FORMER academic and retired politician Syed Husin Ali is reportedly in critical condition and admitted in the Selayang Hospital.

According to Free Malaysia Today, Syed Husin is presently unconscious at the hospital.

The news was conveyed to the news portal by his son, Ali Syed Hussein.

“His health deteriorated very suddenly. Please pray for him,” he was quoted as saying.

The 87-year-old is a prominent former political detainee, held for six years without trial under the Internal Security Act, from 1974 to 1980.

He was an associate professor at Universiti Malaya at that time and had supported the protests by farmers in Baling, Kedah and students in Kuala Lumpur.

He was PKR deputy president from 2003 to 2010, following the merger of Parti Keadilan Nasional and his left-wing outfit Parti Rakyat Malaysia.

He also served two terms as a senator from 2009 to 2015.

His book, Two Faces: Detention Without Trial, was a memoir of his days under ISA detention.

He also wrote Syed Husin Ali: Memoirs of a Political Struggle and other books on Malaysia’s political struggle and ethnic relations.

His most recent book was in 2019, titled A People’s History of Malaysia. – June 26, 2024.