SELANGAU, Sibu: It is easy to track businesswoman Menut Intasin but it is not as easy as to keep up with this gutsy 63 year-old Iban entrepreneur.
GUTSY VENTURE: Menut at her family’s modest oil palm private estate.
This extraordinary woman has defied all odds to be what she is today, where she was able raise three children on her own without relying on help from any government welfare assistance.
Since she established herself in Selangau town, she wanted the government to build more schools within the vicinity as she thinks that it is of paramount importance.
The reason she told The Borneo Post Adventure Team (BAT) is that she never had any form of education and she was not able to read and write.
At this point she doesn’t want the children in Selangau to be in her shoes as before and that her success in the business environment was never easy. Menut pointed out that she had to rely on her own wits and she had to be cunning throughout her life to establish what ever business she can lay her hands on.
Born with an uncanny business acumen, she is a well known figure and very much respected by the business community here in Selangau.
This Iban woman who started small in life working as a tailor’s assistant and eked a living by sewing buttons on clothes in Tawau was an inspirational story for her children who have now established themselves in the business community here. Menut wanted more development to come to Selangau so that the business community here would thrive further.
What ever business that she started with since 1981 here will be more established not only for her but her peers.
Menut also faced set back in 2000 when a few shops, including hers were gutted by fire but fortunately she had her reserves in the bank and she used it to turn her business around.
In the last ten years, she is content that she can recover what was lost and now she is more cautious of her business.
She is eager to diversify into other industry.
Menut also saw a huge opportunity in the oil palm industry and she and her family decided to try their hands in that venture.
She hoped the government would lift up the livelihood of the mainly Iban community here and that they are given the good infrastructure and opportunities that can increase the social economic development of a small town like Selangau.