Chapter 11 Foreign Plantaton Agency - No Big Deal

It was every young planters dream to be secured in the well established agency houses like Kumpulan Guthrie's.So much beautiful scenarios had been portrayed about it .It was no place for honest and sincere planters,I assure You.Of course there were much more to these,just read on.

 I was in it to face its reality,an experience of nightmares I would never forget. I can tell you it was really no big deal but a huge bundle of shit.To me it was a place where the crows of these world gathered. Racists existed with its henchmen or cronies.

To survive there you must joined them or faced certain exterminations beyond your wildest dreams.That corporate ladder they claimed every one involved should know how to climb.To them I was damn dumb and made a joker because I was new and was not well versed or accustomed to their type of game.Further these people were bias and favors who know how to butter them.

There were clique among themselves and should you wrongly moved into one  of them.You would be gonna,just like me.I was written off for the simplest of all reasons..I was one recruited by someone whom many seen to disrespect.There were difference of opinion or jealousy among themselves with each trying to out do the other.

I was unfortunately crushed in between two warring groups.So being recruited by the top does not warrant safety down at the grass root level Apparently I was victimized from the very beginning..Things like  not knowing a botanical name of a weed and adhering wrongly to per Manager's instruction.

Having no experiences in the transplanting of a legume creeper known as Trilobla.The instruction was to transplant with one knob which I did.Initially I had seek the advised from a fellow assistant who told me weakly to follow the Manager's order which I did.

I thus established those cuttings with a single knob and the whole project was a total flop.The Manager jumped like an Ape when he saw the folly I had committed.I told him that I was following his instruction.Of course that was wrong because Trilobla had to be planted with two knobs i.e with one exposing while the other end laid buried within the soil.

I admitted that I was ignorant then.That was a trap set by the Manager knowing very well that I would not know how to plant those cuttings.Neither would the other Assistants whose advice I had also seek.With no other guidance I therefore adhered closely as per instruction.Well had he requested me to plant rubber budded stump upside down I would gladly do so as ordered.

The whole idea of penalizing me  was in discriminating the one who made the decision to recruit me.I was thus the scrape goat.My passing the Estate Practice Examination (Rubber) while many senior Assistants failed  proved that point. They practically ignored the whole matter.

Thus my respect for the Incorporated Society Of Planters evaporated.I had always admired and trusted that that Society was a force in Planting to reckon with,but my passing that particular examination was not recognized proved a point.The I.S.P.was never that.It was a Society for show only nothing more.That was why I left that Society for good since 1967.  

Now coming back to the time I joined them in June 1966  joining their plantation in Sengkang Estate,Port Dickson.I initially attached to Sk.11 Division.The division was fully matured rubber .

There I was allowed to reside in a bungalow away from every body.A lonely but beautiful bungalow but surprising nothing good could be said of its water supply.My water supply was from a shallow well filled with rubber leaves with its top a thin film of rust.

Apparently that had been left ideal for quite some time.I was about to clean it within that month when another order came ordering me to shift to another Division.So I left it as it was.I was transferred off because according to them that division was mean for someone more senior so I had to clear off.

That Division was not without problems.Off hand I could foresee those cattle  problems because many of its labor force were keeping cows,which undoubted had created a lot of domestic troubles not to mention those debarking of young trees and the caused of brown blast among trees where cattle were stationed.Well at least now it was off my hands having to go another division.


So  Sungai Raya Division there I went.It was a division in the interior or rather it was a division clipped between the estate another estate.The utmost important of this division was its main road I was told.This was so because daily the daily crop of all other fields and plantation would passed through it.The road therefore must kept well maintained.The Assistant was answerable to any mishap along this road.

The Division was a young plantation with fields slowly coming into maturity.My initial duties were the maintenance of all the fields and most important to take a census of tappable trees in a maturing area.Other major work consisted of pruning of wind prone clonal fields and the eradication of "bamboo grass".

However here no matter how hard  I tried to get adjusted to their ways to a please the Manager,he seem to have a grievious opinion of me.Everything I performed does not seem to meet his requirements.That old man was difficult to please.He also did not like the way I dressed. Collarless T-shirts with very short pants.Even if I were to discard those I required time and money.I was given none.

For example when you have a list of work in progress in certain field,where a large concentrate of laborers were involved The immediate action for me was to see all these fields ran smoothly first before looking into smaller priorities.That was the worst part and I just did that.The Manager instead of looking into those he looked into the smallest of all work first.

He unfortunately found the budded stumps I had instructed to be replanted not properly planted and jumped at me like an ape refusing to listen to any explanations.There were no justification in his his rage.He expected me to leave those major work to the stupid conductor and to attend to his instruction first,where the logic.

I had a beautiful bungalow to dwelt though with good wholesome water supply but soon had to surrender them to the Training Manager.I had hardly resided there for a month before being dislodged to live with another bachelor Assistant in the main division.

The Manager equipped me with a huge old junky motor cycle which was overwhelmingly heavily.Too heavily for me actually to handle.There was nothing I could do but to accept that because I had no transport of my own.It was an overran bic with fuel licking from its carburetor

At the bungalow of the main division I was given a tiny room. and had to share the food bills plus the servant's allowance.The small room was in fact a baby's room attached to the master bedroom with bathroom  attached.I however was given full access to that bathroom while the other Assistant made used of the master bedroom had the other bathroom.

That arrangement never bothered me much but the maid behavior was the worst lest  I could expect. She acted as though I was depriving her master of her service..Making me harboring false imagination that she was the other Assistant's mistress.Should that be the case then that man had poor tastes.

She apparently had some charm over him that really irked me tremendously as I dared not touched the food she prepared unless her master first devour them first.Whenever alone in the house I dare not even consumed the food she served  me.Anyway her hawk eyed behavior always had me on my toes.That lean, skinny with weary looks of that old bitch had me on my wits.

On top of that I was told not to start  my motorcucle early in the morning but allowed it to roll down hill and ignite it at the extreme end of the hill road. Lest, my starting the bic could disturbed the Manager in his dreams.Most important keep the Manager from tracking our movements every morning.What stupidity were those ideas,i really could not comprehend till today?.

To me an Assistant was to assist the Manager in running the plantation as economically as possible.Not knowing the botanical names of certain grasses were immaterial,making profits for the plantation utmost important.Neither were juggling of figures in the estimates  to make the accounts looked impressive were surely misleading things I learned while attached there.

While in Sungei Raya division the Manager went on leave for three months.The senior Assistant took full charged of the plantation and all work went on smoothly.I as usual went about the same Initially I had my  meals taken care of by another Senior Assistant.I owed much to that gentleman because as I landed into trouble with my motor cycle he loaned. 

When it was slightly damaged he never forced me to have it repaired it.I took meals at his house for about a month and he did not take anything from me when I offered to pay him a token sum.Perhaps that amount was too little but when I pressed on he advised me to forget it.What then can I say?.Well,his kindness would always be in my mind.That gentleman was none other than Mr Liew Yoon Keong.Thereafter I had my meals at the main division's bungalow.

Another awful thing I learned was that most plantation Manager were fully corrupted.Before he went on leave a lavish party was thrown for his departure by the main contractor,a Mr,Ma.Of course we were also not left out and had to go along with it.

We were pampered a ten course dinner at a restaurant in Seremban.Thereafter adjorned to the nearby night club where we were accompanied with some dance hostesses.To me that contractor must have been making a lot of money from the plantation to have thrown such lavish outing for the Manager.Mind you he was only going on leave.God knows what other goodies he received after the dinner when he board his plane for the beginning of his holidays.

When he finally returned he lashed out at me giving me a fantastically bad report demoting me to tranee Assistatnt.That he did despite his three months absence.That to me was always ridiculous. That truly proved my point that he was bias without the slightest doubt.To me it was he that ought to be sacked not me. My crimes were too petty compared with his  follies as a Manager.