THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

92 Memoirs of Mustapha Hussain
I found that most Malay Reservation land consisted of low-lying
swampy tracts not wanted by white planters and estate owners. Drier,
more level plots were taken by the estates, yet British representatives
delivered long speeches claiming their generosity in ‘bestowing such gifts’
when allocating these poor tracts of land to the Malays.
Many Batang Padang District farmers were from Sumatra, and tilled
remote plots in the interior, working collectively as they believed in ‘safety
in numbers’. Although I was to motivate them to become more productive
farmers (and I had many ideas), I knew it would be useless. For example,
how were they to rear fowl when they had no money to buy chicks and
chicken feed? They hardly had money to buy two meals a day for their
children. My advice to them remained useless.
Visiting Aborigine Farmers
Visiting farms belonging to aborigines in Kuala Woh, Cameron Highlands,
Chenderiang and Bidor was part of my duties. Some of the aborigines
living in Cameron Highlands worked as government labourers, and some
had wives who went to work too. Their huts along the Cameron Highlands
Road were on stilts, with bamboo strip floors and woven bertam (a type
of palm) walls. Each house had a dog, a very small one, which I could
not find elsewhere. I wondered, were these domesticated wild dogs?
The aborigines tilled their land collectively, and seemed to be well
organised; there were hardly any disputes. Photographers ‘hunted’ them
for some ‘wild’ shots. But as time passed, the aborigines got wise and
began to charge a small fee for being photographed. Why not? After all
those photos had market value.
I visited their farms, but what advice could I give them? Every single
farm practice they adopted was against everything I had learned at the
School of Agriculture. They felled tall trees for fruit, rather than climbed
them. They burnt plots of land, and after harvesting, left them to be
eroded away, causing severe soil erosion that silted the river and caused
floods. Under the circumstances, it was best for agricultural officers to
just keep mum. They were not ready for modern farming know-how.
The aborigines came to town to sell their rattan and petai (tasty, but
pungent green beans); the young ones climbed down the slopes in their
loincloths, but would change into a pair of trousers and a shirt (carried
in a small package) once they got into town. I found them intriguingly
sharp. Once I asked one of them to climb a tall berangan (local chestnut)
tree. He answered playfully, “There seems to be a ray of light, but I don’t
seem to see the sun.” He meant, “No point in you jingling your coins in