THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Farming to Feed Hundreds 261
would carry 40-kati loads of tapioca or bananas on her head to be
unloaded in front of our hut. After weighing or measuring the produce,
they were equally distributed, one heap for each worker. Later, at 1.00
pm, all workers would stop work, return to our hut, and collect their daily
rations before walking back to their homes happy that there was food for
one more day.
Before man could come up with a labour party, labour office, labour
government and other labour organisations, Prophet Mohammed s.a.w.
had already called out, “Pay your workers before the sweat on their
bodies dries up.” I dare challenge any labour organisation to propose a
wiser philosophy.
My oldest girl, Ayesha, barely eight, was always by my side except
when required to help with the housework. Whenever I was sick, she took
over my role.
Sugar Cane Juice Stall
Using an old rubber-sheet presser, I sold sugar cane juice from cane
planted in my farm and those bought from others. Biscuits were no longer
available, so I sold peanut-based cookies and crackers made from tapioca
flour. Adding some traditional Malay cakes, my stall was a big success.
Sugar cane grown on flat land as well as on terraced slopes in my farm,
was sold to Chinese sugar mills. There, the cane was pressed and its juice
boiled into sugar to be sold in Taiping. After each harvest, Ayesha would
accompany the commodity by sitting on top of the load in a bullock cart.
She would return in the empty cart with a straw bag stuffed full of
Japanese ‘banana currency’ ranging from $24 to $60.
Rice was Power
I started running a small makeshift stall by the River Ara wooden bridge,
initially selling ripened bananas. It was doing so well that I paid workers
with rice to build a stronger stall of woven bertam walls and roof. During
the Japanese Occupation, anyone with rice had power. Like most commodities,
meat was scarce, but the jungle was my veritable source of
meat. Villagers living along jungle fringes sold me venison and hedgehog
meat in exchange for rice. Venison was tasty, but hedgehog meat was
more delicious. The villagers recommended hedgehog meat, considered
‘heaty’, as a cure for respiratory ailments. It was especially good for me,
living in a hut whose bertam walls had gaping holes. I built three huts
on a slope for several homeless people at no cost to them. I even helped