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Najib says NO to Chin Peng, and book on Rashid Maidin

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak dismisses the possibility of the exiled former communist leader Chin Peng returning home after living in exile for almost five decades, reports Malaysiakini.

I don’t want to take side on this matter, but on personal basis, I pitied him. On the other hand, maybe that’s the price he must pay for his role during the British colonial era.


In line with this, here is one book that should be look at; The Memoirs of Rashid Maidin: From Armed Struggle to Peace.


Synopsis

“Since the 1930s, I was involved in the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in the struggle against the British colonizers to free our homeland. Many have asked me why I chose to take this path and not another, they have also asked me about my experiences, my joys and pain and my memories. I’ve had all kinds of questions thrown at me. It is also true that I myself have wished to write down some episodes from my struggle within the CPM.


I endured the extreme bitterness of living under both the British and Japanese. I fought against the Japanese during their occupation (1941-45) with all my might, just as I did when the British returned to rule Malaya in 1945.


Between 1945-48, when I agitated peacefully against the British, I was one of the CPM’s public representatives, openly organizing the masses for independence. Soon after the declaration of the Emergency. I was caught and imprisoned in British detention camps until 1952. It was a good thing that I managed to escape and join the 10th Regiment (of the Malayan National Liberation Army) with my close friend, Abdullah C.D.


In December 1955, I participated in the Baling Talks with Chin Peng and Chen Tien. In 1989, I was one of the CPM’s representatives in the Phuket negotiations which resulted in the Haadyai Peace Accord of 2 December that same year.


I hope this memoir will give some idea of the struggle which I plunged myself into for decades.”


You can buy this book
here.

Terminator Salvation series

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

An art form that doesn’t really get much attention these days is the feature film novelization. In this case, we have the novelization of this week’s big release: Terminator Salvation. The book takes the story featured in the McG-directed, Christian Bale-starring movie, and adds all kinds of new content and detail to it.

The story follows John Connor in the year 2018 as a soldier in the resistance who speaks out through the radio looking for more who are lost and who can help to fight the machines. As we all know, and as he quickly finds out, Connor has a lot more to do than just that when he’s made the leader of humankind’s effort to fight and survive.


The Terminator Salvation novelization is written by Alan Dean Foster, who has also written novelizations for Star Wars, Alien, and Transformers. As far as novelizations go, Foster is the cream of the crop and his long list of science fiction titles is most impressive. He manages to take a film that relies on it’s fast-paced, non-stop action sequences and turn it into a dramatic story — one in which you’d love to read even if it wasn’t based on a blockbuster popcorn flick. (Source: http://geeksofdoom.com)


Author: Alan Dean Foster

Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: Titan Books


I love science-fiction books and movies. I watch all terminator movies. And in my record I have five science-fiction on Star Wars series book. I already read three of them, two more to go! How about Malay language science-fiction? Read my review below. Cheers!


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