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.
About the Author
Umasuthan Kaloo holds degrees in engineering and management from universities in Kuala Lumpur, Berkeley, Cranfield and Cardiff. From 1963 he worked in jobbing workshops as a mechanical engineer, taught in the University of Malaya as a lecturer, taught part-time on the MBA programmes conducted by Cranfield University and Southern Cross University, and worked with an international firm of management and technology consultants rising to the level of Divisional Director in London. He launched his own management and technology consultancy in Kuala Lumpur in 1990 and retired in 2010. He has now taken to writing and projects in agriculture and technical training to keep busy.
