Corporate man now an agarwood producer

Corporate man now an agarwood producer

HAVING spent 18 years in the corporate world, Edmond Liew was convinced the time was right for him to quit his job and invest in the ‘black gold of the forest’.
“A friend introduced me to agarwood, the plants that produce fragrant oleoresin, and I decided to jump onto the bandwagon,” he said.
Now a director of Eco Midori, Liew paired up with a partner and a professional team from Thailand to manage an agarwood plantation in Seremban.
It has been two years and he is ready to share his experience and technical know-how with more people.
“It is not a business for only the rich. Farmers and white-collar workers too can get into the business,” the Johorean said.
Precious woods: The wood chips of agarwood tree can also be traded.
Liew explained that in order for an agarwood tree to produce oleoresin, it has to be treated with vaccines when it reaches five years-old.
“As part of its self-defense system, the tree will react to the vaccines and form dark, resinous patches.
“The tree will be harvested two years later and the oleoresin is obtained through hydraullic extraction.
“Oleoresin of higher grade, which is darker, is made into powder while the rest is made into gaharu oil. Its bark and wood chips can also be traded,” he said.
Liew added that every 10kg of the wood could produce 12g of gaharu oil, which fetches a good price at RM300 per 12g.
The tree is valued for its medicinal and therapeutic properties.
It can be used as medicine, perfumes, incense, sculptures, beads, boxes, shampoos and essential oils.
Spreading the word: Liew shares his experience and know-how in agarwood plantation.
Agarwood is known as eaglewood, aloeswood and gaharu too.
Realising the economic values, the Kelantan government launched a project in 2007 to encourage individuals to cultivate the trees.
Liew said in Malaysia, most of the wild agarwood trees are found in East Malaysia and their numbers are dwindling as they are highly sought after for their resin.
“Like rubber trees, the agarwood trees are suitable to be planted on hilly lands,” he said.
In August and September, Eco Midori will be having seminars in Johor Baru, Batu Pahat, Kluang, Muar and Segamat.
For details, call 012-713 8899. (Liew).

Learning Points a-plenty

Learning Points a-plenty in the past eventful week.

 

1.       Mak needs her space,and even if that is not agreeable by my standards, I’d need to accept it and move on. She has her own way of dealing with things, and my role is to provide an alternative viewpoint, not to force it on her. This would a valuable learning point to be taken from the Menang perspective – you must work hard to ensure your perspective is heard, your spin is acceptable, and the logic impeccable. These are the main barriers to support to the ideas, and the task orientation arising from overcoming these barriers would be invaluable to the action and execution mode. Similarly, this is the mode that I’ve got to take up in dealings with other stakeholders. Witness the effect of explaining why “Gemuk” moniker is unacceptable. The little time invested into explaining the situation has caused a complete drying up of a simple unwanted behaviour amongst my first three boisterous children. Subhanallah for Allah’s creations, and for His ordering of the universe, and for His sending of the Prophet to teach us the simple, most effective ways of dealing with people.

2.       Execution mode – listing, reminders, task, productivity tools on the Berry are useful complementarities to Task-orientation. Make sure I’ve got this covered, and may Allah continue to bestow the ease with which to continue doing this.

3.       BHAGs – property in Damansara area, opening up of Islamic school in Damansara, driving a 5-series, masterplanner of agri land for recreation, rehab and commercial agri, large funder of  worthwhile causes – the Magic of Thinking Big to drive motivation. And why not me? I’ve had experience in project delivery – dealing with DBKL,other agencies, private developers, consulting – selling ideas, creating spin, masterplanning, managing resources, objective-centred activities though results may have fallen short in some ways, investment – financial management, due diligence, investment evaluation, and in many ways, quite well-placed to bring critical, overwhelming leveraged results from important endeavours, insyaAllah.

4.       On item 3, the World Cup is a wonderful eye-opener. England, Italy, Germany, Spain are unsure of their place in Round 2, though I believe they will all still qualify (unlike France), and South & North Korea and Japan are still in with a shout (tho I believe only the first will make it). It just goes to show that money isn’t everything, and heart and determination is a more important factor. I’d have to decide which I should have more of. This is now my biggest crossroads since 2002 when I thought that TNB will not be my long-term career choice. The (mini)-pilgrimage effects are still felt.

5.       and that brings me to yesterday’s Ikram launch. The opportunities are there. The battle lines are slowly being drawn. But perhaps the capabilities are more of the same? The question is, how can I be the catalyst to drive this, and myself, upward?

 

 

 

Living in the present tense

Part of my rehabilitation as a responsible person and member of society, as well as humble servant of Allah trying to imbue concepts of habluminannaas into my psyche, yesterday was both instructive and humbling for me.

One, the bonds of brotherhood that I share during my experience in Chamberlayne endures, and I should leverage on that and allow to be utilized in the surest of ways to achieve overall Islamic objectives. There is an existing platform to use, and my existence would need that I try my best to utilise it, including helping to shape its direction as best that I can. That presumes of course, that I am the best in what I do, and would need further effort on my part. I would need to use previous blogs quoting Abu Iman’s dilemma as an inspiration to move ahead.

People I met yesterday included Azmil, Farid, Zun Arif, Ust Aziz and Dr Salmi.

Two, is the family ties that both bind and choke at the same time. Resolution would involve magnamininty and overlooking faults of others, and thereby clearing ourselves to see where we stand and what we can achieve for others.

Pak Long Safri’s daughter Mimi Mastura got married to Salmi yesterday in AU Keramat. Rather odd, but educational in terms of what “sibling” brotherhood should be like, was that due to Pak Long’s illness, wedding was helped out by Mak Long Ani’s adik beradiks – which total 11 in number. I was humbled by what I saw was my mother’s genuine familial love for her cousin, for both Pak Long, and Pak Ngah who I narrowly missed.

A note on the family relationships knowing how bad I am at remembering relations – arwah Wan Beranang’s sister, Alang Bibi married Pak Lang (ranks to Mak, it should be Wan Lang and Pak Lang to me) Hamid, parents of both Pak Long Safri and Pak Ngah Zul. Mimi is the only daughter and the eldest. The sibling I met yesterday included Izzudin in Form 4, who’s famous for the incident of screaming for a luxury toy car worth 44,000 at Mofaz’s showroom when smaller, and apparently there’s a younger one in Standard 2 who I did not meet. Another elder son I met, in true fashion, demonstrates my failing memory as I can’t remember his name now.

Whilst I’m at this, I should also note that Orang Tua Ali, who fathered Acik Tun, also fathered (Makcik) Itam Ani, who now has a daughter (?) in Cheras Perdana and remembers us from our hajj trip. For obvious reasons, Mak does not share the same sentimental love for this side of the family relations.

Where to now? Pak Long’s illness yesterday caused me to think of how I can contribute, and partly I thought of giving a job to Izzudin if I had my own company. Although again this means that I’d need to develop leadership skills to mentor people.

Now that brings me to a different tangent. Why am I always living in the future tense when we all need to live in the present. To have this balance, I’d need to think of implications of the here and now. Enjoy the life given with fullest gratitude to the Giver, think through what needs to be done for immediate impact rather than continually justifying its halo effects in the distant future, where everything is rosy.

ADDENDUM:

Pajam Initiative needs a bit more finesse now that it has transpired that PR assuming Selangor state leadership has repercussions on Kg 6 Kaki’s penghulu-ship. Rosli, entrusted with keeping Mak’s portion of arwah Wan’s house (btw the land title has been passed on to me – hence, rightfully I should be paying Rosli), is under pressure from anak Mohd Nor, who is now part of the PAS penghulu cadre. The small plot of land is now subject to childish pulling to ‘tanam serai’. Whatever Pajam Initiative looks like later, these subtle undercurrents need to be addressed as it has a direct impact on Mak Long Posah’s reputation and Angah Aluih’s memories.