After two months of being screened by the Internal Security Ministry, a controversial history book on the 1965 separation between Malaysia and Singapore has finally been approved for sale here.

According to the Singapore-based publisher of Ousted!, Ian Ward, the distributor, Horizon Books, received an official approval letter yesterday.

He said the first shipment of the books, which is an insider story on the ties that failed to bind, would take place next week.

Ward's Media Masters also published the memoirs of the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), Chin Peng in 2003.

Ousted! is authored by ex-Malaysian journalist and former government propagandist with Radio Malaya , Patrick Keith.

The 74-year-old author left Malaysia to settle in Australia in 1968, after 'becoming thoroughly disillusioned with the way racial politics were being played out in both Malaysia and Singapore'.

Sudden merger

Ousted! tells the story of the sudden merger between Malaya and Singapore in 1963 and their abrupt separation two years later.

The book is based on Keith's private records on Singapore's former premier Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysia's first premier Tunku Abdul Rahman and former MCA president Tan Siew Sin.

It also includes their perceptions and assessment of one another's character.

Keith was in Kuala Lumpur two days ago to meet his former press colleagues like Felix Abisheganaden and MGG Pillai. He was accompanied by Ward.