Comrades, friends pray for Pak Rashid Maidin

Before being buried at the Tanah Perkuburan Masjid Darul Salam, Kampung Gajah Mati, Tamboon Sako, Changwat Narathiwat on 1 September (Friday) at 4.45 p.m (Thai time zone) in accordance to Islamic tradition, about 200 comrades and friends gathered to pray for Rashid Maidin (1917-2006) beside his purified remains. Leading the prayer was Rashid Maidin's life-long comrade in the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the now demobilised Regimen Ke-10 of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA)/Malayan People's Army (MPA) , Abdullah C.D. (wearing glasses on the left row)

Rashid Maidin, organic leader of Malaya's anti-colonial and anti-fascist people of all races, true warrior for Merdeka and proud Communist to the last moment in life, passed away on 1 September at 9.45 a.m (Thai time zone) in the house of his daughter. Abdullah C.D. and his wife Suriani Abdullah also represented the Communist Party of Malaya to salute and bid farewell to Rashid Maidin at the burial ground.

Two other veterans and life-long comrades of Rashid Maidin, Chin Peng and Shan Ruhong, sent their messages of condolence to the family through Abdullah and Suriani.

Born in November 1917 in Kampung Gunung Mesah, Gopeng, Perak, Rashid Maidin joined the Communist Party of Malaya on the eve of Japanese invasion in December 1941 in Perak's Tanjung Tualang where he worked as a certified electrical chargeman for an European tin-mining company. The Communist Party of Malaya was inaugurated on 30 April 1930 in a rubber plantation workers' quarters near Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan.

Early last year, Rashid Maidin deposited with this blogger a public statement of gratidute to the Communist Party of Malaya: "As a poor boy born in a backward kampung in colonial time and without sufficient formal education, I am still very grateful to the party which has transformed me into a man who knows politics and the world in all its complexities, and also trusted me for so many years".

In his memoirs Daripada Perjuangan Bersenjata Kepada Perdamaian published last year in Kuala Lumpur by SIRD, Rashid Maidin also paid special tribute to martyr Toh Lung San @ Lai Lai Fook (1922-1943), who recruited him into the Communist Party of Malaya, as "my true teacher in politics".

Rashid: Why I turned Red
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/34906

Saved by cowherds
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/34946

Merdeka history in new light
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/42665

The titans of Malay communist leaders
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/34780

Malay Communists recall Anti-Fascist War (in Chinese)http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/38990

Tunku's 1947 message to Rashid Maidin in London (in Chinese)http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/42561