Award-winning veteran investigative journalist R Nadeswaran will retire this Friday after 17 years at theSun and will now focus on his new book titled "Curi Curi Malaysia - The stories behind the stories".

"My inner circle of friends have been asking me whether I intend to continue writing. Yes and No. My immediate goal is get my book out in print. 

"I am in the final stages of editing, and it should be in the bookstores and via mail order by the end of February," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Nadeswaran, who was the special and investigative reports editor at theSun, thanked all his supporters and those who have written to him with encouragements or the occasional criticism.

"I always believe that when you give, you must be able to take," he said.

Contacted later, Nadeswaran said the book would contain details of how he uncovered some of his most memorable stories.

"I'll share the stories behind the stories. For example, I'll be reproducing some emails and documents that are not classified," he told Malaysiakini.

Nadeswaran's career spans over five decades. He began as a sports stringer for The Malay Mail when he was still in secondary school during the late 1960s. He then joined the daily full-time.

He was best known for his bi-weekly "Citizen Nades" column, which had a reputation for "telling it as it is" with his acerbic take on governance, corruption, transparency and lawmaking.

He actively pursued the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal and eventually wrote a book, "Some Untold Stories", which chronicled the saga.

He also broke the news that former Wanita MCA head Ng Yen Yen held permanent residency in Australia in the 1990s while she was a Dewan Negara senator.

In 2015, he was named as a member of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) operations review panel member.

In one particular interview, Nadeswaran urged editors and journalists to push the envelope.

“There has been a new awakening. With blogs, Facebook and other platforms, the government has to accept that free flow of information cannot be stopped. On the contrary, many newspapers are beginning to re-print stuff from online media and many instances of quoting online media in their reports,” he had said.