Tag: farmer

A wish for his golden years

Liew Wong does not want to burden his children.

By Foong Pek Yee

foongpekyee@gmail.com

AT 56, Liew Wong is four years from the official retirement age.
He is relieved that his two children, in their late 20s, are working and independent.
Having toiled as a farmer for the last 30 years to raise his family, Liew says his wish from now on is to be able to take care of his wife and himself in their golden years.
“I do not want to depend on my children for a living,” says Liew as he gobbled up his lunch when met at Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak recently.
His weather beaten face tells the story of a hard life.
He is the third generation of farmers in his family from the village.
Farming is a 365 days job from sunrise to sunset, he says.
As a small scale farmer, you are the boss and you and your family are the workers, says Liew, recalling he started to help his father in the farm when he was 10 years old.
It is all about working hard to survive day to day.
Today, his 86-year-old father continues to work in their farm, measuring about two acres where they planted the umbra fruit  (sar lei in Cantonese) and oil palm.
Make way: The entrance to Liew Wong’s farm. He got a notice to
 evict the land.
Farming and village life has its upside though.
They enjoy a peaceful and simple life in a close knitted community from generation to generation since the 1920s.
All is well until 2005 when land issues started to surface.
For many farmers, they toil on land without legal documents since their forefathers set foot in Chemor a century ago.
Since 17 years ago, development saw some farmers having to surrender their farmland when the area is earmarked for the purpose.
Nevermind that Chemor is known for vegetable farming, producing some 60,000 kilogram vegetables daily.
According to the farmers, the terrain and soil in Chemor are conducive for many types of vegetables –  from spinach, choy sam, brinjals, bitter gourds, chillies to maize.
“All along we are willing to pay to the landowners to lease the land, ” says Liew
According to him,  then Tambun Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had in 2012  helped farmers to resolve the land issues.
However Liew says the signing of a  deal on land lease for  farmers was aborted at the last minute.
In December last year, Liew says he is among farmers in Chemor who received eviction notice.
“I don’t know where to get a job to survive if I lost my farm.
“Even young people find it hard to get jobs these days,”he says.

A struggle to keep family tradition

Destiny: Ah Thim and his world
By Foong Pek Yee
IT is a scorching hot afternoon.
But it is also any other day for Ah Thim.
From afar, he cuts a lonely figure in the vegetable farm.
At 54,  he has been a farmer since a teenager; with his life revolving  around his family, farm and Kanthan Baru New Village in Chemor, Perak,  where they stay.
As fate has it, Ah Thim was inducted into farming after his eldest brother’s death.
Recalling the tragedy losing his 20-year-old brother, Ah Thim who is second among four sons became the de facto head of his family – by Chinese tradition- in a then conservative society.
He has another five sisters.
As the de facto head,  Ah Thim was expected, if not duty bound,  to become a farmer, taking after his father and grandfather who were farmers and keeping the family together.
He became head of the family after his father passed away.
Fast track to the present, Ah Thim, as head of the family, stays with his 80-year-old plus mother and a younger sister who is single in their ancestral home.
He says the sister and a younger brother helps out in the farm.
Toiling on about an acre of land, planting turnips and spring onions, Ah Thim says that is their source of income.
He spends most of his waking hours in the farm.
“I am here by sunrise and work till late evening. In between I go home for lunch,” he says.
Vegetable farming can be  a back breaking job but Ah Thim is not complaining.
“I will continue to do my best. I am used to this way of life.”
Quiet and peaceful: A man fishing at a lake nearby  Ah Thim’s farm.
According to some elderly villagers, farming was their lifeline since their forefathers set foot in Chemor in the 1920s .
The lack of formal education, exposure and job opportunities saw many villagers continue to depend on  farming for a living despite all odds stacked against them these days.
Topping their list of woes is  land issues which surfaced about 17 years ago.
Farmers who have no legal documents on their farmland would have to make way once the land is earmarked for development.
In the case of Ah Thim, he is now left with about an acre of farmland only.
While he is worried over losing his last acre to development, he says he has to depend on the Persatuan Petani  Moden Chemor (Chemor Modern Farmers Association) for help on land issues.
“The matter is too complicated for me to understand,” he adds.
Amidst all the uncertainties, he is visibly happy when he spoke on his only  child- a son-  who is working in Singapore.
No matter what,  Ah Thim says he is always grateful waking up to a new day. .