Street-fighting fortitude in time of crisis

The 18-month dark period of Operation Lallang was physically and psychologically very trying for me because I had just returned to Malaysia as a fresh and poor graduate from my five-year stay in Australia. My father also passed away just two year earlier.

But, I finally overcame the many difficulties as the result, not of academic education, but of the kind of street-fighting fortitude and moral clarity we gradually built up in our characters as boys and girls helping parents to operate coffee shops in a socially and politically complex environment like Ipoh in the 1970s.

Of course, I have to thank my Korean landlady in Petaling Jaya's SEA Park who always prayed for my health and safety when I lived in a rented room in her bungalow during the period of Operation Lallang. I am glad her two kids have now grown up as really educated and charming ladies. I have also to thank my mother for supporting me morally in her quietly loving and approving manner.