TALIB HARIMAU, MY PAK ITAM: Part 1

In a previous posting I wrote about a Pak Itam, a Canadian Mat Salleh aka Hj. Kadir who lives by the BOH Plantations of Cameron Highlands.


This time I want to tell about another Pak Itam that I came to know some 23 years ago by virtue of a common interest, horses. He lives at Kg. Badak at the outskirt of Kuantan and used to keep horses to herd his cows on free range.

Pak Itam (L) and his younger son (R) riding on Taba.

During one of my official trips to the East Coast  I passed by his house by the roadside and saw this fine horse and stopped to enquire about it. The owner, whom I came to be introduced as Talib Awang aka Pak Itam said its name is Taba, a stallion, a buro (a breed bigger than kuda padi but smaller than the normal horse) bought from Takbai at the Kelantan-Thai border. Buro's temeperament is much better than kuda padi which tend to kick and bite.


On my next trip, I bought Taba for RM800 and personally transported it in a horse trailer pulled by Pajero to Teluk Intan where I was staying then.

Rene (L), foal (C) and Taba (Front) grazing in a fishery hatching compund in Tapah.

Some months later a female horse by the name of Rene, also a buro was bought from Kuala Terengganu and brought back to mate with Taba. They gave a number of offsprings. I also bought a kuda padi at Teluk Intan and named it Horas. Keeping the horses within the house compound was another story! Luckily the neighbours were understanding.


Every time I passed Kg. Badak I would stop by Pak Itam's house to listen to his silat exploits and pry his ilmu. He was a guru silat before and his dada mesti berisi.

Once I persuaded him to bring me to the nearby belukar to show me some useful plants. Apparently, he is not a bomoh because I learned only a few things about plants but he drew a diagram (L) to determine when is the best time to do important things, to war for example. I could not remember what he said about the diagram nor could I decipher it now.

He also gave me several ilmu mempertahankan diri to memorise and practice. Under modern day situations such things are no more in vogue. Being no need of it, that traditional knowledge is being lost.

Pak Itam during his heydays is known as Talib Harimau. As a pendekar he plays a peripheral role at the palace on standby to serve the orders of the sultan. He is or was rather I could call as a model budak raja.

INTERMISSION: MULUT KOMUT, KOMUT MULUT

Mulut komut, komut mulut membangkok-membengkok China doll.

Mulut komut, komut mulut Tak Nak Tak Lena Imam Hadhari.

… during the regime of Slumberjack, they sold the highly profitable MAS Catering to Slumberjack's brother. Then MAS had no choice but to enter into a long term catering contract with the former "MAS Catering" now owned by Slumberjack's brother …

… the Indian boy's wife is a business partner of Slumberjack's daughter, whose husband is of course none other than Slumberjack's SIL. And Slumberjack is also the "Advisor" to MAS.

… one of Slumberjack's sister-in-laws (the sister of his late wife) has shares in Tune Air which is the major shareholder in Air Asia. And her shares in Tune Air are believed to be held through a proxy controlled by that Riong Kali fellow. Riong Kali is of course the business partner of the SIL in that taxpayer owned company that they hijacked from the EPF at below market prices under Slumberjack's regime... (OutSyed The Box, 14 March)

Mulut komut, komut mulut 1Malaysia (k)anak Bapak (Pembangunan).

 i-Think - gerak gempur, zero defect, anti-PPSMI.

my wife Permata 111.1M, GLC CEO 27M  my brother.

Mulut komut, komut mulut lembu budu.

… lembu condo fiasco was never approved by Cabinet. Why? Because it was never submitted for Cabinet approval. One Minister simply signed it away, using his authority. RM250 million - just like that... (OutSyed The Box, 14 March).

DIRTY FARMING IS NOT DIRTY DANCING

A movie "Dirty Dancing" was shown in theatres a few years ago. Being not interested in such a movie I did not watch it. Thus has no idea what it was all about.

Was it something like the Egyptian dance of 1400 B.C.?

Having been exposed to various modes of multi-storeyed farming as in dusun where there is admixture of fruit trees al beit haphazard, planting cocoa under coconuts or fruit trees to sago or oil palm cropping in belukar conditions, I become a strong proponent of nature farming.

The concept is growing of niche crops to fit the natural environment with minimal changes as possible rather than change the environment to fit the crops. The latter is much practised for commercial growing of crops.

A viable approach of nature farming was scientifically developed by Masanobu Fukuoka in Japan in the seventies. His book (1985) "The Natural Way of Farming" gives a detail guide of the theories and practices involved.

This practice is one way to reduce overloading the globe with chemicals. Masanobu has been campaigning to spread out the green philosophy.

Organic farming is a form of nature farming.

Good arable is getting scarce and ways must be developed to grow crops for food and other needs.

Having failed to do nature farming in a partially wooded 8ac lot due to buffalo and human disturbances SAVE turn to a desert-like sandy lot to grow limau kasturi, limau nipis and jatropha. These crops are hardy to take the used tin-mining area. The trick with jatropha growing is to intercrop with fast income generating crops.

Old wood chips and other wastes are placed as ground mulch at the base of  limau kasturi to give cooling effect and provide organic fertilizer when decomposed.

Additional processed organic fertlizer is applied and the rest we leave it nature. Buffaloes roam to graze and donate dung at night in the area They do not eat the plants but belalang kunyit seems to be a problem eating the leaves to barren twigs.



Well it is too early to tell whether we could supply Tesco or the many mamak restaurants around.

KU BERSUA ZA'ABA DI PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA

Ku tersesat ke Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia (PNM) dua hari sudah. Dari IJN menyeberangi jalan Tun Razak menaiki jejantas dan akan tiba ke PNM. Pada hari tersebut ada pameran pertandingan penulisan karangan dianjurkan oleh Ireland yang diadakan tiap tahun.

Ada rombongan murid2 sekolah rendah menghadhiri pameran tersebut. Pegawai PNM mengeloh menyatakan tidak ramai murid Melayu melibatkan diri untuk masuk pertandingan menulis dalam bahasa Inggeris itu.

Dalam dewan turut dipamerkan gambar dan poster karyawan2 dan hasil karya mereka.

Ku terserempak dengan pendita Za'aba!

Antara karya beliau:
Zainal Abidin b Ahmad (Za’ba). 1921. Teachings of Muhammad – an Islamic missionary. Mr Khwaja Kamaluddin. Islamic Reveview, June-July 1921

1925. Dato’ Paroi, were-tiger. JMBRAS III(1):74-8

1932. Umbi Kemajuan. Jelutong Press, Penang

1941. Recent Malay literature. JMBRAS XIX(1)1961. Sejarah Ringkas Tanah Melayu. Pustaka Melayu, Singapura 226ms


1947. The various significations of the Malay word ‘sejok’. JMBRAS 20(2):41-4

1949. Malay festivals and some aspects of Malay religious life. JMBRAS XXII(1):94-106





Selepas mencelah ngirop (Iban) kopi dan makan bihun goreng saya naik tingkat 4 membeli buku. Dapat 10% diskaun sambil disertakan beberapa buku percuma oleh En. Zulkefli.

Buku ini dihasilkan semasa penulis menjadi Mualim Tamu PNM 2007/08. Sebelumnya ia bertugas di Institute of Oriental Studies Moscow.

Alhamdulillah, beliau telah memeluk agama Islam dan kini bertugas di Akademi Pengajian Islam, UM.

Seperkara yang saya tidak tahu ialah Tan Sri Rashdan Baba, dulunya Pengetua Kolej Pertanian Malaya, Serdang pernah menjadi Pengerusi, Badan Penasihat PNM selama 20 tahun! Sempat saya mengamati beliau semasa belajar di Kolej tersebut awal tahuan 70an.

Za'aba dan Rashdan (Chembong) orang Nogori. Den pun samo jo topi tak hebat macam dio oghang!

Yang tak sedap dilihat dari luar bangunan PNM ialah timbunan sampah sarap di kaki jejantas.

Heran juga mengapa gate disebelah PNM ditutup seolah tidak menjemput? Dahlah senibentuk bangunan tudung saji seperti menutup aja!