Not all old men and women are unproductively loquacious and assertively irritating. There are many exceptions. Veteran and real journalist Said Zahari is one of the shining examples of how the natural process of ageing, practical struggles in life, and trials and tribulations have produced human wisdom and moral qualities of an high order.

I feel happy for this grand old man of Malay-language journalism, fighter for Merdeka and a contemporary member of my neighbourhood in Subang Jaya USJ because his personal and political memoirs is finally going to be published and launched soon.

Dark Clouds at Dawn - A Political Memoir was originally written in Bahasa Malaysia and English simultaneously and then translated into Chinese for the maximum benefit of all races in Malaysia and Singapore.

I am also honoured because in the past several years, I have been often invited to his house to share a thought or two with him, or to make critical comments and suggestions on the drafts, over a cup of coffee or Chinese tea.

Very often, our conversations and dialogues continue into midnight, probably to the annoyance of his brave wife Makcik Salamah who has been standing faithfully by the side of her fighter-husband like a true heroine since the day they were married.

Jailed 17 years