Indonesians in Focus: Basrial Koto

By Barrie | October 25th, 2007 | No Comments

West Sumatrans have been known as commercially minded and savvy traders for a very long time. Many started without strong financial or educational backgrounds, so it has been their gritty determination on which they have built their reputation. Basrial Koto is one such Sumatran.

The 48-year-old native of Pariaman in West Sumatra is now a successful businessman in Riau and West Sumatra provinces, owning and leading MCB Group Holding Company.

In Riau’s capital Pekanbaru, he controls more than 10 companies, ranging from businesses in auto sales, farming, property and land transportation.

He owns Riau Mandiri daily newspaper and Radio Mandiri FM as well as Harian Sijori Mandiri in Batam, Riau Islands.

And in his hometown province, he owns Plaza Minang, West Sumatra’s first shopping center.

His success may be attributed to the fact he was born into a family not so well-off, he says.

He attended elementary school until the fourth grade and his childhood memories are crystallized around his mother’s hopes and dreams for his success.

“My father left the village to work and my mother did our neighbor’s laundry and weaved mats for an income,” he says.

“Every night, my mother would pray that I would not end up poor and commit crimes. I was sleeping on her lap and her tears fell on my cheek,” says Basrial as he told hundreds of traders from Minang about his childhood.

Minang is the name for West Sumatrans and the crowd listening to Basrial had gathered in Padang on Saturday.

In the crowd were some 800 Minang traders along with business people from neighboring countries Malaysia and Singapore.

They were all in town for a three-day gathering in Padang, which ended Sunday, to network and devise new ways to inspire a not-so-business-minded younger generation.

Basrial’s story began in 1972, with his determination to leave his home for Pekanbaru at the age of 13.

After a long but free bus trip to start his newly focused life, he worked as a public minivan’s assistant and learned to make clothes.

Five years later, he moved to Padang to learn auto trade and in 1983 he returned to Pekanbaru to start a used car business — a move that was to be his launching pad to success.

Another story is centered on restaurateur Hunaidi Jaba who owns four Sari Ratu restaurants in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
Although slightly different, his life story is equally inspirational.

At the age of 14, the native of Sawahlunto went to Pekanbaru, Singapore and then Kuala Lumpur, where he successfully ran a number of restaurants, despite having failed to complete his elementary schooling.

“I left home because of my parents’ poor conditions — I had to find my own livelihood,” says Sawahlunto, who before entering the business of hospitality, tried his hand at a number of trades including fishing and textiles.

After learning the craft of textile motifs, he ran his own business, taking products from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for export to Korea.

Stiff competition saw him leave the business in his wife’s hands before he opened his first Padang restaurant in cooperation with Sari Ratu in Jakarta.

Today Sawahlunto’s business has a daily turnover of up to Rp 30 million. And his next move will be to open in Singapore, he says.
Sociologist Mochtar Naim has researched the Minang people’s seemingly inbuilt habit called merantau — or leaving their hometown to seek a business career elsewhere.

Mochtar says like-minded people include the Acehnese, the Bugis in South Sulawesi and inhabitants of coastal towns across Java.
His research found that before the 16th century, Minang people traveled across Southeast Asia, traces of which can still be found in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

He said the Minang people’s success outside their hometowns could be attributed to “a habit of trusting their hearts to motivate their lives”.

Their strong motivation sees them reach their goals to solve their financial woes, he says.

“Socially, Minang people are educated by their families and community to be independent,” Mochtar says.

“They are used to living modestly, sleeping without beds, and from a young age become used to being yelled at when they cannot deal with or solve their own problems.”

Mochtar’s findings showed this family-based and morally focused education was the backbone behind the successes achieved by Basrizal and Junaidi.

But he said things were different today. The children of Minang receive a more formal education — a move Mochtar says has seen this generation become “soft and easily willing to give up, spoiled and without will”.

“So it’s a realistic worry that in the future, there will be no more Minang-minded people like Basrizal, Junaidi and Asril Das,” he said.

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb