With close reference to at least 2 short stories, show how the writers depict the challenges

of growing up in Malaysia.

Though Malaysia is a relatively safe and harmonious country, not everyone has had it
easy. Im sure that many of us had faced various challenges while growing up in this country.
Several short stories in Malaysian Short Stories shows the trials and tribulations of growing up
in Malaysia, those few being Ratnamuni and A Removal in Pasir Panjang by K.S. Maniam,
and also Pretam Kaurs Through the Wall.

One obvious challenge of growing up in Malaysia is poverty. Often, it can be hard to
make a living. The Oxford English Dictionary (2006) explains poverty as the state of being
very poor. The harsh truth is that a small portion of our people could barely make enough to
feed their families. For example in Ratnamuni by K.S. Maniam, the storys protagonist,
Muniandy, is an immigrant from India who came to Malaya with nothing but a beggars
bundle which contained his precious uduku. Muniandy came to Malaya to make a living for
himself after his father had given away his rightful land to his brother. To overcome his poverty,
Muniandy held various jobs; he was a boat-rower before he met his wife, Malini, then later he
became a scavenger and a part-time seer. Despite his hardships, he makes sure that he provides a
comfortable life for his wife. Their cupboard has piles of clothes which he buys for Malini, and
their home is decorated with rattan chairs and glass tables. Realising that they do not own much,
Muniandy would save some money so his son could be born into some wealth. He kept [his]
own money, and the presents from people for whom [he] had chased the evil from their houses.
It was certainly difficult for Muniandy to make a living and he had to work all day long (I am
pushing the cart from morning to evening). Towards the later part of the story, when Ratnam
has grown up, he too faces problems with money. Since Ratnam did not go to school, he could
not read and write and so his career choices were limited. Luckily, Muniandy managed to get
Ratnam a job as a grass-cuter and find him a wife. However, Ratnam was quite wasteful in his
spendings and was using his money up on unnecessary things like jewellery, new saris, face
powder, [and] bicycles for the children. This causes Ratnam to owe debts to many people, and
makes Muniandy pay off all his debtors. Regardless of the lack of filial piety Ratnam showed
towards Muniandy, Muniandy still obeys Ratnams wishes. Muniandy also saves his money so
that Ratnam could buy his Japanese motor. Despite the fact that Ratnam was not even his
biological son, Muniandy still cares for him and was willing to part with his money so that
Ratnam can be fast and modern like the others. Poverty was certainly an obstacle for
Muniandy, who had to bend over backwards to ensure a better life for his family.

In Through the Wall, Pretam Kaur also illustrates how poverty is a challenge of
growing up in Malaysia. In this story, two different families lived in a house (Actually it was
one house, with one roof, but because two different families lived in it, that made it two houses)
which had a wall in between to separate the families. In one part, there lived a Punjabi man with
his wife and a family of boys and a little girl and in the other, a Chinese man who also had a
wife and a few children. Both men worked relatively low-paying jobs; the Punjabi man was a
cowherd and the Chinese man rode a trishaw. The main character of this story is the young
daughter of the Punjabi cowherd. Occasionally, the Punjabi children would peek at the Chinese
family through the chinks in the wall. The little girl noticed that the Chinese lady began to grow
big in a family way but did not realise that the lady was, in fact, pregnant. After some time, the
Chinese lady gave birth to a baby girl. The Chinese lady obviously loved her child, and she
hung a steel spring from a beam on the roof and stuck a sarong in it, and she would put the baby
in it and rock it. However, the girl noticed that there was a Chinese grandfather who would
always start grumbling when he came home. The old man grew more noisy after the baby had
come and he always scolded away in chinese which came through the wall. From time to time
after the grandfathers scolding, the little girl could see the Chinese lady crying softly with the
baby in her arms through the opening in the wall. Then one day, two Malay ladies came to the
Chinese familys house and looked at the baby, carried her and put their fingers on her cheeks
and smiled at her. They returned a few days later and took the baby girl away. The little Punjabi
girl noticed how visibly upset the Chinese lady was and ran in the house to spy on the woman.
She saw the lady sit on the bed and cry before proceeding to rock the empty sarong cradle.
Through her mother, the little girl found out that the Chinese family had sold their little child
for $90. Though an actual explanation was never offered, we could deduce that the Chinese
family had probably sold their baby girl because they were poor and had too many mouths to
feed. Poverty was, and is still, a serious problem in certain parts of Malaysia, and has driven
some people to make some drastic decisions.

Another challenge of growing up in Malaysia is the prejudice others might have against
you. Prejudice, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (2005) is the preconceived
opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. K.S. Maniams Ratnamuni, people
assumed that Muniandy was Malinis servant, showing the way because of his dark skin. His
wife, Malini, was fair-skinned (milk-white woman) and looked like a queen when she walks
behind him. Muniandy was constantly mocked and was called Stealer of white mans wife!
because it was rare for Indian people with fair skin to marry someone darker. The effects of
racial prejudice are apparent in this story. Racism and other forms of prejudice can affect a
persons behavior, thoughts and feelings.

In Removal in Pasir Panjang by K.S. Maniam, it is clear that racial prejudice is
practised against different races. Mrs. Tan, one of the newer residents in Pasir Panjang, rudely
called Nathan over to her house and had referred to him as a bottle man. The fact that he was
an Indian on a bicycle made him look like a typical bottle man of those days. Even after Nathan
denied that he bought bottles, Mrs. Tan exclaimed, Dont buy bottles! Dont want to buy from
me? Head to foot you are a bottle man! and started laughing. She made more crude remarks
after her young neighbour came to his defense and told her that Nathan was a teacher (A
teacher! A bottle man teaching our children!) Mrs. Tan practised racial racial prejudice and was
rather ignorant in not accepting the fact that ones skin colour does not define a person, nor does
it confine an individual to practice only a certain economic activity. Nathan found it hard to fit in
with the community of Pasir Panjang, who would sometimes consider him as nothing more than
a rag man. This shows how prejudice has made life difficult for some in Malaysia, especially
for those who are of different race than the predominant one of a specific area.

To summarise, the short stories Ratnamuni, Through the Wall, and Removal in
Pasir Panjang respectively illustrates how poverty and prejudice are challenges one may
encounter while growing up in Malaysia. In Ratnamuni, Muniandy had to take up multiple
jobs and work long hours just to provide a comfortable life for his beloved family. Not only that,
he had to endure insults for marrying a woman of a different skin colour. Poverty in Through
the Wall drove the Chinese family to sell their baby child for $90, and the prejudice practised
against Nathan in Removal in Pasir Panjang shows how life growing up in Malaysia is not
always smooth sailing.