Mohd Zain Bin Ahmad - the Man instrumental in setting up the first Malaysian container terminal

(From left to right) - Mohd Zain Ahmad, Yahya Ghani (first General Manager of Johor Port)

 and the writer

Note: This article was written in 2012 by my father, David Tan as a tribute to his good friend, En Mohd  Zain Bin Ahmad. Sadly, En. Zain passed away on 4th April 2017.

These days, we have many container ports in Malaysia such as Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas, North Port, Penang Port and West Port. However, very few people realised that Port Klang was the first container port in South East Asia. As a matter of fact, Port Klang was at one time even ahead of Singapore, though Singapore did subsequently become the No. 1 port in the world.

This was all due to one man by the name of Haji Mohd Zain Bin Ahmad or affectionately known as Che Zain. Che Zain was one of the early Malayan graduates from the London School of Economics and had created history as the first Malaysian General Manager of Port Klang Authority (Lembaga Pelabuhan Klang). I could still vividly recall many years ago, Che Zain who was then my neighbour came to my house and told me that Tun Abdul Razak (later became the Prime Minister of Malaysia) who was then the Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee asked him to set up the first container terminal in Malaysia (later to be known as Klang Container Terminal (KCT) and subsequently changed to Northport (Malaysia)). Sitting with Tun Abdul Razak in the Committee was the then Minister of Finance, Tun Tan Siew Sin who was known to be very careful and thrifty when it came to spending taxpayers' money. I was told that initially, Tun Tan Siew Sin refused to approve the project as there were no commitments from major container shipping lines to use the proposed terminal in Port Klang, therefore this posed to be huge risk to the country. Those of us who are familiar with the shipping industry in the 1960s would know that the major player at that time was a container line consortium known as “Trio Group” which consisted of Overseas Container Line, NYK and another. Che Zain being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport (by the way FCIT was earned by him and not given as an honorary title!) played a major role to convince the Committee on the importance of the proposed container terminal. Needless to say the Committee was convinced and decided to take that risk by approving the project. I was told that the project cost a sum of RM45 Million which was a lot of money back in 1967-68. For an approval to be given for such an amount would mean great expectation from the Government. Che Zain literally told me that he was placing his “head on the chopping block”. He knew that any failure or mistake on his part in carrying out this project would mean a major dent to his reputation. Anybody who knows Che Zain would know him as a selfless man of great integrity, honesty and willing to shoulder the heavy responsibility in carrying out the task. His no nonsense approach and his excellent knowledge in managing ports served him well in carrying out the project.

The first person appointed to head the container terminal was Mr. Chung Kek Choo. Prior to that appointment, Kek Choo was the Traffic Manager of Klang Port Authority (LPK). Kek Choo was later sent to the United States of America to study the operations of container ports. Sadly after acquiring the knowledge in operating container ports, Kek Choo left Malaysia for Singapore in 1969.

Kek Choo was hired by Mr. Howe Yoon Chong who was then the Chairman of Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) (later became Head of Singapore’s Civil Service and subsequently Singapore’s Minister of Defence). In those days, Singapore’s PSA was not allowed to employ non-Singaporeans to work in the port. Therefore to avoid this direct ruling, Kek Choo was brought in under the guise of “Special Assistant”. Subsequently, Kek Choo went on to become a consultant with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

As you can see, Malaysia was a pioneer in setting up a container terminal in this region and all of this largely owed to my old and very dear friend, Che Zain. I could write a lot of things about Che Zain as he is truly a man that is admired by many. Even though, Che Zain has served the country well but unfortunately being a quiet and private man, he was never given any due recognition by the country he loves so much. A lot of things stated in this article could be verified by one of LPK’s illustrious former employee, Dato’ Abdul Manan Othman (later became a Cabinet Minister under Tun Hussein Onn’s administration) during Che Zain’s tenure as the General Manager. There were many illustrious personalities that had served under Che Zain such as Datuk Harun Din, En. Hashir Abdullah and Datuk M. Rajasingam.

So, where is En Zain today? En Zain who is now in his 80s is living a quiet life in Subang Jaya.