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Yesterday, was a sad day for most right thinking Malaysians. I woke up in the morning with a shocking news in my phone. Messages confirming the death of a great fighter and lawyer, Karpal Singh! Since there are so many pranks nowadays , I did not believe it till I saw the official announcement on the online Star. It was a sad day indeed.

For those who are around my age, we grew up with the names like Mahathir, Samy Vellu, Anwar Ibrahim, Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang. These were the titans of Malaysian politics. They gave us the colours of Malaysian politics, from humour to court cases and verbal fights in Parliament. One person that stood out was Karpal Singh. An excellent lawyer with unshakable principles of rule of law and rule of constitution. I still remember while I was in the university, how Karpal manage to sneak in the famous DP Vijandran tape into the Parliament. If not because of that daring move, the infamous ” blue tape” would have been classified as “No Further Action” aka NFA.

It was only in January this year, I completed reading the biography of Karpal Singh ” Tiger of Jelutong”. It was an interesting biography of how he took up cases against the government to defend communist as well as many others who were charged in court for which they were looking at death sentence. He was one of the lawyers who believe that everyone should be given a second chance and he was totally against capital punishment/death sentence. He was a fighter who fought against the government over 4 decades.  Despite ISA detention and a motor vehicle accident which rendered him paralysed neck below, he continued to fight for betterment of Malaysians.

He did these without any pay or reward, unlike our ruling government politicians who even got the cheek to make ridiculous and unacceptable statement in “support” of his death! He was a man of principle who stood by it. If it is wrong, he will say it is wrong no matter from which side of the political divide the statement comes from. He was even daring to challenge the royalties based on the constitution and what is allowed legally. A tiger that never slept and continued to shake the country even at an age of 74!

Well, Parliament will never be the same without Karpal Singh. The tiger might be gone but the roar will continue to be heard with many more new Karpals in the making!

Good Bye, Tiger of Jelutong………………. May you R.I.P…………………