Growing Up in Post-War Malaya: A Memoir

Author: Umasuthan Kaloo
Publisher: Gerakbudaya
ISBN: 9789670076669
Weight: gm
Pages: 250 pp
Year: 
Price: RM68

The author was born in Ipoh in 1939 and this book recounts some of the challenges of growing up amidst two periods of colonialism, two major wars, and one minor war. The 15 years after 1957 were some of the happiest years for him, as being a persevering scholar won him scholarships that took him to the US and UK. There was peace, there was prosperity, there was very little discrimination and there was meritocracy.

It was from the early 1970s that things changed. What the author refers to as the Age of Greed crept in eventually to take hold of the country in an unforgiving iron grip for wealth and power. This iron grip slowly took hold of a large part of the country from the highest levels of elected office to the lowest levels of appointed office.

During a period of over 85 years, he lived through all these changes. This book describes some of the highlights of the country’s unfortunate regression from being one of the happiest in the world to one where discontent and division is deliberately sown in an all-consuming chase for more power and more wealth.