June 13, 2014

A Malaysian Rose : Rose Chan and the Society of Planters 1974

1970 - Perhaps not so fresh faced from school, as I had taught for one year as temporary teacher, I went smacked into the KL city uni freshie life.

One exposure was to all the uni lingo - tiger shows, paper dolls, freshie, quickie,snake temple, don't snake lah, And then I was also given a peep to Chow Kit Road life (only as pillion rider of a small Honda cub), KL squatters, houses with mud floors, Bangsar flooded village people, Railway track quarters, and city beggars, and or course, Char Kwei Tiau, Wantan Mee,Hokkien Mee, and Yong Tou Foo...everything so UNFOOCHOW, and so UNSIBU.

I did not know that Hakka boys did not like the big elephant trunk like legs of Foochow girls, and I was really told right on my face that Foochow girls were very money faced!! Oh dear me, what was exactly money faced? I knew what it was like to have elephant trunk like legs. I was offended when the boys said my Indian girl friends had bamboo stick legs. Ouch, it was really painful to know what the boys thought of us. And we girls were put into categories like Red Spot, Open Shelves and
Cold Storage. Behind our backs we also heard words like torrid, frigid, and terror. But I would never know really what category I was put in. I sailed through the first year with an accident, a hike to Penang and back in one piece with a good friend (who is still my good friend), a few field trips and lots of photography, exposure to mainframe computers and drawing of maps (free hand of course).


Any way having said all that I began to have a kind of sad view of one particular person, whom I thought was really abused by  many in our so called civilized society - Rose Chan. It was at first just a small link. My name being Chang Yi, most guys, whom I have already forgotten by now, would laugh and ask, "Your aunty Rose Chan?" that started all my curiosity.

In Sarawak no one had actually heard(or pretended not to have heard) of Rose Chan, although in Malaya, she was a household name.

We had lots of Rose(s) and Rosie(s).










A book is now available in the book shops.


 Image result for Rose Chan biography by Cicel


that's my memory of Rose Chan


AND....

Some Oil Palm Planters would remember that because of ONE NIGHT she helped raise a great amount of money.


In 1974, she helped Johor branch of ISP Malaysia to raise funds for the Incorporated Society of Planters Building in Jalan Ampang. According to Mahbob Abdullah, the Johore Branch raised a substantial sum to this building with her help. The ISP did not have a building since its inception in 1919.(re:  http://www.focusmalaysia.my/Columns/Rose-Chan-and-the-Society-of-Planters, 2013 by Mahbob Abdullah)

   

IT is time for me to tell the story of the Incorporated Society of Planters, in which many executives are members in the planting industry and how one night the famous stripper Rose Chan came to help raise funds for its building.
The society had been without a home since it was formed in 1919, and from time to time it had talked about getting a building. But founders probably had other things on their mind, for it was reported that rubber prices had been erratic. From a high of $5 per lb that caused the rubber boom, in 1930 it dropped to 19.3 cents, and by 1932 it went as low as 7.01 cents. Many members lost their jobs. The society too had its share of troubles, as apart from not having a home, it also lost its executive secretary, a former planter C Ward-Jackson, who died of exposure in Riau while trying to escape from the Japanese soldiers in the Second World War.
The society was re-activated when the planters came back from the war, or from POW camps.
Yet the society did not own a building.
I joined the society in 1965 and by 1974 I was its national chairman. I remember the first time I led a delegation of council members to meet the employers to ask for improved benefits. The committee on the other side sat stony-faced, while only one person spoke. We got nothing. I left the room feeling very small. When I got back to the estate where I was manager and faced my own union leaders, they must have been wondering why I smiled non-stop and poured tea for them. Now they know what made that change.
But when I went again with my committee to ask about buying a building, I had a better reception. The person who helped the most was Gordon McCulloch, a planting adviser with Barlow Boustead, who was a past chairman. He was a formidable figure and greatly respected. The employers gave their undertaking that they would provide half the funds if we could raise the other half. We found a two-storey house at Jalan Taman U Thant in Ampang, with ample ground for parking, and it cost a big sum of RM500,000. We got a loan from Hongkong Bank, and then raised the money to repay it while the employers kept their word and paid their part.
Raising the funds was done by the branches through the country. I was often invited to the dinners and there would be speeches, dancing, and auctions of drinks and hampers, and then we would go home. But it was in the North Johor branch that I had the most trepidation. I found that the committee had called Rose Chan the famous stripper to come and do her thing after dinner.


For the full story, please subscribe to Focus Malaysia.
- See more at: http://www.focusmalaysia.my/Columns/Rose-Chan-and-the-Society-of-Planters#sthash.WYQl1yVF.dpuf
   

IT is time for me to tell the story of the Incorporated Society of Planters, in which many executives are members in the planting industry and how one night the famous stripper Rose Chan came to help raise funds for its building.
The society had been without a home since it was formed in 1919, and from time to time it had talked about getting a building. But founders probably had other things on their mind, for it was reported that rubber prices had been erratic. From a high of $5 per lb that caused the rubber boom, in 1930 it dropped to 19.3 cents, and by 1932 it went as low as 7.01 cents. Many members lost their jobs. The society too had its share of troubles, as apart from not having a home, it also lost its executive secretary, a former planter C Ward-Jackson, who died of exposure in Riau while trying to escape from the Japanese soldiers in the Second World War.
The society was re-activated when the planters came back from the war, or from POW camps.
Yet the society did not own a building.
I joined the society in 1965 and by 1974 I was its national chairman. I remember the first time I led a delegation of council members to meet the employers to ask for improved benefits. The committee on the other side sat stony-faced, while only one person spoke. We got nothing. I left the room feeling very small. When I got back to the estate where I was manager and faced my own union leaders, they must have been wondering why I smiled non-stop and poured tea for them. Now they know what made that change.
But when I went again with my committee to ask about buying a building, I had a better reception. The person who helped the most was Gordon McCulloch, a planting adviser with Barlow Boustead, who was a past chairman. He was a formidable figure and greatly respected. The employers gave their undertaking that they would provide half the funds if we could raise the other half. We found a two-storey house at Jalan Taman U Thant in Ampang, with ample ground for parking, and it cost a big sum of RM500,000. We got a loan from Hongkong Bank, and then raised the money to repay it while the employers kept their word and paid their part.
Raising the funds was done by the branches through the country. I was often invited to the dinners and there would be speeches, dancing, and auctions of drinks and hampers, and then we would go home. But it was in the North Johor branch that I had the most trepidation. I found that the committee had called Rose Chan the famous stripper to come and do her thing after dinner.


For the full story, please subscribe to Focus Malaysia.
- See more at: http://www.focusmalaysia.my/Columns/Rose-Chan-and-the-Society-of-Planters#sthash.WYQl1yVF.dpuf
T is time for me to tell the story of the Incorporated Society of Planters, in which many executives are members in the planting industry and how one night the famous stripper Rose Chan came to help raise funds for its building.
The society had been without a home since it was formed in 1919, and from time to time it had talked about getting a building. But founders probably had other things on their mind, for it was reported that rubber prices had been erratic. From a high of $5 per lb that caused the rubber boom, in 1930 it dropped to 19.3 cents, and by 1932 it went as low as 7.01 cents. Many members lost their jobs. The society too had its share of troubles, as apart from not having a home, it also lost its executive secretary, a former planter C Ward-Jackson, who died of exposure in Riau while trying to escape from the Japanese soldiers in the Second World War.
The society was re-activated when the planters came back from the war, or from POW camps.
Yet the society did not own a building.
I joined the society in 1965 and by 1974 I was its national chairman. I remember the first time I led a delegation of council members to meet the employers to ask for improved benefits. The committee on the other side sat stony-faced, while only one person spoke. We got nothing. I left the room feeling very small. When I got back to the estate where I was manager and faced my own union leaders, they must have been wondering why I smiled non-stop and poured tea for them. Now they know what made that change.
But when I went again with my committee to ask about buying a building, I had a better reception. The person who helped the most was Gordon McCulloch, a planting adviser with Barlow Boustead, who was a past chairman. He was a formidable figure and greatly respected. The employers gave their undertaking that they would provide half the funds if we could raise the other half. We found a two-storey house at Jalan Taman U Thant in Ampang, with ample ground for parking, and it cost a big sum of RM500,000. We got a loan from Hongkong Bank, and then raised the money to repay it while the employers kept their word and paid their part.
Raising the funds was done by the branches through the country. I was often invited to the dinners and there would be speeches, dancing, and auctions of drinks and hampers, and then we would go home. But it was in the North Johor branch that I had the most trepidation. I found that the committee had called Rose Chan the famous stripper to come and do her thing after dinner.


For the full story, please subscribe to Focus Malaysia.
   
- See more at: http://www.focusmalaysia.my/Columns/Rose-Chan-and-the-Society-of-Planters#sthash.30xhKyhL.dpuf

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quite a cultural shock for most Sarawakians to the Peninsula for the first time. I certainly dislike KL which was dirty. Most people including my Japanese and British friends told me that Kuching is much nicer than KL. I think it is despite having been to KL countless times. It is not for me.

Ensurai said...

Thanks. It was a cultural shock for me too when I arrived in KL for the first time in 1970. I found the Chinese there "different". I am glad you commented . Please come back again.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the Chinese in Peninsula are different. The Malays too. I have a Foochow friend who works in the marketing dept of a big Sibu Comapny. He told me that from his experience West Msian Chinese are very mean people and he is scare of them. Similary he feels the Malays there are arrogant compared with those of Sarawak's. he has never stay in Peninsula before.

Ensurai said...

With due respect to some very nice West Malaysians I know , some bad apples have constantly made their ways into our peaceful society. Thanks for your comments.

Anonymous said...

Rose converted to Islam in 1975 and changed her name to Rosminah binti Abdullah. She married an Indonesian Mohamed Nazier Kahar, and went on to marry four husbands, reversing the gender role of the religion.

Rose started her job making buttons in a shop for 12 sens per thousand, and finished removing buttons on stage for thousands per 12 seconds. - See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ex-playboy-bunny-says-shes-embracing-islam-on-july-3#sthash.A9bkJ6we.dpuf

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of things about West Msians I am not going to post here.

Ensurai said...

Thank you for the info...interesting.

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