Youths returning home to Yong Peng to build businesses

Home advantage: Mohamad Mazuqk and wife Nurul Fazira Mohd Paing, serving their signature burgers at their kiosk along the new Yong Peng Walk.

YONG PENG: Beyond its famous mee suah and reputation as a stopover town between Johor Baru and Kuala Lumpur, Yong Peng is quietly becoming a place where young people are choosing to return home to.

Drawn by growing business opportunities, a lower cost of ­living and the chance to be closer to their loved ones, a new generation of entrepreneurs is proving they can build a future without heading to the city.

For Mohamad Mazuqk Thajudeen, 33, the decision meant walking away from nearly eight years of working in restaurants, hotels and coffee shops in Singapore.

However after getting married, he no longer wanted to spend long hours away from his wife and parents.

“I kept asking myself, how long could I stay in another country? Even if I earned more money, I couldn’t be close to my family,” he said.

Darren presenting his cafe’s dishes.

Returning to Yong Peng in 2019, he started a roadside burger stall before securing one of only two kiosks at the newly-built Yong Peng Walk, where he operates Hands Down Burgers.

Today, the business sells up to 150 burgers on weekends and employs three part-time workers.

In the case of Wong Hua Mian, he returned to Yong Peng to help build his family’s durian business.

After two years working away from home, he came back and picked up the skills needed for the trade, from pruning trees and managing pests to processing fruit and handling exports.

Today, the family manages about 120 acres of durian orchards stretching as far as Bekok.

“Some people think you must go to the city to build a career.

“For me, I found my future right here in Yong Peng, in the orchards my father started.”

Hua Mian with durians from his family’s orchard.

Another returning Yong Peng local, Darren Wong Wei Li’s homecoming was inspired by both family and opportunity.

After working in the film ­industry and later venturing into catering during the Covid-19 pandemic, he had wanted to open a cafe in Johor Baru.

Instead, he returned to Yong Peng and opened Santai Kopitiam earlier this year.

“What surprised me was how much Yong Peng has changed.

“People here have spending power now. At lunchtime, the ­restaurant is full,” said Darren, 29.

He said he wanted to create a place where people from different backgrounds could gather over a meal.

“Santai means relax,” he said.

“For me, it also means different races sharing one table and at ease with one another.”