Two weeks after Tok Borhan passed away, my father went to our village to speak with Encik Saad. A retired lawyer living just across the lake from Grandmother’s house, Encik Saad is a respected figure in the community, though not without controversy—his local land acquisitions, including a plot once owned by the late Tok Bongsu…
It was late September, and our day in Seremban began with a visit to the hospital to see Pak Ngah Ghazali. Pak Ngah is someone who always appreciates visitors, a familiar rhythm for him given his frequent hospital stays for dialysis and other ongoing health challenges. True to form, he half-jokingly asked us to smuggle…
After months of navigating legal and familial systems, today was the day we finally turned our attention back to the land itself. Our goal was to meet with the local caretaker, Tok Borhan, the man who held the key to the palm oil estate’s past and who, we hoped, would be our business partner for…