🌴 The Mill of Jeneri: A Story of Trust and Leadership

In the quiet heart of Jeneri, Kedah, nestled between endless rows of oil palm estates and the misty ridges of the Gunung Jerai foothills, stood a palm oil mill that had seen both triumph and turbulence. For decades, the mill was the lifeline of the community — fathers, sons, and daughters found their livelihood within its gates. Yet behind the humming turbines and clouds of steam, the mill struggled with something far less visible: trust issues within its workforce.

A Fractured Team

The workers whispered about favoritism. Engineers complained that their suggestions never reached the top. Supervisors felt blamed whenever problems arose, even if they had warned management earlier. The sense of unity, once strong in this rural town, had slowly eroded.

The turning point came one late evening when the boiler tripped, shutting down the entire sterilization process. Instead of solving the crisis together, the team fell into arguments — maintenance blamed operations, operations blamed management, and management blamed “lack of discipline.” The mill lost two full days of production, and with it, the confidence of both staff and smallholders who depended on timely processing of their fruit.

A New Manager Steps In

Amid this storm, the company appointed a new mill manager, Mr. Faris, a Kedahan himself, who had once worked in the estates of Sabah and returned home to serve his community. Unlike his predecessors, Faris did not rush to implement new policies or demand instant results. Instead, his first act was simple: he gathered everyone under the old raintree beside the mill yard and asked them to share their frustrations.

For hours, he listened. No interruptions, no defenses. Just listening.

From the general workers who felt invisible, to the engineers who felt their voices were dismissed, to the supervisors who carried silent burdens — he heard them all. And in that moment, a small seed of trust was planted.

Building Bridges

Over the months, Faris practiced what he preached:

Transparency — Weekly meetings where results, costs, and challenges were openly shared.

Fairness — Promotions and overtime allocated based on merit, not personal ties.

Recognition — Even the quietest workers received praise when they contributed to solutions.

Shared accountability — When mistakes happened, Faris stood with his team instead of pointing fingers.

Slowly, the culture shifted. Workers began volunteering ideas. Supervisors started mentoring juniors instead of competing with them. Even during breakdowns, teams stayed calm and collaborated to fix issues faster than before.

The Revival of Jeneri Mill

Within a year, the mill’s performance improved dramatically. Extraction rates went up, downtime was reduced, and safety compliance reached new highs. But the true victory was intangible: trust had returned.

One evening, an old technician said, “Dulu kita kerja sebab terpaksa. Sekarang kita kerja sebab percaya.”

(“Before, we worked because we had to. Now, we work because we believe.”)

For the people of Jeneri, the mill was no longer just a factory of palm oil. It had become a factory of trust — proof that even in an industry of machines and hard labor, the softest value of all, trust, was the true driver of progress.