Chapter 17 My Friends In Batang Berjuntai

the problems never existed and the felling and clearing should be It is a small world.Well I made quite a number of friends in Batang Berjuntai.Friends can come by easily but good friend were few.Few that I could think of.Here I write about some of them.You be be my judge whether they were really my so call good friends.

Being the so called Manager of St.Andrew Estate,surely a lot of people wanted to be my friends for their own gains or otherwise.The local businessmen who wanted some of my business definitely became friendly with me.In a Chinese  Company I had to be extra careful with all of them,as many of them could also be the friends of the Bosses,too.

One wrong word or step could land me in deep trouble with the Bosses.This I learned long ago.I always made it a point to first know who you are dealing with.Well talking to them then referring back to the Bosses went a long long way.From there you know them better and deal with them as per requirement.

Most important whoever they be,I kept abreast with them or at arm's length away.Because many a times we could be dependent on them for some services.Being friendly should come in handy.S o they could be useful.In this case you offended neither he nor the Bosses.However, I was always careful with their  coffee or dinner  treat which mostly I refused to accept.

And should I accept I made sure the dinner would be affordable myself.Because should I be not pleased with the meeting I can just simply tell the other party concern to fly kite and flatly refused their offer.In any case I did not entertain the fact  he giving a treat without any strings attached.Yeah under no obligations nor favours.In such cases they cannot accused me of any wrong doing which they can relate back to the Bosses.

Contractors coming in for jobs go all out to gain favors to win a contract. Do not entertain them much and often refer them back to the Bosses to make the final decisions.In such cases the Bosses often referred  back to us for the ultimate choice of contractors.However,do not be carried away by such small scheme of the Bosses.

Adhere to them always for the decisions.That would be the safest choice,should anything go wrong the bosses cannot blamed them on you.Because they would equally be guilty as you in that bad decisions.By such you have all the friends by your side.Nor the contractor concerned dared to side lined you.

Contractors,however never be considered as friends.So I always kept a safe arm's  length from them.Their selection be left  to the Bosses ,by so doing we can easily tell them off should their performances be bad. We would not be under undue obligations to be rectify them .Or penalized without being bias or with favors.Of course you could then be unpopular with them but who cares.

In my case we had initially a felling contractor who came in a calling by doing the first contractor with us for free with him taking away all the rubber wood.He was supplying firewood to all the brick kilns around Kuala Lumpur areas.That was the only demand then.

Following when the demand for rubber wood timber became significant he supplied rubber logs to all the existing millers.He got the contract for felling because he was doing felling,clearing and burning for us free of charged at a stipulated time frame.In return he be allowed to remove all the existing rubber timber.

With him around our replanting in all the fields were relatively low.Only the transplanting were all done by us.That too was done cheaply as those days temporary workers from the nearby kampongs were easily available.Odd jobs were scare those days for the locals.all readily available.

Even for rubber tapping or harvesting,locals were easy to come by.There were no shortages at any time People were that choosy and accept any jobs that came by.But today the trend had changed drastically.Kampongs folks shy away from most plantation jobs and Chinese women do not want to tap for rubber plantation anymore.Many things shave transpired since then.

Coming back my friends in the plantations were mostly from my neighboring estates.My immediate neighbor were from Sungei Rambai Division,a sister division of  Sungei Tinggi Estate,a property under Socfin.However their Suprintendant  were often  on transfer here and there.

So within my stay in St.Andrew I actually meet with a number of them.Say what you like my opinion of them were that these people were quite a cocky lot.Proud sort of,just because they were in Socfin.Though they were such I was friendly with all of them.Well,when they were our friends they were actually a friendly lot.

There were a handful of them.For example initially there was a Mr.Lam.I know his small family then.However later he transferred away ,to be replaced with another Mr Jimmy Ong.Young fellow who had a baby with him ,apparently left behind by his  wife after their divorced.He came in with a huge back ground.It seemed that he was the brother-in-law of Lee Leong Sik.

I all these people because we had a common boundary and shared the same problems along it such scarp rubber thefts.Many of their thieves after committing a crime there crossed over to our side.Should they be captured by us we treated them as stealing from us.

On one occasion a theft was  found dead in the dividing drain,floating along with him was a bog of  scrap rubber.Apparently he had been shot dead but both plantation refused any knowledge of it.For one I am pretty sure it could never be us as our guides do not carry any  shotguns.

There were many others whom I also know but the one I knew longest those days was one My Ranny Tan .My family and and his had been friends for quite sometime.Well we were good friends.


Then I had neighbors of small holders from the plantation which were fragmented from a large plantation.This small holders were next to the town,Batang Berjuntai.Following we had Java Selangor Estate on the other side of town.

We shared a common boundary mid way on the other side of our plantation.Their Manager was a "good" friend of mine.His plantation were fully rubber and it was only in the later stage that they begin converting to Oil palm.The Manager,Mr.Deva Dass ,well what can I say,we shared many happy moments together with our families.

Opposite of this plantation was another small Chinese Owned estate,namely Stratmore Estate.Its Manager was a long time friend of us.Our families were quite close together.He was fortunate there as a small plantation it surely had quite a lot of activities.But then his Boss was his childhood friend.

Beside them we also had many other plantation friends from surrounding plantations.Many of them come and go,that was why our relationship was only casual.In life we meet a lot of people whom we had considered as friends but in reality were they?. 

There were some we though were true friends but in they end especially when in times of need their sincerity were questionable.They turned away from your plight,some even went further to destroy you,out of all things.Well,I had encounter many such people.In any case it served no purpose in exposing them now,so let them be just like gust of wind along our way.

When in Batang Berjuntai,we made many friends with the locals.We were never like those 'white planters" who does their shopping and other things in the city,we preferred to be serviced by the locals. That was why we had many friends there.That small town provided us most of our food stuffs with its small market,groceries from their shops.Their coffee shops also served cheap and wonderful food .

While there we were at times treated by our own group hospital.Our plantation was one of biggest contributor to the running of the Hospital and we were therefore Director of the Hospital. Its President were always elected by the Board of Directors and it was here that my so called friends in the Board were never my friends.

For they banded together to out vote me,giving preference to some small contributor.Had it been others I think we would had withdrew from that group Hospital,but instead I just simply gave my blessing to those elected.In any case it was a non-paying job and it served me nothing more except plenty of extra work.

But one thing for sure,then I knew who were truly my friends.Any other in my shoes would had withdrawn from them but I put on a brave front.Maybe they thought I was incapable,that was something seemingly bias when we were the biggest contributor to the hospital.I was in no mind to quarrel with them over such matter and allowed things be.

Within me I knew I was betrayed by so called friends.THe anger imbedded within waiting  for the moment to strike back.It may take years .Revenge then certainly were sweet for back stabbing.So in future should there be requirement  where I could easily assist them I simply ignored them returning the same favor.Nothing just tit for tat.

They never treated me as friends at those critical moments where I needed their support most  they abstained away.Then, why should I be a bloody fool to call them my friends ever again or ever treat them likewise.Yes,I would not reveal what sort opinions I had formed about them.

By then they ought to know what went wrong along the way.They had no good feelings about me in the past and my returning the same opinion was definitely right.I do not betrayed my friends unless they did that to me first.Every body had excellent memories 

I am a grateful man.and am ever willing to give a helping hand to anyone who had helped me before.That went a long way even those who require my help I will go all out to assist where ever I can,even a stranger.All he had to do was just to ask.