We really didn’t know what was going on other than that something was happening in KL.
And remember ya, in those days getting the news in a day was considered good already so we only found out what happened 2 days later.
We were quite relaxed with the curfew… we stayed indoors for a while but we eventually started going out. Nothing happened, in fact it was a pretty quiet week as far as we were concerned. Perhaps it was different in the urban areas like Ipoh town but we were in the Tamil settlement and everyone was mostly Indian with a few Chinese – so I guess we were in a “safe” zone. I think my parents might have stocked up on supplies though, but they really weren’t that concerned.
How do you view racial harmony today?
Oh, it was much better in those days. I can hardly imagine too many concerns, but then again we were a divided society with each race having their own village and community. Generally people were more tolerant in those days, until it became political. Even today, socially speaking, people are okay – just not when politics get involved.