Jobless for 3 years, diploma holder now earns $2,000 a month tapping rubber and farming fish
FOR three years, Mohamad Hatta Abd Halim tried hard to find a job.
Despite having a diploma in computer science, his efforts to land a white-collar position proved futile.
Then, the 26-year-old realised that there was money to be made in agriculture, reported the New Straits Times.
His financial independence began last year.
Now, in a good month, Mr Hatta takes home about $4,800 ($2,060) from tapping rubber on his 12ha family small holding, as well as selling freshwater fish.
He earns about RM2,800 from the sale fresh water fish from cage-culture farming in Sungai Pahang near Kampung Teluk Ira, where he lives.
Last year, the Pahang Skills Development Centre graduate managed to get a temporary job for several months.
But he became unemployed again when the company closed. It was then he turned to agriculture.
'Rubber-tapping is something I grew up with. I started doing it in secondary school and it is something you never forget,' he said in an interview.
Mr Hatta is not ashamed of dirtying his hands to earn a living.
He said: 'There is nothing to be ashamed of. My father has been a rubber tapper for a long time.'
His younger brother, Mr Ahmad Afendi, 23, who just left Universiti Utara Malaysia after completing a degree in economics, is also helping their father at the smallholding.
So, too, is younger brother Mohd Hafiz, 19, a sixth-former, but only during weekends and school holidays.
Mr Hatta is aware that many graduates would not tap rubber because of the hours and the smell of dried latex.
He has to wake up at the crack of dawn and tap rubber until 11am under the sweltering sun.
After that, he tends to his fish, which thrive in seven cages in the clear waters of the river.
'This is another good source of income as many restaurants in Temerloh and Kuala Lumpur prefer to serve freshwater fish, especially patin and tilapia,' he said.
Mr Hatta currently supplies an average of 50kg of patin and tilapia every week to an agent in Kuala Lumpur.
He doesn't care what people think; he has the last laugh at the bank.
The latest statistics show that there were 80,000 unemployed graduates in Malaysia last year. Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government was working to overcome the problem.
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New Straits Times » Local
SUCCESS STORY: Grad proves there's money in agriculture
M. Hamzah Jamaludin
TEMERLOH, Mar 21:
Mohamad Hatta Abd Halim has a message for unemployed graduates: There is money in agriculture.
In a good month, the diploma-holder in computer science takes home about RM4,800 from tapping rubber on his 12ha family smallholding, as well as selling freshwater fish.
He earns about RM2,800 from the sale of patin and tilapia from cage-culture farming in Sungai Pahang near Kampung Teluk Ira, where he stays.
The rest comes from tapping rubber, which now fetches a good price in the international market.
But the 26-year-old's story of financial independence only began last year, after three years of futile pursuit of white-collar jobs that never came his way.
Last year, the Pahang Skills Development Centre graduate managed to get a temporary job for several months, but had to join the ranks of the unemployed again when the company closed.
It was then that he decided to look towards what he knew best for a living.
"Rubber-tapping is some- thing I grew up with.
"I started doing it in secondary school and it is something you never forget," he said in an interview.
Hatta is not ashamed of dirtying his hands to earn a living.
"There is nothing to be ashamed of.
"My father himself has been a rubber tapper for a long time."
His younger brother Ahmad Afendi, 23, who just left Universiti Utara Malaysia after completing a degree in economics, is also helping their father at the smallholding.
So, too, are younger brother and Sixth Former Mohd Hafiz, 19, albeit only during the weekends and school holidays.
Hatta is acutely aware that many graduates will not warm to the prospects of tapping rubber due to constraints like the forbidding hours and the smell of dried latex.
He also has to wake up at the crack of dawn and tap rubber until 11am under the sweltering sun.
After that, he tends to his fish, which thrive in seven cages in the clear waters of the river.
"This is another good source of income as many restaurants here and in Kuala Lumpur prefer to serve freshwater fish, especially patin from Temerloh."
Hatta currently supplies an average of 50kg of patin and tilapia every week to an agent in Kuala Lumpur.
The fifth of 10 siblings and his two brothers are, however, the only ones still in the traditional family occupation.
"My other siblings prefer to work in offices, which they say is more glamorous!"
But Hatta's the one laughing all the way to the bank.
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