Mohamed Dris's friend, Ah Tuck, in front of the hut they shared. – The Malaysian Insider pic, Najjua Zulkefli, January 6, 2015.An old man who has been living in a forest for 30 years near Kuala Lumpur has been hailed as a refreshing antidote to all the suspicion and hate speech that has infected the public discourse lately.Seventy-four-year-old Mohamed Dris shared his little hut in the forest with his friend, Ah Tuck, 70, proving that despite all the talk of communal distrust, Malaysians in reality get along pretty well.Two dogs had also been Mohamed’s loyal companions. They had kept him safe and would follow him in his forays into the forest, near Wangsa Melawati.“I lived with an old Chinese guy. He doesn’t have any teeth left and he can’t really see all that well," Mohamed said of his friend, who works as a security guard.“I also sympathise with Ah Tuck. He has siblings but had a falling out with them," he added when met by The Malaysian Insider at his temporary shelter recently.After his plight was highlighted in the media recently, a printing company had offered Mohamed a temporary place to stay in an unoccupied room in its factory.The media had reported about Mohamed after the Wangsa Maju police in Kuala Lumpur posted a story about him on their Facebook.The cops had initially gone to Mohamed’s hut last month to check on a complaint that the building was being used as a drug haunt.Instead, they found Mohamed and his two dogs. They took pity on him and had been providing him with daily meals since then.
Mohamed Dris now lives in a room at a factory. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, January 6, 2015.While happy to have been provided a proper place to stay, Mohamed is worried about his two dogs and is sure that they are missing him.“The dogs are very good. I couldn’t bring them with me but they sensed that I was leaving. Dogs are smart.“They go with me in the forest when I have to pass motion. They are very attached to me and they can sense whether a person is good or bad," said Mohamed.Although he is grateful for the new place, he is sad to say goodbye to the hut which has been his home for 30 years.“I like living in the hut. But I hear they want to tear it down."Humble beginningsOriginally from Raub, Pahang, Mohamed started working as a rubber tapper when he was 16.“I didn’t go to school. Many people were like that back then. We all went out to find work at 16.“At the time I was paid RM3 a day to tap rubber. I worked for a year in a rubber estate in Raub before moving to Kuala Lumpur.“I used to work as a rubber tapper in this area back then when there was a rubber plantation. There were about 100 tappers like me when they started the plantation."According to previous media reports, after the plantation closed sometime in the 1980s, Mohamed had nowhere to go, no job and not enough money to rent a place for himself.So he built the hut from discarded zinc and wooden planks and had been living there since.Mohamed had an elder brother and sister but both have since died. He never married.The damp condition of the forest has taken a toll on his health.“Both my feet hurt because they constantly get wet. I have to massage them with ointment. My fingers are also bent," he said.Although destitute, Mohamed, who suffers from diabetes, said he was never one to bother people for help and would try to take care of himself as best as he could.
The hut in the forest which was shared by Mohamed Dris, his friend Ah Tuck and two dogs. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, January 6, 2015.He also cringes at the thought of going to live in an old folks' home.“There are many problems in those places. I know there’s food there but half of the people are okay while the other half are not.“Here sometimes people stumble upon me and some of them offer aid maybe RM2 or RM3," he said of the Indonesian workers who sometimes give him money and check on him.Friend in needAh Tuck, meanwhile, tells of a different side to Mohamed.“He used to like this Indian woman. They were friends for six years but she died. She used to live in SS2 in Wangsa Maju.“He gave all his EPF (Employee Provident Fund) savings to her," said Ah Tuck.Ah Tuck himself is from Sungai Siput, Perak. He was a rubber tapper in the same area as Mohamed but managed to get a job as a security guard.“I try to give him a meal every day but it’s hard because my salary is just RM650 a month."Ah Tuck is happy that Mohamed will be moving out of the hut as he has been worried about his friend’s health.He will continue to stay in the hut and look after the two dogs.“I don’t want a house. You never know, I could 'go’ anytime," he said.Help pours inMohamed’s plight had caught the attention of Achik Sdn Bhd manager Abu Zaki Abd Hashim who read about it in the media and through the Wangsa Maju Police Department’s Facebook page.
DSP A. Asmadi Abd Aziz says his men had been helping Mohamed Dris. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, January 6, 2015.“I got in touch with the police and offered Mohamed a temporary place to stay. We have a room above our factory and there is a couple that works there that can take care of him.“We can feed him and monitor his health as well because the factory always has workers at all times of the day," Abu Zaki told The Malaysian Insider.Abu Zaki praised Mohamed’s ability to be independent and to live alone in the forest.“I hope that the government comes to his aid."Wangsa Maju district police chief DSP A. Asmadi Abd Aziz said it was his men's own initiative to bring Mohamed food after they found him in the forest.“We found him shivering and hungry. I am proud of my men who brought him food and water every day.“I hope that other agencies will come forward and give him aid because obviously he can’t go to the government departments. I hope they come and help him." – January 6, 2015.
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