There are times when one feels devastated after learning that someone has passed away even though that person may not be a close relative.
For me, one such person was Tan Kai Hee, Chairman of Hai-O Enterprise Bhd, who passed away on 22-2-22 at 85. As a gentleman of honour, he had a profound effect on me since I came to know him.
I had met him during the course of my work as a business journalist. In our first interview at his office in Klang, scheduled for an hour, it overran to almost three hours as there was much to be said and exchanged.
That began our long friendship that stretched to some 20 years.
Tan Yen Fong, who wrote a biography on the Kluang-born Tan, described him as always a humble and modest person. "He will help those in need without hesitation, just like a knight will jump to save a distressed soul. A person with such qualities is hard to find nowadays," she wrote.
The ever-soft-spoken Tan recalled: When I was 13 years old, my father was deported back to China by the colonialists. My mother had no choice but to leave for China with my six siblings while my eldest sister, my younger brother Qiang and I stayed back to face the uncertainties of life. But I never forgot my mother's kind smile and gentle voice.
She taught me to "be a useful man" and this was my beacon, guiding me in my life journey and reminding me to avoid the wrong path. It also reminded me to be a useful person, to contribute to society and country."
Tan had led a troubled teenage life and joined the socialist movement in his youth, As a poor boy, he barely had enough to eat.
In the mid-1960s, Tan was detained for eight years by the authorities for his socialist views until 1973. Upon his release, he took on several menial jobs before he found employment at a company selling Chinese medicinal products.
It was here that Tan flourished. But there was a spark in him to start a company of his own and help those who had been with him during their struggle.
As someone known for inciting workers to strike when they were treated unfairly, Tan wanted to show how bosses should treat employees.
After pooling RM168,000 from about 80 of his labour movement comrades, Hai-O Group was established on May 1, 1975. The date clearly signified Tan's continued passion for the labour movement; the masses, particularly the downtrodden class; and most significantly, demonstrating that as shareholders who were once labourers, would try to change their destiny and make a difference in the business world.
"We chose the name Hai-O. It means seagull in Chinese and symbolised our desire for the company and shareholders to embody the spirit of the seagull, to brave the winds and waves fearlessly, and soar to great heights like the seagull spreading its wings and flying high up in the sky," he once said when I asked why a seagull was chosen.
Although Tan knew the road ahead was difficult, he was nevertheless fired up by the presence of many of corporate bigwigs at Hai-O's launch.
Tan also took the cue from the company that he had last worked for and focused on traditional medicinal products by placing his instincts on a tonic made from male silkworms. It became a hit because of Hai-O's deliberate low-pricing formula.
From there, Hai-O grew into a wholesale and retail entity for traditional healthcare medicine, multi-level marketing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and Chinese medicinal clinics. But Tan didn't lose sight of espousing the corporate culture of "from society, for society" at Hai-O and made sure no one was exploited, be it employees or business partners.
After a public listing on Bursa Malaysia in 1996, it hit a market capitalisation of RM1.2 billion amidst the boom cycle in 2015. While Hai-O has been noted for declaring handsome dividends annually, its 40th anniversary dividend pay-out in that year was true to its socialist ideals when it declared a record-breaking 100 per cent dividend!
Unknown to many, Tan had the foresight to eventually establish a separate company under the Hai-O Group to deal with the multi-level marketing initiatives as almost all its distributors are Malays.
Known as Sahajidah Hai-O Marketing, it was to differentiate from another entity that deals with alcoholic tonics and traditional medicinal cures.
I once mentioned to Tan that given the multi-racial mix of Hai-O's staff and distributors, there was merit to hold regular goodwill camps for their children to espouse the importance of unity and harmony to avoid their "compartmentalised existence" under the company's CSR efforts. Tan was in full support of the idea and hoped that it could materialise for a more united and harmonious Malaysia.
Among Tan's close-knit circle of confidants, he regarded the late Dr M. K. Rajakumar, his labour movement mentor, and national laureate Datuk Usman Awang, also popularly known as "Tongkat Waran", as the shining torches in his life when he was lost and had warmed him when he was cold.
Unfortunately, little is known about his association with Usman and Tan's promotion of Malay literature. He even set aside funds to establish a foundation in his downtown Kuala Lumpur office in 2014 to manage the royalties of Usman Awang's works and promote his works to reinforce their place in the nation's cultural heritage.
With his strong moral outlook, Tan often practised what he preached. Words like selfless, righteous, trustworthy and kind-hearted come easily to describe him. On this, I'm still astounded till this day as to why he had volunteered to carry one of my bags at Beijing's airport some 13 years ago.
There he was, 27 years my senior, insisting that he should shoulder some of my burden.
I suppose he was just as elated that I had come to write about bilateral relations between Malaysia and China, a country he had grown to admire, especially its Belt and Road Initiative, also billed as the "21st-century Maritime Silk Road", which covers 65 countries and eventually benefiting four billion people.
I have lost a friend and Hai-O, a mentor. But Tan has prepared Hai-O's future well by tutoring his son, Keng Kang, 45, to carry the torch firmly.
The ever magnanimous and realistic Tan had this to say to his comrades: "I have no doubt that Keng Kang will not walk the same road we had travelled, but will explore new roads." Wise words from a socialist.
The writer was Bernama editor-in-chief.