Cheah Teng Hong is the director of Corporate Finance at the World Bank, where he has been since 1981. In this interview, one of Penang’s sons looks at where he was born and grew up from his current home in Washington, DC and ruminates over the roads he has taken. Interview by Kee Thuan Chye.

You were born and bred in Penang. How did you find growing up there?

I loved growing up in Penang. I was lucky enough to live on Gurney Drive, in one of a row of old small link houses next to the old playground there. These old houses, which have since been torn down for a food court, only had bucket latrines, and the houses were well worn even in those days, but I loved living there on the beachfront.

I loved the beautiful golden sunrises and sunsets, the quietness and serenity of Gurney Drive during the day and the hustle and bustle of cars, bikes, hawkers and parading people at night. Growing up in Penang in the 1950s and 1960s was growing up in a time when people were friendly, simple, self-effacing and down-to-earth (as the Hokkiens say, “lau sit”).

What are some of the memorable moments you have of your growing-up years?

Penang hawker food! Enjoying the ride up the funicular railway to Penang Hill, the monkey cups on the way up, the cool air and beautiful flowers and gardens at the top, and the view of the George Town lights in the evening. Th e camaraderie of my friends and the great teachers from Wellesley Primary School and Penang Free School (PFS). Fishing and swimming at the beaches along Batu Ferringhi with my parents. Swimming and picnicking at the Sungai Pinang fresh water pool. Playing with the kids from the kampong behind my house (since torn down for a housing development) who taught me how to fish from the seawall with just a line wrapped around an old milk can.

Then you went abroad for further studies?

My high school grades, though more than ample to get into a good British university for a tough subject like Engineering, were not considered good enough for Universiti Malaya, so like many other students of my background in my Upper Six Science class in PFS, I had to choose to go overseas.

I felt bad as it would cost my parents a lot of money to send me to England, but my parents would not have me forgo college just to save them money. So it was that I left for England in 1973.

When did you leave the island to live and work overseas?

I actually came back to Malaysia to work in 1976 after getting my Mechanical Engineering degree. I worked for a while in the emerging electronics industry at Bayan Lepas, and then as an engineer for Hargill Engineering in Kuala Lumpur, designing fl at-bed trailers, tanker-trailers and aircraft refuelling tankers until 1979.

Being a Penang boy who liked the tranquillity and the kinder, gentler demeanour of Penangites, I did not enjoy the big-city speed and social climate of Kuala Lumpur as much.

As the engineering industry was experiencing a slow period at the time, my wife and I decided that we should go back to England for me to do an MBA at Manchester Business School to augment my Engineering degree and broaden my employment options.

We thought there was a chance we could return to Penang after my MBA, but we also knew we might not come back if we could find suitable employment overseas, given various episodes of unequal treatment we had faced when working in Kuala Lumpur, and the fact that we didn’t want our children to have to face the same difficulties.

I was fortunate enough to be selected by the World Bank in 1981 to join its Young Professionals programme. At the time, about 25 candidates were selected each year from about over 10,000 that applied from all over the world. We moved to Washington, DC (where the bank is headquartered) and I have remained with the bank ever since.

Could you tell us a bit about your work?

I am at present working as the director of Corporate Finance for the World Bank. In my early years at the bank, I used to work in development operations, travelling to various member countries like Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India to appraise development projects.

Working in development is rewarding work, as you feel that what you do is helping to make a difference for the poor of the world. When you work with the poor and on projects to help them and create growth, it makes you appreciate how lucky you have been compared to so many people in the world.

Later, when our two children were born, I found that the travel took me away too much of the time, so I switched to the finance side of the bank, i.e. raising and hedging the funding that the bank borrows from the markets to make its development loans to member countries.

Working at the bank is like working at the United Nations (since our capital is owned by 187 member countries with staff from many of them), an investment bank (since we are a bank, albeit a cooperative ne for development) and a university (since we hire a lot of talented people to make sure we do the best economic and other developmental work for our member countries). You get to work with so many smart, dedicated and caring people from all over the world. And it’s great to feel at the end of the day that what you do makes a difference to the lives of the poor of the world.

What is Washington, DC like as a city? In this respect, how is it different from Penang?

By law, no building in DC can be higher than the US Capitol building, so DC is also not a high-rise city. So despite being the capital city of the US, Washington has a nice smaller-town feel to it, with lots of trees, wide boulevards and beautiful views of the parks, monuments and key federal buildings.

Sadly, all the tower blocks and traffic nowadays give Penang a very different and less restful feel than in Washington and its suburbs.

How would you compare Washington, DC with Penang in terms of quality of living?

A big feature of living in a developed, high-cost economy is that you have to learn to do everything yourself or else be prepared to pay big bucks if you bring people in to do it for you.

However, on the positive side, you can afford nice cars in the US because tax rates on cars are very low (just a few per cent), so for the same price as it would cost a Malaysian to buy a basic Proton, you can afford a Honda Civic, and for the same price as a Toyota Vios, you can afford a BMW 328i here.

You can also afford bigger houses than you can in Malaysia, with a lot of land and living space, since the US is such a big and wealthy country. But we do miss the going out to eat at the food stalls and hawker places that one can easily do in Penang. You cannot do this as much in a high-cost economy.

What are the things that strike you about Penang each time you come back to visit?

How much it has changed. Now there are all the high rises and numerous shopping malls, highways and housing developments. Many of the old food haunts that my wife and I used to enjoy have disappeared, as have many of the old beautiful views (that are now obscured by the high rises). I still find it delightful that there are still many lau sit, down-to-earth people in Penang, both young and old.

What are the emotions you feel when you are back in Penang?

I believe that my wife and I will forever feel torn between our two worlds, as Le Ly Hayslip says it in the 1993 Oliver Stone movie “Heaven and Earth” (when she returns to visit Vietnam many years after she had left ), “I would always be in between … south, north … east, west … peace, war … Vietnam, America. It is my fate to be in between Heaven and Earth. Lasting victories are won in the heart, not on this land or that.”

Part of our hearts will always belong to Penang. Whenever we return to visit, we immediately feel at home again.

At the same time, after 30 years, we have lived longer in the US now than we have lived anywhere else, so it is also home to us. Our children were born and bred here, and the US has been good to us, treating us not as undeserving newcomers, but as equal to everyone else.

In our Buddhist practice, we have also come to realise that it is in your mind and heart that peace and happiness is found, so while heaven and earth may continue to switch places many more times in our lives, as long as we stay true to our hearts and practise kindness and compassion, we can find happiness wherever we are.

The Malaysian Government is now trying to attract Malaysians who have left to settle and work overseas to come back to Malaysia to help it realise its plan to bring the country to high-income status. From what you know, would many Malaysians overseas be keen to return?

Many Malaysians would love to come back to help their birth country in any way they can. However, for that to happen, they must believe that the opportunities and freedoms will be there for them and their children to thrive, prosper and be happy. Also, to ensure that adequate opportunities exist for all, Malaysia will need to reform its investment climate to assure both foreign and domestic investors alike that labour market and other societal rigidities have been addressed.

However, as I read the Malaysian papers, it seems to me that some politicians are more interested in dividing the people than on expanding the pie so that everyone will have more.

All that I can hope for is that those with the vision will be able to convince others of what is achievable if a “1Malaysia” that truly gives all Malaysians equal opportunity can be realised. Then heaven and earth can be one again for all of us who left .

** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the February 2011 issue of the Penang Economic Monthly. Kee Thuan Chye is an actor, playwright, stage director, journalist and author.

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