A LONG HISTORY OF KARPAL SINGH
- 1940, June 28: Karpal Singh was born in Georgetown, Penang to Ram Singh, a Punjabi immigrant who was a watchman and part-time herdsman.[1] (Ram had moved from India to Penang in 1921.) [2]
- Unknown:
- Karpal Singh studied at St. Xavier's Institution, Penang.
- Karpal Singh obtained his law degree from the University of Malaya in Singapore.
During his time there, he also served as president of the student's
union. Karpal was barred from the hostel for protesting against the
university's decision to mandate the "certificate of political
suitability" for enrolling students. He said he took 7 years to
graduate, admitting that he was "playful" and "didn't attend lectures".
After failing his final year courses, the dean made him sit at the front
of the class, and according to Karpal, "I couldn't play the fool
anymore and I passed my exams accordingly!" [1]
- 1969 (age 29): Karpal Singh was called to the Penang Bar and joined a firm in Alor Setar, Kedah.
- 1970 (age 30):
- Karpal Singh started his own legal firm. (Well-known for his
expertise in the field of litigation, he has been praised for "defending
the little man" and has been called "a friend to the oppressed and
marginalized". Karpal is a leading opponent of the death penalty in
Malaysia, and has successfully defended at least 10 foreigners on
serious drug charges which carry a mandatory death sentence.
Nonetheless, in July 2010, he called for convicted child rapists to be sentenced to death.)
- Karpal Singh joined the Democratic Action Party (DAP), citing the party's multiracial political platform following the 1969 race riots.
- July: Karpal Singh married Gurmit Kaur whose family was from Narathiwat, Thailand. (Her family moved to Penang when she was 7. Karpal met her, while herding his father's cows.)
- 1974 (age 34):
- Karpal Singh visited his ancestors' village of Samna Pind, near
Amritsar, in the Punjab region, when his father was killed in an
accident there.
- Karpal Singh was due to contest in the 1974 general elections in Penang, but withdrew as a result of his father's death. Following the persuasion of DAP national organising secretary Fan Yew Teng, he ran for the Alor Setar parliamentary seat and Bandar Alor Setar state seat. He lost in the parliamentary contest but won the state seat to become the first DAP candidate to stand for and win a seat in Kedah.
- 1977 (age 37): Karpal Singh managed to persuade the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to pardon a 14-year old Chinese boy sentenced to death under the Internal Security Act for firearm possession, apparently by suggesting that to let the boy be hanged would be "politically explosive".[3]
- 1978, July 8 (age 38): Karpal Singh was first elected to parliament in the general elections, representing Jelutong in Penang. (He would go on to hold the seat for 21 years (5 terms) until 1999.) Karpal was also the state assemblyman for Bukit Gelugor between 1978 and 1986.
- 1985
(age 45): Karpal Singh defended Australian heroin trafficker, Kevin
Barlow, who, together with fellow Australian, Brian Chambers, were
convicted by the Penang High Court in July 1985. Even after the execution in 1986, Karpal continued to fight to clear Barlow's name.
- 1986 (age 46): Karpal Singh filed a lawsuit against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Iskandar of Johor, on behalf of one of the allegedly assaulted men. He lost and the Sultan allegedly named one of his dogs after him.[3]
- 1987 (age 47):
- Karpal Singh defended New Zealanders Lorraine Cohen and her
son, Aaron, against heroin trafficking charges. They were both
convicted, with Mrs. Cohen sentenced to death and Aaron to life
imprisonment. Mrs. Cohen's death sentence, however, was commuted to life
imprisonment in 1989. Both of them were subsequently pardoned and freed in 1996.
- October 27: Karpal Singh, along with many other opposition politicians, were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act during Operation Lalang for "inciting" racial tension in the country. (He was released briefly for a few hours in March 1988 in response to a habeas corpus application, but was rearrested and remained in prison until January 1989. Amnesty International deemed him a prisoner of conscience.)
- 1989 (age 49): Karpal Singh accused Deputy Speaker D.P. Vijandran
of acting in pornographic videotapes. The allegations were dismissed,
due to lack of evidence, but Vijandran resigned as deputy speaker in 1990.
- 1990 (age 50):
- Staunchly opposing the notion of Malaysia as an Islamic state, Karpal Singh said "an Islamic state over my dead body" during a political speech in Sungai Pinang.[4] This led to him to be portrayed as an enemy of Islam. (He claimed to have apologized for the matter.) [5]
- October 21: Karpal Singh successfully defended his Jelutong parliamentary seat but failed to be elected as state assemblyman in Sungai Pinang which he also contested.
- 1992 (age 52): Karpal Singh produced in parliament the alleged videotape of Deputy Speaker D.P. Vijandran acting in pornographic videotapes, and handed it over to Deputy Speaker Ong Tee Keat. (Vijandran was convicted in May 1994
for fabricating evidence in an affidavit which sought a court order to
stop his nephew from allegedly distributing pornographic video tapes
featuring him. He was acquitted in 1998, after appeal.)
- 1993 (age 53): Karpal Singh commented that "political life is not what it used to be in Malaysia," specifically criticizing Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's restriction on media coverage of the opposition.[3]
- 1998, September (age 58): Karpal Singh represented former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during the latter's sodomy trial.
During the first trial, he produced a pathological report confirming
high levels of arsenic that had been detected in Anwar's body, and
accused the authorities of poisoning Anwar, charging: "It could well be
that someone out there wants to get rid of him... even to the extent of
murder... I suspect people in high places are responsible for this
situation". This accusation in court led to Karpal being charged under
the Sedition Act in January 2000.
- 1999 (age 59):
- 2000 (age 60):
- January: Karpal Singh was arrested under the Sedition Act along with 4 other opposition politicians and the editor of the Harakah Daily, the newspaper published by the opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia
(PAS). He was charged for making seditious remarks in court during
Anwar's first corruption trial. (This was the only known charge of
sedition in any country in the Commonwealth brought against a lawyer for
remarks made in court in defence of a client. The charges were dropped
in 2002.)
- Karpal Singh again acted as the defence's lead counsel in Anwar Ibrahim's 2nd sodomy trial, following fresh allegations. After a 2-year trial, Anwar was acquitted on 10 January 2012.
- Karpal Singh was ordered to pay D.P. Vijandran
RM500,000 (later reduced to RM100,000 on appeal) in damages for
defamation, after accusing the latter of deliberately issuing a cheque
to him from a closed account.
- 2004 (age 64):
- March 21: Karpal Singh was elected Member of Parliament for the newly-created Bukit Gelugor in Penang with a 1,261-vote majority. (The DAP regained its position as the largest opposition party in parliament.)
- September 4: Karpal Singh was appointed National Chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
- September 7: Karpal Singh
was sanctioned for "misleading parliament", after claiming that Members
of Parliament had to raise their right hand, while taking the oath of
office on 17 May. A report by the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee gave him 3 days to apologize or face a 6-month suspension. Karpal refused to apologize and served the suspension.
- 2005,
January 28 (age 65): Karpal Singh met with a motor vehicle accident
which left him wheelchair-bound. A car rammed into his taxi from behind,
causing severe contusion to his thoracic vertebrae. As a result, Karpal
suffers sensory impairment and reduced motor strength, is unable to
walk, or raise his right arm a few centimeters. Many people around him,
including his best friends, suggested he would have been better off
dead.[6] Despite this, Karpal continues his legal and political careers.
- 2007, March 27: Karpal wrote to former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, asking him to make an unqualified and unconditional personal apology to Tun Salleh Abas, as well as Supreme Court judges Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah, and their families for removing them from office during the 1988 constitutional crisis.[7]
- 2008 (age 68):
- March 3: Karpal Singh was elected Member of Parliament for Bukit Gelugor in Penang with a whopping 21,015-vote majority. (The election saw historic gains for the opposition which managed to deny the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time. The 3 main opposition parties subsequently formed Pakatan Rakyat, a formal coalition.)
- March 24: Karpal Singh called for former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to apologize for the latter's role in the 1988 constitutional crisis.[8]
- April 3: In response to Karpal's letter of 27 March 2007, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
replied: "You are moved by pure hatred and I cannot respond to people
who can never accept reality... My conscience is clear. I have done what
was my duty and I owe nobody any apology. I am sure you will make use
of this letter to dirty my name further. That is your right. I think you
are the most contemptible of politicians and individuals". Karpal had
asked Mahathir to apologize to the 3 ex-judges who had been removed from
office during the 1988 constitutional crisis.[7]
- May: Karpal Singh was at the center of a controversy during a parliamentary sitting, when he called fellow parliamentarian Bung Mokhtar Radin the "bigfoot from Kinabatangan". Moments later, he was mocked by Ibrahim Ali for not being able to stand up while speaking, which provoked a furore among opposition MPs.
- June: Karpal Singh received a death threat in the form of a bullet delivered to his law firm.
- October: Karpal Singh received a 2-day suspension from parliament for calling Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia "not serious" and "playful".
- 2009(age 69):
- 2010 (age 70):
- April: Karpal Singh was suspended from parliament for 10 days, after calling the speaker a "dictator".
- June 11: Karpal Singh was discharged and acquitted by the High Court on a charge of uttering seditious words against the Sultan of Perak at his legal firm in Jalan Pudu Lama, Kuala Lumpur, between noon and 12.30 pm on 6 February 2009. He was alleged to have said that the Sultan's removal of Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as the Perak Menteri Besar and Datuk Seri Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir's appointment to the position could be questioned in a court of law.[10]
- December: Karpal Singh was suspended again for 6 months, along with opposition Members of Parliament Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali, and Sivarasa Rasiah. (Anwar was suspended for stirring up controversy over the government's links with APCO Worldwide, while the rest were punished for making public the report by the Rights and Privileges Committee which found Anwar guilty before the report was presented to parliament.)
- 2011, December (age 71): Karpal Singh and Penang's 2nd deputy chief minister, P. Ramasamy, feuded over the latter's purported accusation that dissidents within the DAP
were plotting against him for not handing them projects and favors.
Karpal labeled Ramasamy a "warlord" and asked for him to resign as
deputy chief minister. Ramasamy retorted by asking the party to remove
its "godfathers", in apparent reference to Karpal. The feud was resolved
internally, with Ramasamy later denying ever making the plot
accusation. (At the DAP national conference in January 2012, Karpal closed ranks with Ramasamy and asked the party's "warlords and godfathers [to] stand together against Barisan Nasional".)
- 2012 (age 72):
- 2013 (age 73):
- July 15: Karpal Singh
withdrew his appeal against a High Court's dismissal of his application
to subpoena 3 witnesses, including former prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad,
to testify in his sedition trial. He also withdrew his appeal against
the refusal of the High Court to grant his application to strike out the
sedition charge against him.[9]
- September 26: Utusan Malaysia promised to retract and apologize to DAP over an article, "Cuba sembunyi kebiadaban DAP" (Try to hide DAP's rudeness), that accused Lim Guan Eng of having a hidden agenda in banning the controversial Tanda Putera film from being screened in Penang
in order to hide the rude action of a DAP leader. Karpal Singh, as DAP
Chairman, said that this was the last time the party will accept an
apology from Utusan. "We accepted their apology but Utusan cannot go on
lying. We will give them this opportunity to turn over a new leaf," he
said. Karpal said the newspaper now had to display its apology in the
same size and prominence as the offending article. He also took Utusan
to task, saying that the paper must practise responsible journalism.
"You have gone for gutter journalism as far as responsible journalism is
concerned. The lies heaped on Guan Eng and Kit Siang
are unimaginable by a national paper", adding, "It should be ashamed of
itself. I hope it will turn out to be better and start reporting the
truth," Karpal said. He warned that the party will not be
"compassionate" if similar accusations were published in future. In
echoing's Karpal's sentiments, Lim Kit Siang said, "We don't expect them
to be in favor of DAP or Pakatan Rakyat but they have to be honest and truthful and stop publishing lies".[13]
- November 5: Karpal Singh said professional bodies set up along religious or racial lines should be deregistered when he slammed the Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA) for its criticism of the Bar Council.
He also urged the Bar to lodge a police report against MLA for
threatening it not to side with Catholic weekly Herald in its appeal on
the October 14 Allah
ruling. According to Karpal, the time had come for all racial and
religious political parties and professional organisations which operate
along racial and religious lines to be deregistered. "Unfortunately,
this also includes PAS.
We have to be practical because if we want a united country we need
parties that are multi-racial", he said, while noting that PAS was DAP's partner in Pakatan Rakyat (PR).[14]
- November 6: Responding to Karpal's call to disallow bodies operating along racial and religious lines, PAS information chief Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man
described the proposal as dangerous and unfounded. "What is the danger
of PAS to multi-racial Malaysia? People should evaluate for themselves
how PAS has ruled Kelantan for over 23 years, Terengganu in 1999 and Kedah in 2008
in promoting racial unity and protecting the rights of both the Muslim
and non-Muslim people. Were there any non-Muslim who was sidelined?" he
asked, adding that the statement should not be coming from a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader at a time when the public was rejecting Barisan Nasional
(BN). "He should have been more wise and not come out with a statement
that can affect the good relations in Pakatan Rakyat and the people's
support. This type of statement also does not benefit DAP," said Tuan
Ibrahim, adding that PAS would leave it to DAP to deal with Karpal over
the statement.[14]
- November 8: Karpal denied ever calling for the deregistration of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia
(PAS). "It is true that I had stated that race-based political parties
and professional bodies should open its doors to other races which
unfortunately included PAS but I was quick to add that PAS had
acknowledged the necessity of multi-racialism by having a non-Muslim
supporters' wing", he said. Karpal pointed out that PAS had established
the non-Muslim PAS Supporters Congress, prior to the 2004 general election and also agreed to field non-Muslim candidates in the 2013 general election. Karpal also pointed out that in the 2008 general election, PAS fielded an Indian candidate to contest the Tiram state seat in Johor.[15]
- 2014 (age 74):
- March 11: Karpal was found guilty of sedition for questioning Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, on his decision to remove former Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin from his post in February 2009. He was fined RM4,000 by the Kuala Lumpur High Court under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act, which he described as an "outdated and irrelevant legislation that is 66 years old and a sad relic of British colonialism".[16]
- March 29:
- Karpal stepped down as DAP Chairman, pending the outcome of his sedition appeal.[16]
- DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said that Karpal's position in the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) would be vacant for as long as necessary.[16]
- April 17: Karpal died on the spot in a car accident shortly before 1:00am at KM301.6 of the North-South Expressway near Gua Tempurung, Kampar in Perak. He was believed to be traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Penang to attend a court hearing. There were 3 other occupants in Karpal's Toyota Alphard,
which had the iconic number plate KS9898. His long-time assistant
Michael Cornelius Selvam Vellu also died, while Karpal's son, Ramkarpal,
and the driver were injured. Police said the multi-purpose vehicle was
badly damaged, after losing control, following a collision with a lorry
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