untitled
viviti
 biography
Penang button
        When I was 16               

Rashid Maidin remembers
  
 
  Chapter 2

From apprentice to mine worker

IN 1933 when I was sixteen  years old and working in my uncle’s shop, I was allowed to take on a part time job at a French owned electric power plant nearby.  The manager of the 37 kw turbine generator was a Eurasian. I applied to him for a job and, as there was a vacancy, I was taken on as an apprentice.  My job was to look after the engine, doing an 8 hour shift each day.

In the two years as apprentice I learnt something about electric generation and was able to obtain a Class Two Certificate. My salary was raised to $30 a month.

I was married when I was 16 or 17, at a time when young men got married at that age. My wife, Hamidah,  was my own choice. Like her parents before her, she never went to school and spent her time at home looking after the kids. We had four children.

Life taught me to understand that to support the family one had to work hard to earn a wage. And that to get work with better pay one had  to have better skills. So I decided to improve my English and to learn more about electricity and machines. To achieve this I asked for a transfer to Kampar to the Talam Mines, also French owned,  even though the pay was lower at  $25 a month. Six months later my pay was $30 a month. I was able not only to feed the family but also helped my younger brother Yusof  Maidin to go to vocational school.

At Kampar  I was in charge of the engine. Nights I studied English. I did this for one and a half years and  passed an English examination which I took in Ipoh.. In 1938, I obtained my certificate for electrical chargeman class one.

To get a better salary I got a job with an English mining company, the Kinta Consolidated Co. Ltd. at Tanjong Tualang. The company recognised my qualifications and paid me $60 a month. Just compare this with the worker earning 60 cents a day or $11 a month!

My job was to be in charge of the motor of a dredge. This mine employed workers of various races who had a trade union.
 In 1937 I was a member of a the Perak Malay Drivers Association led by Datuk Panglima Bukit Gantang and Datuk Haji Abdul Wahab. Membership was easy; all you needed was a driving licence, which I had.  The Association’s object was simple; to provide legal defence for members involved in a collision. Dato Haji Abdul Wahab, a lawyer would himself go to court to act for the defendant. The Association was not political and its function was welfare. Nevertheless it hinted politics because it was an awareness of getting together for welfare and for their interests.


Go to the top


DATES
October 5 1947 Poster of the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce supports hartal.
October 20 1947 Hartal
October 25 1814  Britain declares war on Nepal
October 27 1987 Operation Lallang 106 detained under ISA including 16 Mps
October 27, 1927 Penang Hill Railway opens
November 2 1801 founding of the Poh Choo Seah (Baba Kongsi)
November 11 1955   Partai Rakyat formed
November 24 1951 PAS formed
December 10 HumanRights Day
December 11 1950 Maria Hertogh riots
December 12 1958 Doug Engelbart presents the mouse for computers
December 12 1948 British Scots Guards shoot dead 24 villagers at Batang Kali, Ulu Yam
December 22, 1946 Council of Joint Action formed
_____
INDEX

Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK

Index page    A Nyonya wedding   ABC Penang    Arts 1   Arts 2    Belachan       Book review         Culture theft

 Food guide          Letter from Pulau Tikus       Moral guardian        Rashid Maidin (2)         Temasek
_____________________
The Penang File Issue  69

Web Hosting · Blog · Guestbooks · Message Forums · Mailing Lists
Easiest Website Builder ever! · Build your own toolbar · Free Talking Character · Email Marketing
powered by a free webtools company bravenet.com