Dead Man's Tales Chapter 5 My Ex-bosses

To err is  human and to forgive divined.

So they said  but are these possible?Really????. If you have experienced the career in planting as I had experienced you would as I want to take revenge on those unscrupulous Bosses but I changed my mind at the very end.Well,I thus taken a step back ward to forgive.Does that made me happier???.

No,no I begged to defer for I had not forgiven them either .I still bear angry grudges against them for the way I was treated These people really know how to take advantage of people using their  influential and prosperous positions.I was fully exploited by them to the fullest.They knew when to take full advantage of you.I could had fought back but whee do I go thereafter?No where that was why I was forced to keep mum.

During my long career I had actually plotted how I would want to finish them off for good.Good thing -  I changed my my mind towards the end.Many things changed as I experienced better life as I grew older.My final days at the last plantation made me transformed  my mind..The last boss I served apparently was my best.Though his treatment of me was just averaged - it was the best treatment I ever had -it was sufficient for me cool down.

Satisfaction in my job and having sufficient payments were utmost important,for within that I could maintained my family.Providing my children a good life and education were most important.With a good job I could easily keep my family happily together.My last job offered me just that,good life for all us,education for my children etc.I had sufficient to have a good life,although comparing with others my take home paid was low.Money was not everything to look forward to.

Of course,I have got to strive extremely hard for it,taking each day at a time.Putting all my experiences into good used.The long experiences I had made the difference.Oh yes I have come a long long way to attain that. In that job all I had to do was to please the Boss.And with my type of experiences what were more simpler than this.

Enemies were easily subdued and extradited. Of course I had no direct clashes with any,I just used my brain.I simply allowed them  to think that I was not their match and when they were complacent stuck at their  mistakes where it hurt most.Leaving either to yield or be destroyed.

Most notable of my victim was that damn Loo Poh Wai who thought that he was invincible because he claimed that he was the Boss's adopted brother.Well I shot him down with ease.He was sacked without knowing the reason why he was vindicated.

Most bosses have "soft ears" they listened to rumours.European and Chinese Bosses alike.Most had spies around their managers.Many such spies were their own relatives and therefore very difficult to handle.When I first joined planting I had great difficulties adjusting to them.Thereby I was almost most of the time in trouble .My records in earlier days were therefore extremely bad.

Dating back to the days when I was joined the plantation in Hurst Estate,Taiping.There I had my first taste of those spies but I survived those days only because there was an understanding Manager above me.Otherwise I would have left planting a long time ago.Later in Bentong Estate, Bentong, Pahang he gave me an excellent testimony`. 

With it I survived in planting.Therefore I most grateful to this gentleman.In Hurst Estate,Taiping I also met one of the worst manager I ever had.He was a relative of the Boss,worked without any experience at all.A glutton who likes to eat and eat eat all the time.His liked chicken  and to have it on our table he made all of us to load rubber (RSS smoked sheets)which I flatly refused.

Fortunately I was transferred to another estate -Gunong Inas Estate,Selama,Perak, before any thing serious happened to me with such a bump around.My Boss came to all these plantation almost weekly,going round the field and drinking beer.From his behavior 

I knew he never had any good opinion of me.He never paid me well for I got only an allowance of $150/= per month than.Job than were scared so I had no choice but to stay on.I could not had survived actually but the Manager was kind sufficiently to make me pay only $ 50/= for my food.It was insufficient I know but I cannot help it.

Had he charged me more or pay a fair share my pay would be be enough.However my pay was raised from time to time by a small margin.As far as I was concerned than I knew I had no future in that company for he would never promote me to manager level.Only his relatives whom he could trust could be his managers.

For this I hated him the most because he paid a new comer without any experience the same pay as I had.When I protested he told me off by saying that should I not like it I could leave.The new comer was of course one of the Bosses's relative.See,there was discrimination and I hated him badly for this.

With that in mind I began applying jobs within the planting industry when I had some years of experiences.An opening came when I was in Bentong Estate,Benting,Pahang.My application to Kumpulan Guthrie was a success and was accepted as a Probationary Assistant after an interview.I was elated and joined them almost immediately.

It was of course for the better but my anxiety were at a lost
for I coming from a Chinese owned concerned  was not welcome.The first estate I was attached to was totally bias and in discrimination towards me.In fact I was victimized at the very beginning by the European Manager C.T.Ross. To them anyone from Chinese estate were never at par with them.I was transferred from one division to another within my probation.Thus before I got climatised to that division I was shaffered off to another new environment.Thus,I had no chance to practice what I really know. .

I too myself did not project myself well.Because being new working for a different company especially a European  one every things seem so strange and new to me.Not that I do not know my job but its systems and estate practices  were all so different and I did not adapt myself well enough to impress.I never though how it was so important to know the names of the botanical names of weeds and that caught me on a flat footing.

Instructions given by the Manager C.T Ross were so not so clear and I acted wrongly making some mistakes which were piled heavy on me as lack of knowledge.On the whole I was written off without  given a chance to prove myself.In fact I was only under him for less than three months yet was given an extremely bad report after six months,thereby demoted me to cadet planter..

I never presented myself well enough.I was not well dressed to their standard I think and my spoken English was not good than.My behaviors were often made a joke off by many of them How awfully cruel were those people.My impression with them was also at fault because I went there with my bag of luggage.They had in fact expected to drive there  but I did not because while in the  Chinese estate I was never well paid.

I was send to the Training Centre thereafter.There I had to  hide my shame just to survive there under a ducky Training Manager.He walked like Donald Duck,sporting a stupid moutache like Charlie Chaplin.He was actually promoted from a chief clerk.To me he knows nothing except clerical work.From him I learned only about the "Catherine's wheel".

Previously I had always envy those working in Guthrie's but no more .Really no big deal but a heap of rubbish .In that training Centre you learn nothing.With my experiences by staying there doing nothing and looking around all the plantations we been visiting I accumulated many working experiences.It was an an eye opener which were to be useful in my future in planting.

The characters I meet also made me a better planter.Yes without a doubt  for that Centre I also meet a very industrious young planter.He was a smiling tiger but very deceptive.It was he transformed my outlook in life.From than on that was the reason why I never take things for granted  Always double checked everything by myself never depend on others.

Try never to argue with those stronger or  above you..Pretend that you are weak and feared them.Strike back strongly only when they their venerability are exposed.When you strike make sure your enemy cannot stand up against you in future.Only the strong survived and the weakling vanquished forever..

I left Guthries with a disappointed heart.Disheartened I returned to my home town Teluk Anson without any job in hand.To me it was a cruel blow to my career.Yes my heart felt  pain for those who in discriminated and rejected me.Those bias people,I was to remember them as long as I live..I wanted vengeance on all of these people who condemned me.I was no write off as they presumed and I must prove it to them that I could survived without them. 

Without  any job in sight I loitered among some old school mates and friends And with a few months I moved on to join Ulu Seaalngor Estate,Kuala Kubu Baru as its Manager..It was an estate of just over a thousand acres all fully established with rubber.The Boss was a stingy old man and I did not survive there as the Boss trusted the Contractor more than his own Manager.I opted out before six months was up.

Anther turning point was the Visiting Manager who came visiting the plantation as though he was coming in for a marathon race.Racing through the fields like a wild horse- not walked around and looking around.The round was torturous for me with a doubt.How could I keep up with a mad man.He was from Sime Darby a Davidson.All these discouraged me further from considering my career as a planter.

Things was not that bad actually for thereafter I was given a job in K.C.Cheah Sawmill,Karak,Pahang.This job was offered to me by an Uncle with promises that it ought to be lucrative.Attractive maybe but there many other relatives he promised the me.That actually never bothered me one wee bit because my untie was always on my side.

The one thing here were again the tales carriers who stopped at nothing but tried their utmost to discredit me Some of them happened to be my own relatives carrying tales  in returned for some favors.I hated them and many a times gave them a piece of my mind.These made my untie extremely angry with me and in order to avoid any clashes I began to give second thoughts to my career at the sawmill.

I felt my blood were in planting and immediately I applied fora vacant position.Well the European may had abandoned me but not the Chinese owned concerned who extremely critical of those white men..I was readily accepted after an interview.To this I had to thank an old Manager in Bentong Estate who gave me a good testimony on the day I left them.

That testimony carried me through.Had not been for him I was bound to be doomed and my whole career diminished from the face of the earth-forever.Yes ,I am always indebted to to him May God blessed him and his family.He  is none other than the Mr.Kooi Pang Yong.

Armed with solely with his testimony and my experiences I was duly accepted  as Manager of St.Andrew Estate,Batang Berjuntai,Selangor.An average rubber plantation with acreages of about one thousand five hundred.Later I was placed in charged of two other smaller estates,namely Paradise Estate,Kajang,and some smaller rubber holdings in Kerling.

Here I was given an old land rover to move around.As the price of rubber was extremely low then and also that the estate were fully established with low yielding clones I suggested to Bosses to switch to Oil Palm. They readily agreed without much consideration.The switch paid dividends within a short period making all the Bosses extremely happy with the results.

With that my position in that estate was well secured.Admittedly the salary they paid was  chicken feed nothing to compare with anyone but main thing was I was happy and kept my family together.I maybe lowly paid but I remained honest a as well as hard working.Should I want to make my low payments there ample opportunities.Money cannot buy happiness and being dishonest does not pay in the end.

One thing I found put was how ever honest you be gossipers will still without any proves whatsoever condemned you for it.The Bosses especially Chinese Bosses they were the worst culprits.For them as long as you served them you are their most righteous and honest manager but once you  had intentions to leave them.

They were so cruel as to level all sort of unfounded accusations against you without proves.That was why on second thoughts I should had cheated them when ever there were openings which were many everywhere..I. then would had made a small fortune whenever I called it a day. That made me quite silly don't you think so.Whatever it was I still believe being dishonest does not pay.

I remained in that estate for ten beautiful years,My relationship with all the Bosses were good until the very end.It was quite tragical when I resigned,because the Managing Bosses turned around and began accusing me of all sort of wrong doings which I had never done.Not only that he tried to prosecute me with many false witnesses for crimes which I never made.

He being powerful tried his leveled best to indiscriminate me.However and for the well being of my children in future I managed to squeeze myself out off his clutches.Whatever it was I was still the loser and I can remember that .That is why my revenged on him would be the sweetest.He may have passed away  and should I seek repayments I still can go after his children who had inherited his fortune.There is a Chinese saying debts incurred should repaid by his children in case of his demised.Should I not go after them then blessed them.

These unscrupulous Chinese Bosses had the wildest dreams that they were the masters of the world and had the sole right to  good fortune and no one else.For example,being poor but being happy does pay for there is one above who looks after our well beings.Believe it or not because of my righteousness and out righteousness  the Lord had awarded me some good fortune.In that I mean I was blessed with a some small fortune.Yes,I had had the good fortune of striking the four digits at least twice while there.With that why should I be dishonest?.

This alone bore the envy of the Boss who much later said that I cheated them of their money.Where the hell I could be so lucky as t strike the four digits and kept telling every one about it? In a small town when one strike a small fortune the news were spread throughout easily,especially the private runners.Just imagine such mentality from a  Boss?.

That made me hated him the more.Such ungrateful Bosses ought to be taught a lesson.I left them to go into business with little capital.I had to join venture with others to begin one actually.It was a fatal mistake for  really costly one,indeed.I was a an excellent employee not a businessman.It surely was a costly one for to begin with I had little capital and with its losses I was very in dept with many.Having the wrong companions also caused my down fall.

An expensive lesson indeed  not  only lost my entire savings and heavily in debt.It taught me a lesson in future not to join venture with anyone unless you are in full control of the whole affair an also never trust anyone.Another thing was that never indulged in any business which you have no full knowledge of it .Another thing never rely on bank loans etc for the business involved.

Left with no much or nothing in hand I landed on whole family in Bentong,Pahang.There I was forced to put up a brave front.My,my skin was so thick that it hide all my shame within it.My poor wife was forced to work in her mother's plantation to keep my family going.I,too had to soil my hand working there.

Whatever it was we were not welcome there,Just imagine of all things we were nearly chased away from that little meager earnings by the mother-in-law who thought it a bloody shame we brought to her and family in that town.However had it not been a brother-in-law who stepped in for us we would had been on the streets begging.

We survived that ordeal,but the Lord was great.Because not long after that,I applied for another plantation position in Pahang and was successful during the interview.The Chinese Boss one of the richest man in Pahang offered me a job as Manager of Sri Jaya Oil Palm Estate,Sri Jaya,Pahang.

In February 1986,I joyfully joined them.Yes,I was elated to join them but when I first stepped into  the plantation I was met with plenty of hostilities from all round which I never anticipated.I was not welcome at all by all concerned.Every body seemingly cold towards me.

The staffs to begin with were not cheerful at all at my presence let alone the Assistant Manager there.I was shown my residence ( a semi-detached bungalow).It had two bedrooms with wooden beds minus the mattresses.That was about all. A first glimpse someone else might surely be shocked  and frightened  away.But not me because I was by truth dying for a job and as beggars were no choosers I had to stay put by hook or by crook.That disappointed many.

Yeah I slept on those cold,cold wooden bed on planks of the bed that lonely night just to show those people that I was there to stay no matter what were installed for me.However the mattresses an other furniture issues were settled the following day with ease  following my call to the head office.

The first month the Assistant shifted responsibilities, tested me by refusing to do all the checkrolls and payments for the Contractors.I confused him by pretending that I do not understand them and made him  explained them to me.The following months I just to push him a side and did them without his aids.So were the field works etc.The field work to my experience were "sub sub seow". 

Armed with a D4 bulldozer  it was so easy to manipulate all the existing work to what I think fit which undoubtedly would delight the Boss.I made full used of all the equipments I had inherited without incurring extra costs...My predecessor was an inexperienced planter thereby his work were so so,so was his Assistant.

 My first sight was of the plantation was a complete shambles.
All the fields had insufficient field roads especially down the ravines.Other field roads were mostly left over of old timber tracks.He was only maintaining them with the bulldozer.What a bloody waste of power. Bamboo grooves were plentiful down the low  parts of the hilly terrain of the  plantation and little attempts were made to have them removed. Or  maybe he was ignorant on how to eradicate them.

I was nearly fooled into believing that could be destroyed by manually.How absurd ,the bulldozer could easily be utilized to pushed the grooves away into the lakes where else?. They had not done so because the driver being a fishing enthusiast had wanted to preserved those lakes cleaned so they can easily fished during their spare time.

My dumping of all those bamboo grooves into the nearby lakes were eco-friendly.Fishes in them had better chance of survival for that provided a lot of hiding places in the water for them.Burning those bamboo grooves would had cost me extra cost which there against the Boss's budget.In fact no budget because I was instructed strictly not to incurred extra cost and the Boss never believes in estimates to work with for a start.

As months passed I told not to write even the monthly progressive reports because the Boss said that he was tired of reading all those written reports.I was therefore instructed to report to him weekly .He preferred me to report to him verbally whereby he could questioned me when and where necessary.So it so easy just maintain records all progresses  at the plantation and then just talked to him at his office.

To be frank he was the best Boss I ever had.Under him I shifted into the new Manager's bungalow within three month's stay.He gave me an excellent increment when my probationary period was up.My yearly increments thereafter were always hefty by Chinese standard.So were my bonuses With such good treatments and pleasant working conditions how could I afford to be dishonest? I survived fifteen years working there and only gave up when my ailment overcame me.

of course there were unpleasant times .I overcame them with eased buy taking each day by itself.Having gone hell in my earlier planting days I could not ever relax and I was forced to be over cautious over everything.In that I normally double  checked all my my work and instructions.These was most self satisfying but not for my staffs and contractors because by being so I was actually on their heels.

I supposed I was an extremely bad boss and quite difficult to work with myself.On records there were at least staffs who had nervous working under me.I never meant to hurt anyone but having learned things the hard way I was just being too careful.It either the work  accomplished accordingly to the Boss wishes or I lose my credibility.Well that was part pf life.What can say?It surely was a tough struggle for all.

With my experience handling of those against me were simple as ABC The first one here was the Engineer Ong,who walked proudly around before I came in to the picture.He was the pride of  the two big Bosses.Initially the comparison between  him and me were adverse against me.All said he had tertiary education and can converse influentially with the Bosses.Whereas I was just an experienced planter unlike my predecessor who was a Taiwan graduate.

Well within three months I proved critics wrong and turned the tables against me.The Managing Boss of all the two had nothing praises of me and thereafter my position well secured.The Engineer reversed his stand and we became good friends.With that my crop sent to his mill were lesser checked,even when bad his comment were okay.

With that it caused the dismay of another who had just brought in to the Mill by the Boss.He was Loo Poh Wai who claimed to be an accountant.But what a heap of rubbish he was just another brought in to spy for the Boss.Initially he pushed around with all his might.After the Engineer left he tried his level best to discredit me.I pretended to be scared of him in the beginning but when he was off guard I send him packing.Sacked by the Boss without knowing the reason why he was dislodged for good.

There was anther new Engineer thereafter one Mr.Tey.Well we were friends from the very start and so we always got along fine.However he left for greener pastures after  two years or so.Shy to admit I still owed him some money.Not that I do not want to repay him but unforseen circumstances forced me to stay put.Let me put it this way,when I had the cash he was not available either I was too busy or he .....Unpleasantly when the cash was spent he reappeared suddenly .It haunts me dearly I must repay him at all course.To this I say "Sorry brother".

Another man I must mention here was the Boss jr.He was born with a silver spoon He had an excellent education and quite a proud young man ,He may appeared very nice and simple but to me not really so.When he left GMC he was rewarded  handsomely but when I left his Company he  told me to fly kites.It alright to me because money is not everything in  life.Got more we tnd to spent more oyjerwise can still without any.

 Our first meeting with him I already had the feeling he was not a good Boss to work under and I always made known that I would never work under him.He can kept his money to himself.

And it came true.I believe he was a nasty young upstart.he was fortunate to have an excellent education and inherited a huge fortune.But what was the used he was not humane and does not respect those serving under him.Only those who can carry his balls survived.He maybe stinkingly rich but is he a happy man?.

I say to you "no".How can a selfish bastard be.For he has tons and tons of worries.For all I know he was worried about his health although he remained healthy.He worried about his eating habits ,abstaining from meat and going on vegetables.I knew him well to say this.He worried about wealth.He worried that others might take advantage of him or worst harmed him or his family.He maybe tough but they are all so venerable.

To him I say relax man -  life is short,- enjoy it while you still can      .For hell is duly opened for you .The gold and money you have can not save you.You cannot be buried in solid gold coffin - maybe your sons would not give you one even..


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