STORY 1138 — KEMBARA INSAN

STORY 1138 KEMBARA INSAN

A Journey of a Village Boy Who Became a Traveler

My journey began when I was just sixteen years old.

At that age, I left my village after being offered a place to continue my studies at MRSM Kuala Terengganu. I still remember that journey vividly. My mother, my eldest brother and his wife accompanied me in my brother’s newly purchased Proton Wira.

We travelled from Kampung Tebing Tinggi, passing through Bachok, Besut and Permaisuri before finally arriving at the college in Batu Rakit, Terengganu.

The beauty of Terengganu captivated me. The endless coastline, the beaches and the scenery along the road were something I had never experienced before. As a teenager with a head full of imagination, I spent much of the journey looking through the car window, taking in everything on both sides of the road.

It was the second state I had ever visited after my home state of Kelantan.

But the excitement of seeing a new place soon came with another feeling.

For the first time in my life, I was left alone in a completely unfamiliar place. My mother and my eldest brother had to leave me behind. There was no family, no relatives and no familiar faces to turn to.

That was the beginning of my life as a traveler.

Did I miss my village?

Only Allah knows how much I missed my family and my kampung. Every moment I was away, my heart longed to return home.

At that time, I never imagined that my life would eventually be spent travelling far beyond the place where I was born.

From MRSM Kuala Terengganu, I continued my education through the matriculation program at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Main Campus in Penang. I was part of the second batch when the matriculation system was first introduced at public universities across the country.

In 1999, I continued my studies in Mechanical Engineering at the USM Engineering Campus in Seri Iskandar.

By then, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS was already there. In 2002, UTP took over the campus completely, and I became part of the first batch of students at the new USM Engineering Campus in Transkrian, Nibong Tebal, Penang.

After graduating from USM, I was fortunate to secure my first engineering-related job at a steel manufacturing plant in Seberang Perai.

However, my time there was short-lived.

After several months, I resigned following two accidents that I experienced during that period.

The salary I had earned over those few months was enough for me to buy a suit for my graduation ceremony the following August.

During my convocation, my mother, who deeply missed her son, persuaded me to return home.

After the ceremony ended, I went back to Kelantan to search for an opportunity to build my career in my hometown.

Every week, I bought The Star newspaper to look for job advertisements. At night, I would spend hours preparing resumes and application letters. The following morning, I would go to the post office and send them out.

Week after week, I repeated the same routine.

At the same time, a housing project consisting of several dozen houses had started just in front of our home. For a few months, I worked there as a construction labour.

Interestingly, I was paid weekly.

That weekly income became my travelling fund—not for holidays, but to buy newspapers, prepare applications and send my resume to companies throughout Peninsular Malaysia.

Around the same time, my second elder brother had just got married. His father-in-law was a successful fresh-chicken businessman and suggested that our family start selling fresh chicken at a small roadside stall beside our house.

I helped the workers build a simple stall for my mother.

My mother would then travel every day to Pasar Siti Khadijah in Kota Bharu to sell her goods.

Once the stall was completed, I finally began using my engineering qualification when I secured a position with a furniture company in Panji, Kota Bharu.

Not long afterwards, a businessman decided to establish a new boiler servicing company to take advantage of the development projects that were expected to take place around Tok Bali.

I was recruited as one of the pioneers of the new company.

Those few months were extremely valuable.

I was given the responsibility of marketing the company's future boiler servicing business. I was instructed to visit government offices throughout the city.

I met all kinds of people.

That experience taught me something important: how to communicate with people, how to approach strangers and, most importantly, how to overcome the fear of meeting people from different backgrounds.

After months of applying for jobs, I finally received an offer from a disc manufacturing company in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

I moved to Selangor and stayed with a university friend in a flat in Ara Damansara.

Then, a few months later, my life took another unexpected turn.

I received a phone call from a fellow villager and university friend, Shahrizan.

He told me about an opportunity to join one of Malaysia's leading palm oil companies as a cadet engineer in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

I immediately submitted my application.

A week later, I received a call for an interview.

Almost three months after that, I boarded a flight to Kota Kinabalu.

From Kota Kinabalu, I continued my journey until I finally arrived at a palm oil mill deep in the Sungai Kinabatangan area of Sabah.

This time, my life was different.

Previously, I had been free to travel from one place to another, searching for opportunities.

But this journey was different.

There was no easy way back.

There was no other choice but to move forward—for my future.

And so, I began adapting myself to a completely new way of life.

I slowly learned about the palm oil industry.

I tried to understand it.

I explored it.

And eventually, I fell in love with it.

My journey in the palm oil industry took me from one mill to another, from one state to another, from upstream to downstream, and eventually from Malaysia to other countries.

It became a journey far beyond what that sixteen-year-old boy from Kelantan could ever have imagined.

What surprised me most was discovering that, even after almost two decades in the industry, many Malaysians still knew very little about the lives of plantation workers and the people working in the palm oil industry.

The same is true of engineering.

Many people do not realize how much mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering knowledge is involved in running a palm oil mill.

Perhaps this is one reason why the palm oil industry is sometimes viewed as less glamorous than the petroleum industry, especially when people compare salaries and career opportunities.

But there is another challenge I experienced personally.

When I was preparing for the Steam Engineer examination, finding proper notes and practical knowledge about boilers was extremely difficult.

That experience made me realize something.

Knowledge should not be kept only within the people who already have it.

Knowledge should be shared.

Stories should be told.

And an industry should be introduced to the next generation.

That was why, in 2009, I started a blog called Kembara Insan.

It was created with a simple purpose:

To promote the palm oil industry.

To tell the stories of the people behind the industry.

To share the experiences, challenges and lessons from life in the plantation and mill.

And most importantly, to inspire young people.

The story was written by a young man who once was nothing more than a village boy from Kelantan.

A boy who left home at sixteen.

A boy who travelled from state to state.

A boy who crossed the South China Sea.

A boy who eventually travelled beyond Malaysia to neighboring countries.

A boy who never knew where his journey would take him.

Today, I look back and realize that perhaps I was never simply looking for a job.

I was searching for a journey.

A journey of knowledge.

A journey of people.

A journey of experience.

A journey of faith.

A journey of life.

That is Kembara Insan.

To the young people of today, I would like to say this:

Our country has many great industries.

Do not be afraid to explore them.

Do not be afraid to leave your comfort zone.

Do not be afraid to travel far from home.

Go where the opportunity takes you.

Learn from the people you meet.

Build your knowledge.

Build your character.

And if you become an engineer, become an engineer with knowledge, integrity and faith.

Travel across the country.

Travel across the world.

Meet different people.

Experience different cultures.

Learn from every place you visit.

Because sometimes, the greatest education does not happen inside a classroom.

It happens on the road.

It happens at the workplace.

It happens in the middle of nowhere.

It happens when you are alone, far from home, with nobody to depend on except yourself and Allah.

And perhaps, one day, when you look back, you will realize that every journey, every struggle, every rejection and every place you once thought was far away was actually preparing you for the person you were meant to become.

Be a traveler.

Be a seeker of knowledge.

Be a Kembara Insan.

This is my story.

And this is my journey.