Kasim Cha Tong was a celebrated crusader against piracy in the movie and music industry.

His pioneering struggle against counterfeiters gained him wide respect and he soon became a media favourite, with his photographs hogging newspapers, especially Malay Mail, in the 80s.

My partner then, R. Nadeswaran, and I landed scoops and worked with this tireless hero to check piracy. He was probably one of the best contacts we ever had.

He was head of International Federation of Phonogram Industry (IFPI) Asia Pacific and under his watch the music and movie industry began conducting joint anti-piracy operations with the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

Citizen Nades was in London when I informed him of Kasim's passing. He was stunned but soon we were reminiscing about our days with Kasim.

Said Nades: “I first met Kasim in London in 1984 where he was reading law. I was introduced to him by (Datuk) Muhammad Shafie Abdullah, (who was then doing his LLM) who described him as the ‛new man’ to take on music piracy which was then rampant in Malaysia.

“I remember going around with him to record shops in KL and the surrounding areas doing test purchases of cassettes (there were no CDs then) as evidence.

“We once drove overnight from KL to Kampung Repek in Kelantan to visit his father who was ill. During that eight-hour drive, we talked about people in the industry who were helping the pirates.

“He gave instances of albums being released by the pirates even before they were officially launched by one or two record companies.”

Another of Kasim’s buddies, real estate agent and auctioneer Pascual Dino Hererra, said: “As the country's top anti-piracy chief, he was up to the mark. His training in the police force helped and he knew the copyright laws like the back of his hand.

“In fact, he was instrumental in giving input when the Copyright Act was amended.”

Pascual said Kasim was one of the founder members of the Rotary Club of Brickfields in 1993 and his contributions help the club grow immensely.

“He made friends easily because of his easy-going personality and was truly a wonderful person to be with.”