Award for lawyer Cecil Rajendra, who spearheaded Malaysia’s first free legal aid clinic

Malaysian lawyer and octogenarian Cecil Rajendra has lived by one mantra during his legal career spanning more than four decades – “seek out the little guy and help if you can”.This conviction was what drove him and several friends to pioneer a free legal aid clinic in Bayan Lepas free-trade zone in his home state of Penang in 1980.The zone, set up in 1972, had boosted Penang’s economic fortunes but workers were struggling with housing issues, poor working conditions, non-payment of wages and…