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).

Just sharing - In Singapore, a More Progressive Islamic Education (The New York Times)

Just sharing - In Singapore, a More Progressive Islamic Education (The New York Times)

Community spirit and the detriment of its excessiveness

1. TNB prides itself in its HR benefits - "the best in the country", "from womb to tomb".. and such like. The country prides itself in protecting the nation from colonial influence (though results vary hugely from the boasts), protecting the malays rights and priviledges, safeguarding malay interests and such like. We are a community-based nation, where we do things for the sake of everybody else, and the guys who can think and fend for themselves are the ones who are running the country. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

 

2. And so here we are again. The HR powerpoint says, we shall take care of your talent development, we will guide your careers. These relics of the ancients continue to think, just like their Pharaonic predecessors who thought they could control the rise and ebb of the Nile, that they can dam enthusiasm of the people and release the talents to the competitive forces as and when necessary. Hogwash! Rubbish! Nonsense! There is nothing that can suppress the human spirit. Postponing it with the transactional equivalent of the promise of development is the main reason that BN has remained in pwoer for the last 50 years and more.

 

3. The human spirit needs to be released, guided and nurtured. Let them understand where the flow takes them. The role of those in authority is to create best-practise benchmarks that the spirits could choose to endeavour itself within. And the best is that which follows the guidance of the Quran and what has been demonstrated by His Messenger. The world's best practices are deemed as such when the spirits choose their vocations based on what and where their passion takes them towards. Guidance is that of the signposts placed there by those responsible. Let people decide. let them feel their emotions, and their inner voices callings be heard. That's where the strengths will be.

 

4. The extent of the need for the PMS is to decide how much remuneration we can take home as a result of the year's work. And that is enough. The talent development and "strategic" consolidation on a centralised level, forget it. The bitter on-off centralised decentralised power struggle between corporate and divisional HR in TNB before was living proof that centralisation doesnt work.

 

 

Knowing thyself

1.       This is a question that I avoid trying to find the answer to, knowing that I may not like the answer. But again, the confusing thing about it is that there is no reason to dislike, but using the answer ad infinitum to find the actions, tasks, efforts and initiatives necessary to achieve significant legacies and success. This objective being defined and guided by need to achieve the highest values of mardhatillah

2.       The most difficult thing to do is to overcome the inner compunction to avoid, to let it be, not to kacau stuff. On that score, I am reminded of Hasrizal’s (Saiful Islam) article on the goose that lay the golden egg. Isnt this similar to the goose committing suicide? Isnt this death before its time? Isnt this the cowards way of retreating at the mere mention of an impending doom sometime in the future.

3.       How difficult it is to fill the heart with courage when the mere mention of risk scurries the body away from meeting its fiend. Strengthening the heart is of utmost importance. The greater the deed, the greater does its strength need to be.

4.       And within this context is where the beauty of qiyam lies. The vulnerability of the helpless slave prostrating in front of his rightful Lord, untainted by all other false Lords and devils feigning authority. The stripping away of this weakness helps to fill the heart with courage and strength. Emotions will trump intellect in the larger dimensions of war and competition. Witness the various ayaah, the various historical relics and evidences, and yes, the various football results where the little trumps the large when character comes to the fore.

5.       Ya Allah, please help me develop this strength of heart and character to be your slave with Your Glorious Mercy. Allow me to taste the sweetness of fighting for your cause, in the name of a war that You approve, the Jihadul Akbar that Your Prophet has called for, my Lord.

 

 

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?

 

 

 

Rational actions, driven by spiritual and emotional equilibrium

1.       Note that it isn’t easy to be a leader, the “Menang” dimension. Engaging with emotion is a flawed process, where opposing views could only be rationalised and harmonised with great difficulty, if at all.

2.       There are remarks that Malays are an emotional lot, and that comes from not having the wherewithal to decide. This stems from uncertainty from aligning outcomes, fragmented methodologies unable to build concensus and buy-in, and inferior information and knowledge as inputs to form opinion. Without these thinking capabilities, rationalism is lost, and emotions and shouting takes precedence. Or in religiousity, we just follow whoever shouts the loudest, appears as the most knowledgeable and have a more religious outlook, or even, in the case of liberalist interpretation of Islam, a legalistic argument in favour of reforms and all appear very attractive. The other option is to be apathetic and follow the “truth” spouted out by Government. In Tun M’s time, as he had the capacity to use all media machinery, the latter was pretty much the typical position of the masses. But when Pak Lah, who had the good intentions for openness without the guts to control and mediate, the diffusion of ideas spread and anarchy takes root. In Najib’s case, borrowing Bakri Musa’s description of a leader who follows, there is no real guidance and leadership on issues.

3.       I guess the stand to teach people to think may have substance, but it wont be a core component of Menang for leadership of issues and opinions. In the short run, emotional leadership still takes precedence. So, positioning of issues is still important and requires good R&D, good access to corridors of power, and the smarts to use national media when required.

4.       First and foremost, lessons learned from the diplomatic antagonisms post-Mavi Marmara, is that we should be flexible in many instances, including strategic options. The only unchangeable, should be a broadly-defined purpose, objective to be achieved. In the process, the balancing of multiple ideas, even opposing ideas, should be entertained. The final decision, ijtihad, is one after taking into account all manner of outcomes, implications et al, and we hope we gain the benefit and barakah from Allah for the effort we put in to come up to the right decision, for our sake and for Islam’s benefit.

 

 

Fallout continues

1.       It is now 4 days after the bloody massacre on the Mavi Marmara. Things have played itself out it seems, and on many points in the short-term, there have been a few successes and a few themes are generally coming to the fore.

2.       Egypt has reopened the Rafa border, the detainees have been released except for a few more, and Turkey seems to have developed a more prominent role amongst the muslim world. The latter isn’t a bad thing given Erdogan’s outspokenness, particularly after his walkout to the Israel-biased Davos forum a couple of years back. Erdogan, when compared to other Arab leaders silent on the world stage, is head and shoulders above them in terms of stature and diplomacy. Perhaps, given the constraints of the military-backed Kemalism in Turkey, Erbakan and Erdogan have both over time developed this ability of pinpointing and executing specific objectives that promotes the Islamist agenda while still appearing to play Western-style diplomacy. Other leaders, Najib, Anwar, Nik Nazmi(?), please take note.

3.       The themes which will recur and play itself out in the coming years are Turkish-Israel relations, US pressure on Iran, and European support for Israel. On a few of these, public opinion has successfully gravitated against Israel and exposed their inhumane treatment of Palestinian refugees in Gaza. And if they were to respond in the familiar playground bully defense, that this is necessary for their security and defense, it will be pointed out that they are the aggressors in hostilities when driving out Palestinians from their homes.

4.       Back to the key point though. These are all early days yet. Since An-Nakba, there have been many occasions such as these and each time, Israel has thwarted them all off in the long run using their manipulating media and coordinated diplomatic networks of support amongst the developed countries. There is no evidence yet that this will change. Palestinians will still have to wait a while to return home, unless public opinion on the fate of Gaza becomes central to elections in the developed countries.

5.       What will happen though is the loosening of support to Israel. They don’t deserve any, if the blood of the dead in Mavi Marmara, Rachel Corrie, Lord Moyne, the UN-appointed Swedish mediator in 1948, are added to the daily killings and massacres of Sabra, Shatilla, Rafah, Gaza and Palestine are totaled up. Europe is the first to wake up, in that they won’t owe Israel that much no matter how long the Holocaust will be raised as collateral by the conniving liars.

6.       Dear Allah, Please let us see curses rain down upon Israel and their conniving liars, let there be sufficient recompense for their brutality, let them be humiliated and destroyed for their arrogant actions, and destroy them in this earth while they still commit these injustices in Palestine while sowing discord and confusion in the rest of the world through their lies. Ya Allah, let me see the day when the Palestinians will return to their rightful homes.