(Kuala Lumpur, Friday): Malaysia's leading opposition party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), would not have come into existence had it not been for former Singapore president Devan Nair, party leaders said on Sunday, 25 June 2006.

They were speaking at a special memorial service to pay tribute to the former leader, who died of heart failure at the age of 82 last December.

Party veterans Chan Heng Kai, Ho Cheok Fun, the representative from the Singapore High Commission and family members of Mr Nair have arrived early for the event.

CEC members Dr Tan Seng Giaw, M.Kula, Tan Kok Wai, Teresa Kok and Ong Chee Keng were among those who grace the function held at Wisma Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur.

Veteran opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang said he was invited by Mr Nair to join the DAP. Lim was a journalist in Singapore before joining Mr Nair as his political secretary.

Mr Lim eventually succeeded Mr Nair as the DAP's secretary-general and retired as party leader in 1999.

Fellow DAP founder Chen Man Hin said he received his tuition in politics from Mr Nair.

'There were just seven or eight of us when the party started. He inspired this small group to fight for a Malaysian Malaysia,' said Dr Chen.

DAP Chairman Karpal Singh criticized Lee Kuan Yew for discrediting Mr Nair as an alcoholic. He had a long chat with Mr Nair when he visited Penang after his resignation as the President of Singapore.

DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng said that the best way to honour Mr Nair is to continue with the "Malaysian First" initiated by Mr Nair, the first Secretary General of DAP.

DAP Veterans Club Chairman Lau Dak Kee described Mr Nair as a true politician who always stood for the people without fear or favour.

Former MP of Menglembu Fan Yew Teng believed Mr Nair has never abandoned his political ideals as a man who fights for social justice.

MTUC President Syed Shahir represented the union movement in the country to pay a tribute to Mr Nair.

Mr Nair had originally been elected as the People's Action Party's (PAP) only representative outside Singapore to the Bangsar ward here in the Malaysian Parliament in 1964, when the PAP contested national polls for the first time after Malaysia was formed in 1963.

When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, Mr Nair chose to stay back in Malaysia as he said he did not want to abandon his voters. In 1966, he founded the DAP together with Dr Chen Man Hin, Chan Kok Kit and several other party pioneers.

Persuaded by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to return to Singapore in 1967, Mr Nair took over the leadership of the National Trades Union Congress as its Secretary General, which he helped establish in 1961. He was later elected as a PAP MP for the Anson constituency in the mid-1970s.

Mr Nair became president in 1981 but resigned four years later after it was disclosed that he was an alcoholic. Mr Nair later denied such an addiction.

Shortly after, he left Singapore for the United States . He later took up residency in Canada in 1993.

Speaking on behalf of Mr Nair's family, his son Dr.Janamitra Devan said his father chose to stay in Malaysia after the separation because he could not abandon his constituents.

'As a friend in Singapore said then, he seemed like an astronaut abandoned in space. The astronaut, of course, soon formed the Democratic Action Party and became the new party's first secretary-general.'

Mr Nair could have left Malaysia and become one of the ministers in the new island state in 1965.

In his opening remark, DAP NGO Bureau Chief Ronnie Liu, who heads the organizing committee of the special memorial, said that Mr. Nair will always be remembered as a true fighter of the Malaysian Malaysia concept.