Q2: What were you like as a kid, growing up in Kluang?
AS a little boy, I was very active in sports. I played anything - rugby, football, volleyball, badminton. At school, I especially loved geography and history. I was fascinated by how people and events changed and shaped the world as it is. I wanted to see the world and studied humanity, but did electronics instead after school.
Q3: Were you always entrepreneurial? Who was the greatest influence in your life?
My grandfather who halled from mainland China was a fisherman when he first landed in Malaya. But life when you leave it to chance was hard and very often he couldn't go to the sea due to the wheather or simply because of the condition of his tools. Not being able to go to work, he made furniture and soon found that his furniture was well-liked and he could make a living from the trade. He left the sea, moved to Kluang and started his little furniture-making outfit.
His only son, that is my father, didn't know it any other way. He was groomed from little to be in business and he later chose small-scale construction projects of houses and shop lots for a living. My father though, knowing how uncertain businesses can be, wanted me to become a policeman instead. However, despite the plan he had for me, I was also trained to do business. I was entrusted with a coop full of turkeys to rear and suply to the English community in Kluang. I must have been the richest kid in town during Christmas and Thanksgiving. And so despite my academic interests, or the noble ambition my father had for me, I have always been driven to build and sell.
Q4: Why did you chose the palm oil industry?
After getting a diploma, I worked in an electrical shop repairing television. The work kept my hands preoccupied but not my mind. I dreamt of bigger things but was not sure what I wanted to do. I left and soon joined a timber company venturing into the thick forests looking for good trees to cut down. I discovered that I loved the forests and trees too much and couldn't bear to contribute to their ruins. It was then I decided that I wanted to be in a business where I can help keep Kluang green. It has to be the palm oil industry. So I started working for a palm oil mill because I wanted to learn the tricks of the trade. It took me three years, to establish my contacts and network as well as identify the niche blue-ocean area that I could venture into.
In 1986, I established Ulimac Sdn Bhd doing trading of palm oil mill spare parts.
In 1996, I was out drinking coffee at Kluang's famous coffee shack by the railway station with three good friends - one had an engineering workshop and two were mechanical engineers working at palm oil mill, where we discussed the palm oil industry. We lamented on the limitations of the processes - the inefficiencies, the fact that they were all labour intensive, and how machines were all imported. It was then we decided to team up to offer new systems as solution to all the problems we know exist. This led to the birth of Sawipac Sdn Bhd (Sawipac).
Q5: What is Sawipac's major products?
Sawipac has an ISO 9001 certification to design and manufacture integrated palm oil milling systems and modules. This includes dry separation and biomass downstream process and equipment ranging from nut-kernel separators all the way to empty fruit bunch press. We also do tuenkey projects for building new palm oil mill and waste-water treatment. Equipment now is of ninth generation.
We have also collaborated with a southern-based public-funded university, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in an advanced biomass project and successfully produced three types of EFB pellets: fertiliser, feed stock for rudiments and biofuel.
The fertiliser produced from palm oil biomass is revolutionary because it is dry, light and odorless. This significantly improves handling and shelf life. The biofuel serves as a strong alternative to the fast-depleting wood-based fuels. The feed produced ensures that livestock gets the nutrition they need from a safe, renewable and halal source.
When we approached MTDC with the project, MTDC was very supportive and funded our commercialisation efforts. Without the funds, we certainly would still do it but we probably would have taken a loger time to reach where we are today.
Q6: Onf your commercialisation journey, what were your sweet moment and biggest regret? ow would you do things differently if you could turn back the clock?
My sweetest moment must have been that time when the system we invented first produced palm EFB pellet. That was in 2009. The satisfaction and gratitude felt equals to having another child.
As for regrets, I am by nature a very cautious person. So I don't have any big regrets.
But if I could go back in time and change things, I would be pursued a degree in electronics in the United Kingdom. It wouldn't be so much for the piece of paper, but more for the exposure, experience and wisdom one could get from going through life as a student in a foreign land. If you ask me, why UK in particular, well I wouldn't exactly know the answer. But, everyone in those days went to UK for the papers.
Q7: What do you plan to do next?
I am planning to improve my company's human assets and introduce mechanisation approach to more palm oil mills.
It has always been Sawipac's policy to create avenue of income for Kluang's proffessionals. Currently we offer posts for mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, scientists, chemists and programmers. This provides opportunities for Kluang's proffessionals to come home and serve in their hometown. The last thing we need is a brain-drain in Kluang. If all the brains continue tot go to big cities like Kual Lumpur to work, there will be serious social problems arising from the high density there plus Kluang will just be an empty shell devoid of brain. If technology is adopted by more industries in more small towns. the brain can be retained and big cities will have a reduction in social problems.
Although I do see the need for foreign workers, the country must know that it is just a short-term solution and should be taken on temporary basis. As much as possible, the locals should be empowered and engaged. The people are after all, the country's main intellectual property. That answers why Sawipac hires only locals.
I believe that is the duty of all men to serve Malaysia. If I don't do my part, how could I look at myself in the mirror? The way to give back is by training the young, empowering them and providing them with the avenue to realise their latent potential.
Q8: What do you do in your free time?
My interest in geography and history persists until today. Thus why, I love to travel. I have been to Canada, USA, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, France, Myanmar and Taiwan among others. I absolutely love the beauty of Paris, impressed by the wor-culture of China, amazed by the discipline in Japan - there is so much beauty in the world.
Africa is something else. I am utterly romantic about the whole Africa continent. I find it fascinating, what with the rich history, diverse culture and great promise of the land. Blessed are the people of the continents.
