The Long Nightmare: My 17 Years as a Political Prisoner

Once editor-in-chief of the leading Malay daily, Utusan Melayu, Said Zahari was banned from Malaysia during the historic 1961 Utusan workers' strike for political autonomy. From February 1963, he was detained without trial in Singapore for 17 years together with other political dissidents.

Said emerges from these memoirs as a dedicated husband, father and friend, committed to and willing to undergo tremendous hardship and sacrifice for his anticolonial and progressive ideals.

"An inspiration to all, then and now, Said Zahari and his comrades lost, but struggled with their principles and dignity intact and uncompromised, despite making tremendous sacrifices. Theirs would have been a different Malaysia and Singapore, probably with less economic growth and foreign domination, but probably more united, less harsh and with different, more human and decent values and priorities."