JUNE 15 — Tony Goh, 69, is a happy man by design. He is very proud of his wife Ming’s artistic flair as an interior designer and painter. This outward fondness arises from the fact he, too, has a deep attachment for design and artistry.

He has redesigned the interior of his residential properties and secured rents or sale of up to double that of market prices. He gets a “kick” in raising the prominence of the interior design elements, over that of the conventional size and location factors in the property valuation process.

An early success 40 years ago was in renting out a house for RM1,900 per month, which was twice the going rate, and to cap it, was paid a full year in advance. That triggered a lifelong passion.

One of Tony’s former homes was the residence of a European ambassador, sold at close to twice the valuation report price. The embassy thought it was fair-priced, as the ambasssador’s family only needed to move in with their furniture.

His hobby is deep-sea fishing, which takes him out to open sea for days, at least once a month. Otherwise, early morning runs with his canines (best pals), and WhatsApp his REDs gang on his observations when he’s done — at around 6am!

Tony’s roots in the country go back about 110 years.

Tony Goh finds himself as busy as ever even though he is retired.

Goh Leng Soon — the original clay man

Leng Soon came from the Teochew enclave of Swatow province to Malaya in 1907 to seek his fortune.

His entire home village was in the clay industry, and with that background knowledge, he proceeded to set up a ceramics factory in Setapak, Selangor. They produced flowerpots, latex cups (for latex collection), terra cotta cooking pots and crude drainage pipes.

Three years on, he decided to make Malaya his home and brought his only son, Siang Kow (born 1902), to join him. Siang Kow, who had one year of English instruction in China, was enrolled in an English medium school. This was considered quite radical then but that was the practicality of Leng Soon.

He soon set up a trading arm to sell liquor and his clayware. Those were the clannish days where similarities in surnames, home provinces or dialects were “visas” to licences and preferential treatment, and he went with the flow.

The kilns were eventually moved to Segambut, on land he bought in the 1920s. Business thrived and when Leng Soon died in 1939, Siang Kow took charge.

Goh Ban Huat (GBH)

In 1942, the Japanese military used the facilities in the ceramic kilns to introduce white glazed wares and mechanised the potters’ wheels using electric motors.

Output was then customised to serve the Imperial Army, i.e. agricultural pipes to drain airstrips, rice bowls, higher end cups and saucers. As a result, the owners and workers were rewarded with sufficient rice quotas, conveniently stored in GBH premises.

A worker making an agricultural pipe at the GBH kiln in the 1940s.

After the Japanese left, the unwitting “transfer of knowledge and technology” gave GBH a tremendous head start. They were able to manufacture a whole new array of products, electric insulators for street lighting, ornamental wall hangings, vases, glazed white cups and saucers. From the mid 1940s onwards, all coffee shops of any note were using GBH products sold under the “DIAMOND” brand. Using the “white glazed” technology, they ventured into sanitary ware. Goh Ban Huat Pottery Works Ltd was duly registered in 1948.

At the height of the Emergency, Segambut residents were rounded up as part of the Briggs’ Plan to be resettled in cordoned camps, which eventually evolved into new villages. The idea was to cut off supplies to communists by sympathisers among the Chinese squatters. GBH premises was spared.

It was boom time for GBH in the rebuilding years of Malaya. They were almost the exclusive supplier of clay pipes for the building and construction industry, other than imported marques. And the increased demand for rubber during the Korean War resulted in huge orders for latex cups.

By the 1970s, the company became formally known as GBH. Siang Kow’s son, Tony joined in 1971.

At the outbreak of AIDS in the mid 1980s, GBH was approached to produce hand formers, which was a necessary component to produce gloves.

GBH was able to produce at half the cost of existing suppliers. To have an idea of the demand of hand gloves then, the International Trade and Industry Ministry had reportedly issued an estimated 400 licences to over 200 factories for the production of hand formers.

With the new product line, GBH’s operations were organised under four product divisions — tableware, sanitary ware, clay pipes and hand formers.

In 1987, Siang Kow passed away.

Some notable commissions — GBH supplied the entire sanitary ware to the Petronas Twin Towers and Suria KLCC. They have also supplied the full dinnerware sets, including cutleries and glassware to 76 Malaysian foreign missions through their high-end brand, Crown Lynn, replacing Noritake and Wedgewood. They were at the forefront of “Buatan Malaysia”.

The founders and heirs of GBH had played an integral part in the physical construction of infant Malaya, to her post-war years, independent Malaya, and eventually Malaysia.

In 2004, the Goh family lost control of the company through what they thought as a “questionable” collusion. Tony continued to work under strenuous conditions and decided to retire in 2009. They also chose to “cut their losses”, by not appealing the High Court decision from their civil suit, conceding conditions wouldn’t favour. The family had since sold their remaining shares.

Postscript

Tony has daughters, Michelle and May, and three grandsons from his earlier marriage. With Ming, they have a son, Kym. He fashions retirement as a brand new career and can hardly find enough time for his various commitments.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.