(Kuala Lumpur, Thursday): A President. A unionist. A humanist.

DAP and its veteran club wishes to invite all Malaysians to attend the C.V Devan Nair Memorial on Sunday, 25 June 2006 (3pm -5.30pm) at Wisma Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur (opposite the Selangor Chinese assembly Hall).

DAP leaders who have confirmed to attend and speak at the memorial include DAP Life Advisor Dr Chen Man Hin, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, DAP Sec Gen Lim Guan Eng, Veteran Club Chairman Lau Dak Kee, Veteran Fan Yew Teng and the President of MTUC Sdr Syed Shahir.

Dr Janamitra Devan and other family members of the late Devan Nair have also confirmed their attendance.

C.V. Devan Nair, former President of Singapore, passed away peacefully three weeks before the last Christmas in Canada. He was one of the founding members of DAP and he served DAP as its first Sec Gen from 1966 to 1968.

Devan Nair once served the Malaysian people as the Member of Parliament for Bangsar from 1964 to 1969.

When the island state was ejected from Malaysia in 1968, he remained as the MP for Bangsar under the banner of DAP until his term expired in 1969.

He founded the NTUC in 1961. When he contested in Bangsar under the ticket of PAP, he was the Secretary General of NTUC.

He returned to Singapore in 1969 and resumed his position as its Secretary General and since contributed much to the union movement in the region.

He later stood in Anson and elected as an MP from 1979 to 1981, and later appointed as the President of Singapore from 1981 to 1985.

He was detained twice by the British for anti-colonial activities, from 1951 to 1952, and then from 1956 to 1959.

He had this to say in the Malaysian Parliament on the day Singapore was ejected from Malaysia…

“IT IS DIFFICULT, Sir, to speak without a wrench in the heart. Sorrow there definitely will be on this day of tragedy, but, in all conscience, Sir, it is tragic that two years after the birth of Malaysia, we should be listening to funeral orations on Malaysia.

Sir, what has happened today will be quiet clear- that Singapore has been ejected from Malaysia. I say “ejected”, Sir, because I know that Singapore has been put in a situation where it has no choice but to accept an ultimatum presented to it by the Central Government. I know, Sir, that Singapore does not want to leave Malaysia, because the leaders of Singapore believe in the unity of Malaysia, of Singapore and Malaya. This has been the basic ideological belief of the leaders of Singapore, right from the time the Party was founded; and I can assure this House that it will continue to be the basic and fundamental belief of the leaders of the Peoples’ Action Party. But, Sir, their belief was founded on the concept of a multi-racial, non-communal, tolerant society, on the concept of a Malaysian Malaysia, which phrase these days is treated as dirty word.”

-         A Wrench in the Heart @ speech in the Dewan Rakyat on 9 Aug 1965

The late Sdr C.V. Devan Nair will always be remembered as one of the true fighters of “Malaysian Malaysia”.

Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew

Liu.ronnie@gmail.com 012 -2013656