THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Back to Taiping 381
ductor. Nevertheless, the board of directors re-employed the man. To stop
further fraud, I paid a stall owner at the end of the route to destroy all
tickets. Since then no more collections went into the conductors’ pockets.
I trained conductors to issue tickets briskly and professionally. I found
that women made better conductors. They came right on time, ready to
get on with the job, and were honest and industrious. Their faces expressed
great alarm if there was a discrepancy in the amount collected
compared to the waybill, even if it was just ten cents. To improve
collections, I employed more women. I assigned a Chinese woman
conductor on the Aulong route as 99 per cent of passengers there were
Chinese. Malay lady conductors were assigned the Kampong Boyan and
Pokok Assam routes for the same reason. A Eurasian girl handled the
Kamunting route where many Australian and New Zealand soldiers were
stationed at the Kamunting Camp. An Indian girl handled the Assam
Kumbang route where many passengers were women and mostly Indians.
For the Taiping-Batu Kurau 20-mile distance, I placed two pretty
Chinese girls because I was told many Chinese along the route were not
co-operating. Furthermore, the Emergency was still on. These two Chinese
girls were very effective. But how many people understood my reasons?
I was just as pro-Malay as the company directors, but I was trying to
save a Malay company from destruction. The buses conducted by the two
Chinese girls upped collections from $70 (just enough to run the bus) to
$180 daily. I heard Malay youths in Batu Kurau commenting, “Why take
the illegal taxi; it’s better to take the bus with the Chinese lady.”
Those who opposed my recruiting women conductors often invoked
religious implications, but actually had vested interests in the taxi business,
which was being adversely affected by our bus services. However,
as with other employees, most conductors were Malays and men. Non-
Malays only made up 10 per cent of total employees. The two Chinese
girls were no longer seen after I resigned. In fact all woman conductors
were dismissed. But years later, they were eventually re-employed. Now,
there are more and more women conductors in transport companies and
I am glad I was one of the earliest to employ women conductors.
Board of Directors Meeting
Abdul Ghaffar and I loathed attending these long-winded monthly
meetings where older men, more suited to holding roles as religious
leaders and village headmen, were trying to lead a business they knew
nothing about. There was one director who also worked as a bus
conductor. Just imagine my position as a manager! In daily affairs I was