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Veteran journalist Samad Ismail passes away Sep 4, 08 7:06pm

Veteran journalist A Samad Ismail passed away at 6pm this evening at the Pantai Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur. He was 84.

Samad, who is affectionately known as Pak Samad, had been suffering from lung infection and was hopsitalised on Aug 25.

His remains will be buried at the Muslim cemetery in Bukit Kiara after Friday prayers tomorrow.

Samad was born and educated in Singapore. He completed his Senior Cambridge in 1940, just before World War II began, and entered journalism almost immediately, starting as a cub reporter in the newly established Malay daily, Utusan Melayu.

During the Japanese Occupation, he did editorial work for the Japanese-sponsored, Berita Malai. The returning British jailed him in 1946 but only briefly.

After the war, he returned to Utusan Melayu as the assistant editor and his influence helped to promote Malay nationalism.

Former ISA detainee

His close ties to left-wing Malay nationalists and his anti-colonial stance led to a second arrest in 1951. Upon his release in 1953, he returned to his job at Utusan Melayu and became a founding member of the People's Action Party along with Lee Kuan Yew.

However, disagreements with both Lee and with the Utusan Melayu saw him leaving for Kuala Lumpur in 1959. There, he would head the Berita Harian and later the New Straits Times.

He remained a strong advocate of the Malay language and culture, and continued to explore the complex dimensions of race and politics in Malaysia.

He expressed some of these thoughts through his Malay novels which he began writing in the early 1960s.

In 1976, he was again arrested under the Malaysian Internal Security Act and was not released until 1981. Upon his release, he returned to the New Straits Times and took up the position as editorial advisor.

He retired from journalism in 1988.

In 1994, Samad received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was recognised "for applying his intellect and journalistic skills to champion national independence, cultural revival, and democratic nation-building in Malaysia."