Patrick Keith, the author of a controversial historical account of the 1965 Malaysia-Singapore separation, Ousted! , passed away on Monday in Melbourne.

He is survived by his wife Constance, three grown children and five grandchildren.

According to his personal friend and publisher Ian Ward, one of Keith's last messages was to thank all those in Malaysia and Singapore who supported the publication of Ousted!, particularly those who met up with him during his last visit to Kuala Lumpur three weeks ago.

Keith, 74, was born in Kuala Lumpur and emigrated to Australia in 1968 after he had become "thoroughly disillusioned with the way racial politics were being played out in both Malaysia and Singapore".

Keith worked as a journalist for the Malay Mail , The Straits Times and Radio Malaya as well as an external information officer for the government's Information Department. Before his departure for Australia, he rose to the rank of Deputy Director of External Information.

Last KL visit

While in Kuala Lumpur, Keith met his former press colleagues including MGG Pillai and Felix Abisheganaden as well as serving Malaysian journalists such as malaysiakini's editor-in-chief Steven Gan.

Keith also invited his former part-time staff in Radio Malaya , Said Zahari for the Kuala Lumpur reunion but the latter was unable to attend due to illness.

Said, 77, who later rose to be the chief editor of Utusan Melayu was once detained without charge or trial in Singapore for 17 years for allegedly being "a communist".

While in Kuala Lumpur for the last visit of his place of birth, Keith was accompanied by Ward and his wife-cum-editor, Norma Miraflor. Ward and Miraflor are the co-authors and publishers of Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History .

After two months of being screened by the Internal Security Ministry, Keith's book Ousted! An Insider's Story of the Ties that Failed to Bind was finally allowed to be publicly distributed in Malaysia earlier this month.

When he was in Malaysia, Keith had hoped that he would be back soon to officially launch his book. It was not to be.