Our diversity, our asset

THERE was a time when to brand a fellow Malaysian as a communist would mean a kiss of death. There were some Malay politicians and journalists who were given this label, and it ruined their political career and probably their lives.

The late Samad Ismail, a veteran journalist, was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act, together with Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, allegedly, without proof, to be either ‘communists’ or ‘communist sympathisers’.