the patterns of his life. He was a man on the fast lanes. Long before the animal husbandry could succeed he already planned and went ahead doing other things such as tin mining and gold diggings. He did these by buying pieces of land which were abandoned tin and gold areas to which he himself believed that they were not fully exploited and mined. He concluded that he could still prospect them using techniques which he alone knew what and how to do them. Of course he began to borrow from friends and banks to cap his ambition. The results were complete failures. Needless to say, I and another friend of his were directly implicated in the businesses guarantee to the Bank.
As an animal and pet breeder he had in depth knowledge on this and he could have very well be very successful in this. His main weakness throughout his life was he was too impatient to wait for long term prospects and results. He wanted to be rich fast. What always happened was when he got something right and the cash returns good , he would almost immediately start diversifying and venture into new projects with the net result of neglecting almost completely the former one that brought him results. In the end everything failed. His other weakness was his impulsive generosity which made him poorer in the end. A typical example of his generosity was to provide expensive transport vehicles to his employees even before receiving enough funds to let the company reached financial stability. His latest project which could have made him a millionaire was a drainage and river diversion project at Putrajaya to which he was a subcontractor. When he was offered the project and before signing of the contract proper, he was already on the job and spending excessively on vehicles for his foreign engineers as well as for himself and his wife. How he procured his initial funds was something that was his ingenuity to which he always excelled somehow.. It could only be assumed that he managed to get the main contractor to put up front the initial 20 to 30 percent of the project cost. With this money he went ahead. I recalled it was at this time that he happened to call me and enquire the requirements to obtain a banking licence and the best banks to place long terms deposits of millions ! Success went to his head too fast as usual.
The tragic part of his life was a lingering burgess disease which he endured for several years which resulted in his losing almost all his finger nails and later years chronic stomach ailments of sorts. His almost total negligence of his first wife and four children, because he got married again , was something that was condemned by his brother and sisters. It was through his first wife determination and self sacrifice that his four children managed to complete their education with the exception of his eldest son whom he fostered to be by his side for his business ventures. This guy who could be a self made millionaire led a life of make belief. He had a colourful life and painted a picture of success to almost all his former rugby team mates, but eventually passed away a lonely man.
May Allah Bless his soul !
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
