KLANG: Former Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Tan Sri Zainal Rampak has passed away on Thursday (July 4).
According to his son Zulkifli, the 84-year-old veteran unionist passed away due to kidney failure and liver cancer at 2.55am at the Selayang Hospital.
“My father was ill for the last three years but got a little better for a while but his condition deteriorated over the past three months,’’ he added.
Zainal was also the Transport Workers Union’s (TWU) general-secretary and played a pivotal role in establishing the Workers Institute of Technology (WIT) which he has helmed until now.
The outspoken unionist also held various international appointments such as being a governing body member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) from 2000 to 2004, secretary-general of the Asean Trades Union Council from 1996 to 2004, chairman of the International Transport Workers Federation Asia Pacific from 2001 to 2009 and chairman of the International Transport Workers Federation Asia Pacific from 2001 to 2009.
He also served as Dewan Negara senator for two terms after being appointed to the position in 1998.
The then human resources minister Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek was quoted as saying that Zainal was appointed as a senator in recognition of his years of hard work in ensuring and maintaining industrial harmony on the country.
Born in Melaka, Zainal entered the trades union movement at the tender age of 17 and it was at the TWU that he met one of the nation’s greatest unionists V. David who was the then general-secretary of the organisation.
David took Zainal under his wings and mentored him and the duo were a formidable team for over three decades.
In MTUC, Zainal was the president whilst David was the secretary-general and together, they had shaped the nation’s trades union movement.
But the pair ‘broke-up’ in 1988 when the Zainal backed the late G. Rajasekaran to defeat David as the MTUC secretary-general.
Both Zainal and Rajasekaran, who passed away last year, also made a formidable pair for years until Zainal was replaced as the MTUC president in 2004 by Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud.
Zainal leaves behind his wife Puan Sri Zainab Abdullah, three sons and a daughter as well as 10 grandchildren.
