THERE aren’t that many like Mohd Syukur Khamis, the Malaysian ‘Mowgli’ who speaks the language of buffaloes.
Like the original Mowgli of Rudyard Kipling fame, Syukur is fearless. Despite the concussion after a fall on Saturday morning following a photo shoot, he was his old self.
And his spirit, indefatigable as always. Like the boy in the Jungle Book, he just can’t stay away from his animals. Just a day in hospital, he is already missing his buffaloes — Boy, Semek and Saat.
This 14-year-old tends to the animals like he is one of them. He speaks to them. And they listen to him. And in between, Syukur manages to be at school in Padang Midin in Kuala Terengganu.
Unsurprisingly, he recently won the most outstanding student award for Kuala Terengganu district. Indefatigability has its own reward. Syukur wants to be a livestock breeder like his father, Khamis Jusoh. And his grandfather before him. Khamis and Syukur love their animals just as Jusoh did.
Sadly, Khamis’s indefatigable love for livestock hasn’t had the fortune that his son has had.
Syukur draws people to the farm. They come to take pictures of Syukur with his buffaloes. And go on to win awards and acclaim.
Khamis’s love for his livestock is intangible. It cannot be reduced to pixels. Khamis’s kind of love is flash shy. A true blue livestock breeder doesn’t pose for the camera.
He is a boots-on-the-farm-type of a man. No throngs will follow Khamis to his farm in Kampung Kubang Bujuk in Terengganu.
This is no photo-opportunity. No one from the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry has paid a visit to give him a leg-up, though he has been to the state office.
Neither has anyone from the East Coast Economic Regional Development Council (ECERDC), a body set up purportedly to bring socio-economic transformation to the region.
If neither the ministry nor ECERDC is interested in helping small livestock breeders like Khamis to grow their business, who will? It is no point complaining about Malaysia’s meat production going south, if we do so little to help small livestock breeders.
The 1960s had a solution, though. The Pawah (sharing) system, they called it then. Under the system, breeders were given a certain number of cattle to boost their income, but it was discontinued.
There is much promise there, provided it is tweaked. Pawah failed because it was given to people who had no affinity for animals. Instead of breeding, these newcomers to livestock farming sold the cattle for instant gratification.
The system didn’t fail because there was something inherently wrong with it. It failed because those who were tasked with the job blundered.
They erred in selecting the right breeders. Like we select the breed, we must select the breeders.
Those who come to the trade from generation-to-generation are not in it for instant reward; they are there for the long haul. Like Jusoh and Khamis.
We must help people like Khamis to hold their heads up and declare to the world: “I am a cattle breeder.” Syukur has done this for his father through the photo shoots.
The ministry and ECERDC must do their part.