Chapter 17 The Beginning of A New Era

At the very beginning he was branded as unsystematic as he had no tertiary education,so when compared to the Mill engineer he was way,way behind,there came atime that this became a joke especially concocted by the grand old man of the Company- "The Dato" in front of all the staffs in the headoffice.

That was the first month of his working days,the Assistant and the Contractors also laughed behind his back.Pretending as through he never heard them went along as routine,pretending as if was inexperienced as he went about his daily work.The following month he held his ground ordering the bull-dozers to construct new bottom roads for all the hilly fields.

That move alone took the Boss by surprised and admired at the new roads for now he can traveled to all the ravines of all hilly fields not to mentioned the new sceneries along the lakes's side,all crops along those avines were harvested and collected back.Loose fruits left unattended previously were all collected back to the Mill.

The field conditions of all ravines were improved which had been left unattended previously.The Company's gain were the Contractors' lost.
Prior to this many a times the ravines were never properly cleared but with the existing new roads no stones were left unturned.

Many ravines sides left unplanted were supplied in with young palms,thus huge areas were re-claimed for planting.Alex's predecessor had always proclaimed those land as "lebeh punya".A pharse so commonly used by all when Alex stepped into that plantation.He soon changed that,as all land belonging to the Company if not planted cannot be acclaimed as "lebeh punya".

Beside,those ravines he cleared up.he also gave orders to have all existing bamboo grooves to be deatroyed by directly pushing them into the adjacent lakes.Somehow it was not right not to have all those bamboo grooves eradicated.Of course many were against the pushing of all the bamboo grooves into the lakes as it would spoiled many's fishing ground.

Alex by so doing made the fish very happy as they multiplied into bigger numbers as there were many places to hide and breed.Fishermen had a tough time fishing because of the presence of bamboo grooves below the water of the lakes.

Within three months of his work in that plantation all rumours that he was not systematic were squashed and in return there were praises all round.Starting with the Boss and with him praising Alex who dared to be negative,even the "Dato" was now,"Heh,heh,heh,Hello Alex",whenever meeting him at the head office.

Even the Mill which was odds with the plantation had their eyes opened when dealing with Alex.Open grading of their crops became lesser and lesser because the engineer was careful not to clashed with Alex.

Now there was a brand new bungalow in the plantation reserved for the Manager.His predecessor was never allowed to occupy it.Alex studied the reasons why he was disallowed any nearness to that bungalow and he found it.

Confidently he asked the Boss to be allowed to move in.The Boss said,"Do you required any new generators for it? Slowly get them before shifting in".Alex answered,"No need,present generator is sufficient to maintain electrical supplies to both lines site and all existing bungalows".

With that the Boss allowed him to move into that bungalow.Not only that all of his staffs were allowed to move into their bungalows.There were four other smaller bungalows for the conductors.He allowed to Assistant to move into one of them.

Before the generators were made to run throughout the nights,but Alex soon changed all those and regulated its running time.This move made the generator running more efficiently,saving a lot of repairs and saved the fuel in its running.Seeing all these the Boss became more and more happy with him.

Within five months Alex was confirmed as Manager with a hefty increment of salary.Within such time he also made the Boss very happy by clearing and replanting another smaller plantation which had only 8o acres of Oil Palm.He soon changed that by clearing and replanting of remaining neglected old rubber with Oil Palm without incurring extra expenditure only with equipment which they had,a bull dozer D4.

At the end of his first year the Boss gave him a very good bonus - a bonus no other Manager had before.His family was very happy over his success and they shifted to another small bungalow ( government low cost bungalow with two rooms) in another housing estate.His wife still not sure of his position in the plantation continued to work for her mother.

Before that Alex was infatuated by a lovely little girl in the old neighborhood.Actually she was living a few doors away.Before Alex was employed by the plantation.Alex had always planted vegetables in the garden at the back of his rented house and while moving around he noticed a young and beautiful girl watching him.

Innocently he wished her "good day" and she wished back.Every evening it was like that.That cute little girl was very sweet and charming.That aroused Alex little heart.Being stirred up he tried to date her but she refused.But the odd thing was that she was still around and smiling at him all the time.

On returning every weekend he still found her wandering behind her garden and they exchanged greetings.This sent the wrong messages to Alex who thought she was in love with him.Ah,poor Alex just simply infatuated by this devil woman felt slightly for her.Foolishly he wrote her love letters.

Somehow those letters went into the hands of his wife who questioned him,now in a mass.What shall he do to get out of it.Well,having done the wrong,forced to apologize to her,accepting all faults.She was kind enough not to remand him when ever he went back for the week ends but questioned him at the plantation bungalow.

Plantation bungalow with no one around except the daughter was easy to speak gently and begged for forgiveness. Being a first mistake she was easy to let bygone be bygone.Before long all were forgiven.She spent a lovely week at his new residence.

Oh yes,she was there to celebrate the "Kramet"'s birthday.The "Kramet" was believed to be the guardian of the plantation.Very 5th.of May was celebrated as its birthday.It had been a long practice since the opening up of the forest for a plantation.The plantation subsidized half the amopunt for the celebrations and the rest made up of contractors of the plantation.

That very first celebration with Alex as Manager went off littered with many unwanted proplem with some of the staffs plifering all the mutton of the curry ,prawns and some chickens.This angered Alex tremendrously.So after this incidence Alex demanded changes in the normal proceedures,ashe was Manager that was simple.

Fortunately when praying to that "Kramet" everything were in order.Beside this the plantation had separate dinner for all the staffs.
Alex wantyed the next celebration to be different with the changed in venue for cooking.

Nex Alex was also requested to take charged of another plantaion in Kuantan -namely Semanbu Estate.It was slightly more than one thousand acres.Apparently part of its normal acreges were acquired by the Government to convert into an Induastrial areas and for the Stadium.

Initially there was an Indian,a retired Chief Clerk running it and as he planned to returned to his home country the plantation was handed over to Alex.In the beginning Alex sent a reliable conductor to take charged of that plantation.He left after a year or so and Alex had to train another to fill his place.

His next choice was a young Malay youth whom he trained.An honest and reliable young man.It was a good choice as the Boss too like him.IT was actually very difficult to appoint a man with responsibility,a man whom he can trust.Most important who so ever he choose must listened to the instruction of the Boss and not lied about.

Because whatever transpired between him and the Boss will always be known to him as the Boss will soon make his remarks on him to Alex.That the part most staffs failed to understand.They though the Boss will keep everything to himself but never this Boss was different.So there no way to employ experienced man as the Boss will out smart them by referring back to the Manager for confirmations.

There was no way any one can survived under such circumstances,I mean no experienced man can.In any case the Boss prefer Alex to train his own conductors as new man will not know the tricks to cheat the plantation.Alex had three conductors as his field staffs and a female as his office clerk cum store-keeper.

The conductors were allot to supervise only a harvesting contractor each.The spraying contractors were supervised by the Assistant.He also had to look into the harvesting.With Alex performing all the payments and check rolls he was thus left in a lurch,watching the day went by.He made his biggest blunder in making his immediate boss do every thing at the initial stage.

With that Alex had a better understanding of all about that plantation and very soon everything were at his finger tips.When he was well versed with all those he distributed the check rolls for all the conductirs to wok out,in a way easing his burden and another he trained all to be well versed with it.That put the Assistant out of place,knowing that there was no future for him within that plantation he was forced to look for greener pastures.

Alex increased his dominance as he went on to improve the other plantation in Kuantan.It was just as easy as Tavy Estate,with huge areas of neglected old rubber.No one had initiated to replant those areas citing in curring extra costs ext..But with Alex no problems,they had the necessary equipments and most important was the D4 Bull Dozer.

Although old the old faithful was still running fairly well and with that Alex replanted many more acres of hilly fields.One passerby even had the nerves to criticize Alex method in those replanting.Well Alex did do that at a very odd and in genius way.In flat and undulating fields he would request the diver to push all remaining old rubber stand together with the thick bushes from the inter rows into stacks and them set them a blazed burning off every things then transplant almost immediately.

The hilly areas were terranced and as they were terraced the wild growths were all stacked in the inter rows and burnt.It was no big deal just saving extra costs.That man took it as a joke at an interview with Alex for an Assistant position.Now with that kind of attitude adhering as he was interviewed will Alex ever considered him. Well he thought it was funny as a joke.Alex just gave it a chuckle and dismissing him told him to wait for his letter regarding that interview.He never bother to write him.Should you be the Manager will you employ some one who criticized you even before he was ever engaged.No,never absolutely no.

This joker was an Assistant to a neighboring plantation.In actual fact Alex did not employed him because his back ground was known to Alex before the interview.Apparently he had just returned from Indonesia where he was retrenched for getting into troubles with some body's wife= an Indonesian's.So he was never wanted.To engage him will be bring in some one to stab him in the back in time to come,how can he ever be trusted.Before his engagement he already making bad comments about his future boss,how absurd.

Of course Alex's position in that plantation was already well established,solid as a rock.It will take a storm or stronger a harricane to bring him down.The Boss had tested his honesty employing various means to track down any corrupted activities which he might have.Alex knowing those tricks never felled for them.With his bad reputations behind him,he one understood the Boss feelings and actions towards him,he definitely had to be careful.He had to be patient and preserverence because of his family.Their well being being his utmost priority.

Alex's determination and altitude saved the day for him.The Boss could not believe his own eyes,that a man such as Alex could be so honest beyond descriptions,any one in his shoes would have swindled the Company,but he never did.What ever the Boss harbor within him was his piority not of Alex concerned.

Alex main worry was to keep his job as long as he could to provide for his family that was what mattered most.He was looking far beyond his duly occupation and he definitely do not want a short term employment.Nor will any other attraction such as women distract him from his ultimate goal.

To say he abstained from women will be bluntant lie.for within his memories he still remembered a girl he once loved that was undoubtedly his first love.A dream girl he could never forget.What ever were in his mind cannot surass his love for his family.