Join me to pray for Pak Rashid

Many reliable reports have reached me in the last two weeks that true Merdeka fighter and great patriot Pak Rashid Maidin,88, is seriously ill in Southern Thailand.

Please pray for him and ask God to continue to protect and guide him with all His mercy and compassion.

In his youthful and younger days, Pak Rashid Maidin mastered Bahasa Melayu, English and Chinese. He represented the Communist Party of Malaya to attend the 1947 British Empire Communist Parties' Conference on decolonisation in London together with Wu Tien Wang and R.G.Balan, and the 1955 Baling Peace Talk with Chin Peng and Chen Tian.

As a poor kampong and working class boy in the tin-mining Kinta Valley hard hit by the worldwide Great Depression in 1930s, he first learnt his English from a Christian missionary and then through distance learning by post from Jakarta. He used to play violin and smoke 'Good English' brand of tobacco.

Pak Rashid has also published his memoirs Daripada Perjuangan Bersenjata Kepada Perdamaian (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2005). His oral history is also published in English in my From Pacific War to Merdeka (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2005). Both books are available in bookshops and Kinibooks Online.

In another recently publish booklet Islam Melayu Komunis - Wawancara Dengan Abdullah C.D., Rashid Maidin & Abu Samah (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2005), Pak Rasid expresses his concern about anak-anak muda being morally corrupted by, among other things, "yellow culture", "drugs" and "individualistic lifestyle".

He calls on our angkatan baru to get themselves involved in "healthy activities" and to play their role in developing the nation, upholding democracy and justice as well as promoting inter-ethnic unity.