Victim of the 1980s fall in tin prices that crushed its mining economy, Kampar will get new lease of life as a university town

By Leslie Lau
IN KUALA LUMPUR

THE small town of Kampar in Perak has the look of a place long past its best days.

Disused mining ponds, a greying population and old, rundown shops tell the story of better days when small towns like Kampar thrived because the Kinta Valley was the world's biggest producer of tin.

After the price of tin collapsed in the 1980s, decay set in. But in the past year, the boom days seem to have returned.

News that the town has been chosen as the site for Malaysia's latest university, the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), has sparked renewed optimism.

'This was a dying town. Now we are going to have thousands of young people,' Mr Chye Kooi Loong, a retired local teacher and historian, told The Straits Times.

The Utar campus, which can accommodate 10,000 students, is expected to be completed within three years.

Already, a new township is being built around the site. A new railway station and thousands of houses are under construction.

Businesses are also anticipating the needs of undergraduates - a number of computer service shops were opened in the past year.

Mr Chye, who has taught thousands of students in his career, says he hardly sees his former students anymore because most of them left for bigger towns in search of jobs.

'I only see them, my old students, when they come home for the Chinese New Year. But I think the Utar campus is going to change things,' he said.

The Perak state government expects the Utar campus to act as a catalyst for the economy of Kampar and other small towns nearby.

'This is an opportunity not to be missed. The people of Kampar should be prepared to take advantage of the influx of students,' said Perak Mentri Besar Mohamed Tajol Rosli Ghazali.

Speaking of a new housing development, a marketing executive said: 'When we started selling our houses here a few years ago, there was not much of a take up. But now people from outside Kampar are taking an interest.'

Kampar is not the only town in the Kinta Valley that is recovering from the economic collapse of the 1980s.

Some mining towns reinvented their economies while others became ghost towns.

Much of the local economy in the Kinta Valley, still a predominantly Chinese community, is being sustained by small and medium-size industries like shoe manufacturing and rubber-related works.

'We are only now seeing some recovery. Before this, all the money came from overseas,' said Mr Chye.

In the mid-1980s, hundreds of thousands left the valley to find jobs in the United States, Taiwan and Japan.

Most worked illegally, sending remittances home and helping to sustain the economies of small towns for more than a decade.

'I worked for nearly 10 years in the United States. And I sent home nearly all my money to my sister. It was very hard but now things are looking better,' local Kampar resident C.K. Lim said.