| More than anyone else in Malaysia and Singapore, Said Zahari’s name must surely be immortalised as symbolising the struggle for press freedom. The defining moment was, of course, thestrike of 1961, when he led his colleagues to resist the newspaper’s takeover by interests tied to Umno, the ruling party then and now.
The strike lasted over 100 days, marking the end of the honeymoon of organised labour with the post-colonial government. The strike finally ended after Said was banished from re-entering Malaya by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.Said Zahari then became one of the most prominent political prisoners of Lee Kuan Yew’s government in Singapore. He was arrested together with over 100 others in ‘Operation Cold Store’ in early February 1963, and was incarcerated without trial for 17 years.
They also reveal Said for the outstanding human being he was. Affable, generous, trusting, loving and humble, he was also principled, uncompromising and defiant when it mattered. In 1962, the anti-colonial Parti Rakyat Brunei captured all but one of the elected seats for the colonial sultanate’s legislative council in its first - and last - election. After the newly elected legislators were ignored by the colonial authorities, most PRB leaders were detained or exiled after a failed ‘insurrection’.
Although he said little about the matter, Said tried to compensate his family for his protracted involuntary absence, despite his limited and modest means. This sense of personal guilt must have been very difficult for him to bear.
Said Zahari will cringe in disappointment seeing the state of Malaysian journalism today. Free journalism needs good journalists too.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.