Tan Chin Nam: Never Say I Assume! is the story of a Malaysian life. The author, Dato' Tan Chin Nam - businessman, sportsman, raconteur, and writer - hopes that if he "does nothing else," it is to help readers "enjoy the same successes rather than make the same errors that I did."
But, in fact, he does much more. He vividly recreates the world of Old Malaya and places himself firmly in it. He describes the Depression years of the 1930s and how his family went from "riches to rags." He provides path-breaking history in his account of the Japanese Occupation during World War II and in finely drawn portraits of great men he knew.
Tan's rise from a Chinese trader to a modern Malaysian businessman exemplifies, in his person and achievements, Malaysia's journey as a nation over the past 80 years from a feudal colonial society to a modern, multi-ethnic success story.
