Tuesday 29 September 2015

GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY PART 1

In the last post we saw how the trio K.Thamboosamy Pillay, Loke Yew and Yap Kwan Seng had given back to society. Pillay who was into mining, coffee planting, real estate and construction, having constructed part of the main road from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Kubu, gave back to society by building places of worship namely the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur and the Murugan temple in Batu Caves; and donated towards the building fund of St. Mary's Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur. 

Loke Yew started his first job at a provision store Kwong Man General Store, in Market Street, earning $20 a month. After 4 years of hard work and a saving of $99, he started his own provision store called Tong Hing Loong. After his business picked up, Loke left his staff in charge of the store and traveled to North Malaya to explore the possibilities of venturing into the tin mining business. Although he lost $60,000 in his first four years, his persistence in seeking new rich tin deposits landed him in Kelian Bahru in Perak. He made it rich and started acquiring more tin mines. He acquired rubber and coconut plantations too besides supplying provisions to British troops during the Perak War. He diversified into other trades like pawnbroking business. He purchased assets in Singapore, Hong Kong and in his homeland China too. Loke Yew was a shareholder in Pahang Motor Car Service, the Raub Straits Trading Company, Straits Steamship and Federal Engineers. He partly owned Burmah Rice Mill. He with his grand-nephews established the Kwong Yik Bank. Together with his son and wife he established Associated Theatres Ltd which was renamed Cathay Organisation later. 

Loke Yew's "many contributions to education and the growth of Kuala Lumpur earned him many honors." He who believed in the importance of education, together with Thamboosamy Pillai, and others, established the Victoria Institution and donated a large sum towards building a field at the Methodist Boys' School in Kuala Lumpur. Because of his compassionate nature, he contributed to many charitable causes including the establishment of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. Loke Yew also collected $55,000 for the endowment fund for The University of Hong Kong and made available an interest free loan of $500,000 to the university.

Loke Yew also went into partnership with Thamboosamy Pillai in managing the New Tin Mining Company in Rawang.

Meanwhile Yap Kwan Seng, started his career as a tin miner in Seremban and moved to Selangor later where he made his fortune in tin-mining. He later "had a workforce of 7,000 and soon owned more tin mines than any of his contemporaries." Yap helped introduced the Chinese system of mining in West Africa. Besides holding several appointments with the British Malayan government,  he ventured into making bricks at a kiln located at a place that contributed to the present day name for Brickfields. 

According to https://en.wikipedia.org, Kapitan Yap who was also a firm believer in education, co-founded the Victoria Institution with K.Thamboosamy Pillay and others "to whose funds he liberally subscribed". 

His contributions included $10,000 towards the Transvaal War Fund and a handsome donation towards the St. Mary's Church building fund.

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes18991226.2.38.aspx

The compassionate Yap, was always at hand to help his unfortunate and poor countrymen, for whom he established a free dispensary, the most significant being the founding of Pooi Shin Thong that later became the Tung Shin Hospital. Yap co-founded the Tai Wah Ward of the Pauper’s Hospital that later came to be the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

Yap's philanthropic deeds extended beyond Malaya when he donated a princely sum towards famine relief in India.

When Narendren Panirselvam was diagnose as having Scoliosis, or abnormal curvature of the spine and required to undergo corrective surgery and an operation that would cost RM21,000, his case was reported in the local English daily, the New Straits Times. A good Samaritan, only known as Pushpa called Naren up and agreed to sponsor the entire costs of the operation.  He was successfully operated on two years back. She chose to remain anonymous, having called twice, once before the operation and again after the operation. As we sent Naren back to his home in Kajang last Sunday, he recalled his dilemma and shared with gratefulness how a total stranger Pushpa came to his aid.

See http://www.medtronic.com/patients/scoliosis/device/our-spinal-system/cd-horizon-legacy-system/index.htmhttp://www.viralnova.com/scoliosis-surgery/

My late father was a very generous man. He hailed from a small village Kilsevalpatti in Sivagangai but traveled far to Burma, Ceylon, Singapore and finally settled in Malaya. He was a banker  or popularly known as money-lender, providing soft loans to individuals and enterprising businessmen in British Malaya. From "End of Empire and the Making of Malaya" by TN Harper, "..the 1950's saw the flowering of the comprader system within British banks in Malaya, where Chinese chief cashiers would introduce Asian business to the bank, taking a commission on loan and foreign exchange dealings. Chinese-owned banks also began to spread their branch networks through the peninsula (including the Kwong Yik Bank started by Loke Yew). For the rural majority, however, gaps in the credit structure were filled by Chettiars (like my late father) and pawnbrokers (Loke Yew).

Once as my father was on his way out of a bank with cash in both his hands, the siren was engaged warning of a impending air raid, and followed by firing shots from Japanese planes that hit the ground just inches away from my father's head as he lay on the earth, made him realize that all the cash in hand could not save his life, if he had been hit.

My father began to give away his riches and properties. My father left for India shortly and had a stint in an ashram where he served the guru. Later the guru sent him away back to his home and family to fulfill his responsibilities towards the family.

It is said that "Dharmam Talai Kaakum", loosely translated as "the good shall return to one', my father died peacefully in 1991. It was a pretty normal day where he woke up and towards the late morning took his bath and prayed as usual.  Surprisingly he wanted his cloths to be ironed that morning. Towards the evening after he had watched a Tamil movie he asked for coffee. Again this was surprising as he usually makes his own. Just as my mother brought him the coffee, he had already sat in  a corner of the living hall, legs folded in Padmasana pose, the pupils looking up, and sweating profusely. When my mother tried to move his legs, he toppled over, his head landing on my mother's lap. He had passed away.