THE MEMOIRS OF MUSTAPHA HUSSAIN - Malaysia Today

Print Capitalism 395
We stayed in Penang for two days, at my expense, to visit several
Malay printing presses such as the United Press and the Warta Negara
Press, where Khalid and Jailani showed us the finer points of running a
press. I then drove Chikgu Mohd Isa to his home in Parit Buntar, where
I stayed overnight. The next day, we dropped in to see Ustaz Abu Bakar,
the Company Chairman, who advised Chikgu Mohd Isa to go to Ipoh immediately
to take over the company. At the next meeting, I bought thirty
more shares for a total of fifty, which entitled me to a directorship. I was
appointed Managing Director, taking over from Pak Chik Ahmad. We
then decided to issue new shares to bring the total to $50,000, a princely
sum then. Old shareholders would receive seventy per cent of company
profits against thirty per cent for new shareholders.
The Ailing Rakyat Trading Company
Rakyat Trading Company was located in a Jalan Hale shop-house beside
Ipoh’s main field, near the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and a row
of shop-houses and legal offices. The Islamic Religious Department, a
potential client, was also nearby. It was an ideal location. 3 Unfortunately,
the shop was in utter shambles. A solitary desk and rows of empty
bookshelves, full of bottles of medicated oil, greeted us. In the back were
old machines in need of repair and servicing, and lead-type was strewn
all over the place. It was a dark and airless work place, with electric bulbs
strung about with rope.
Accounts had been neglected for three years since bookkeeper
Mustafa bin Abu Bakar left. While I was making an analysis of the
company’s decline, Syed Nordin Wafa, one of the directors, announced
his refusal to assist the company anymore or to buy more shares. I then
sought out an old friend, Nordin bin Tak, a left-wing nationalist, who
agreed to help. Truly sorry that a Malay business concern was in such
dire straits, and completely committed to my new undertaking, I took out
my chequebook again, and though my own finances were not very substantial
to begin with, installed a telephone and paid the overdue wages,
rent, business and equipment licence fees, and accounting fees. In a
frenzy, I refurbished and reorganised the shop to regain some semblance
of a business enterprise.
I found the employees hardworking even though they were paid little
and, invariably, late. I then managed to persuade Din, a former employee
who had left to work for a non-Malay company, to return. Rakyat Trading
quietly sponsored the travel of company director Haji Yahaya to Jakarta,
Indonesia, to meet with Ibrahim Yaakub, now a wealthy businessman and