THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

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Setting Up an Insurance Agency
We stayed in Matang for a while, then squatted at the home of Hamzah
A. Cunard, before renting a small wooden house in Kampung Boyan,
Taiping. I set up a General and Life Insurance Agency in the Osman
Bakery along Taiping’s Main Road. The bakery owner, Mamak Osman,
was my father’s great friend to whom I owe a great deal. I canvassed for
business every day from early morning till late at night. Haji Zainuddin,
a visiting teacher in Bagan Serai, joked, “You have been coming to my
house so often that my cockle-shelled yard is now eroded.” (In those
days, cockle-shells were strewn all over the yard to avoid muddy patches
after a rain.)
An almost insurmountable problem confronted me; the Malay community
was not open to the concept of insuring oneself, caused by their fear
of its religious implications. I tried to quote Winston Churchill’s words,
which goes something like this, “If I had my way, I would make everyone
buy an insurance policy.” The Malays I met retorted, “That is in England;
we are not England.” I searched for all kinds of explanations to win their
confidence, until one bright and sunny afternoon, while I was canvassing
in a school canteen, a huge signboard ‘Muslim Funeral Welfare Fund –
Bagan Tiang’ across the street gave me an idea. I pointed to the signboard
and told my potential clients, “That is also an insurance policy.
With 50 cents a month, a family would receive $50 on the event of a
death in the family. But an insurance policy will pay you $2,000 upon
death. And the premium is only $10 per month.” That seemed to arouse
some interest. I continued, “You will not lose a cent of whatever premium
you pay. Should you outlive the policy, you will gain not only $2,000,
but also some dividends. What difference is there between the two?”
A rather dubious community leader once asked, “Where does your
business stand in the eyes of Islam?” I answered that I was not willing
to be judged by those uninformed about my business but I believed any
effort to foster mutual benefit among Muslims will be blessed by Allah.
“Is it not better for us to leave our family with some means to carry on
with their lives after our deaths?” Since that day, this person no longer
questioned my profession and instead became a great friend.
Managing a Pre-Independence Malay Transport Company
Having earned some success in my insurance business, a group of Malays
I knew in Batu Kurau during the Japanese Occupation approached me
to help them manage an ailing Malay transport company in the Taiping-
Batu Kurau area. I accepted the task, hoping to prevent one more Malay