Women Loan Sharks

End of the year stories - lots to reminisce.

Debts have to be cleared and thank yous said. Honorable relatives must be visited, elders shown honours.

I remember some heart rending stories which my mother and grandmother used to share.


It was tough for many housewives in the 50's and 60's to survive in the new township of Sibu, when bills and rent had to be paid and when children had to go to school. Suddenly these housewives ,most of whom had moved from the rural villages to sibu, realized that they were in a monetary system. If they had no hard cash, life was tough. Even those in the rural areas felt the pinch of economic development and progress.

Rubber and small time agriculture production could not sustain them.

Many of theese new urban housewives started to make kuihs early in the morning, to sell at the construction sites, while others went from household to household to wash clothes, with some households paying them only 30 dollars per month.

Others worked as amah to government staff.

Sometimes they did not have enough cash to last through the month.

My father had passed away the year before and we too were struggling to have a simple Chinese new year.

I remember this particular case. A mother had to buy an air ticket for her daughter to go to the UK for her nursing scholarship. She had only a few hundred ringgit left. So she went to her relative, a teacher for a loan of $1000.00. The relative was quite a crafty family loan shark so to speak. She demanded 100 dollars to be paid first (ie the mother received only 900). And, on top of that, the mother had to pay another 100 in interest after 3 months.

Right after the exact three months the relative came to demand for her $100 interest and the full $1000 loan. What a loan shark!!

It was fortunate that another relative heard about it and helped her out. So after three months she paid 1200 to her relative.

Wasn't that a huge amount of interest to pay? $300.00

However, the story ended well because mother and daughter had a good life. 'Happily ever after' story for the family.

And I am not sure if the woman loan shark relative was a happy woman.