Veteran journalist Said Zahari has been invited to his native Singapore to speak at an arts forum on Feb 26 during the Singapore Fringe Festival.

Said, who had been detained without trial for 17 years in Singapore from 1963 to 1979, will take part in a discussion entitled 'Detention-Writing-Healing'.

He said he agreed to attend the function after the organiser, The Necessary Stage, contacted him by telephone, but has yet to receive a formal invitation.

Said, still a strong critic of Singapore's former premier Lee Kuan Yew and of preventive detention legislation, is a Singaporean citizen with permanent residency status in Malaysia.

"Perhaps Singapore is now more open, mature and reconciliatory, although my 'friend' Lee is still around," he told malaysiakini .