Dear Choo Keong,

We have known each other for more than 25 years. Though we were not that close we still did meet, albeit infrequently, to exchange pleasantries and to talk politics in the early years. We have almost entirely lost contact during  recent years, but on the few occasions that we bumped into each other we did not just nodd at each other and went our separate ways, we stopped and talked.

When we first met it was over some business dealings. But we soon found our mutual interest in politics. You were then young, idealistic and already very active in political and social issues.  Even though it had been such a long time I can still remember vividly some of the political highlights in your early years.

There was the Komuda Cooperative scandal where you played a leading part in exposing the abuse and embezzlement of members deposits by the senior managers and directors of Komuda; you singlehandedly organized and lead a series of demonstrations at the homes and offices of those crooked politicians who were involved in the scandal. Then there was the 1986 parliamentary election when you became a giant killer by defeating the then MCA Youth Leader and a Deputy Minister for the Bukit Bintang seat.

But for me, the most memorable episode was your detention under ISA during Operation Lallang. Memorable for what you told me after your release; how you stayed sane during the 24 hour isolation by reading over and over again the old newspapers they used as nasi lemak wrappings and then mentally translated the contents to the Thai language and if it was an English  newspapers, into Bahasa Malaysia and vice versa.

Then there followed a few low points in your political career. Your disqualification as a Member of Parliament; your bitter quarrel with the DAP  leadership and the humiliating defeat you suffered when you stood as candidate for your own then newly formed party, the MDP.  When I heard of your defeat I really felt for you. After all you had done and after all those personal suffering was that really the end of the road for you? Was your political career really over?

Frankly, I personally thought so then; and indeed for a long time you were in political hiatus. Then came the 2008 General Election and the Wangsa Maju seat.  But even then I did not expect you to do well, least of all to win, for who would have expected the political tsunami that swept the nation. When you won I was pleasantly surprised and happy for you and when I emailed you my congratulations you were courteous enough to ring me up to thank me.

After that email and phone call we have not been in contact. But I continue to follow your political career closely, expecting you to be more fiery and confrontational now that there is a much stronger opposition and now that the rakyat are more supportive and more receptive to issues raised by the opposition. However all I heard from you (from the news media) and all I read about you was the bitter internal bickering you had with your political colleague and allies. There was nothing coming from you at all about the Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal, the Altantuya murder/submarine case, Teoh Beng Hock and MACC, Sodomy 2, the blatant abuse of power by the Police, the Judiciary and MACC, etc.

I was puzzled. Then the rumours started coming in about you and that because of all these you were about to 'sell' yourself to BN.  Initially I did not believe all these rumours for the Choo Keong I know would never do that; all these rumours were created by Umno to destabilise Pakatan Rakyat. But when the rumors persisted and you had not come out to deny them I began to expect the worst. Then came your now much anticipated resignation on May 14, a very much calculated move to inflict the most serious damage to PKR (which you and your Umno master failed to do so) and to ensure maximum benefit for yourself.

Choo Keong, you were not the first to betray the country and the rakyat that voted you in. Sadly, neither will you be the last. There were many before you, Yip Yit Foong, Zulkifi Nordin, Zahrain, Moshin, Fadzli Samsuri and the others. But for me personally, knowing you as I did, respecting you as I did, yours is the 'Ultimate Betrayal', the kind of betrayal which has forever been  immortalised in Caesar’s dying phrase to his most trusted friend Brutus: “Et tu, Brutus?”

I hope one day, when you have finished calculated all your gains you will be able to look at the mirror and say “You too, Choo Keong?”

Choo Keong, I once believed in you. I do not believe you now. I do not believe all the flimsy reasons you gave as to why you left PKR. Neither have the hundreds who posted their disbelief online. Surely you must have read at least some of these comments? Surely you must now know the venomous anger, contempt and hatred you have incurred by your betrayal? There had also been several calls for you to do the honourable thing and resign as member of Parliament, a position which you had won as a PKR candidate.

Of course you would not do that as you know very well that if you stand again as an independent candidate or under your MDP, you would not only lose, you would lose your deposit as well, as history has shown.

I believe I have said enough. Anything more I want to say has already been said several hundred times online. But as I finish this letter I am left with a lingering thought - this is a small world, and we live around the same area so what should I do when we next bump into each other? Should I spit at you as a lot of others would want to? Definitely not, for no matter what Malaysia has become, ours is still a civilised world. Should I just politely ask you 'why'? Probably not, because I am tired of hearing about Ronnie Liu and his gangsters, the little Napoleons, and the sand mining company.

What I would probably do is to totally ignore you pretending that I do not know you. Come to think of it, it is not really pretence. In reality, you are not at all the Choo Keong I knew some 25 years ago. That Choo Keong was young, idealistic and had done a few honourable things in his short life. You are the exact opposite.

So sadly, painful as it may be, I have to accept the fact that, the Choo Keong who I once knew and who I so respected, is now no longer with us. He is gone forever. This I must accept and what better way to formally accept it than by ending this letter with a farewell note to him:

Farewell Choo Keong. Your political life might be short but you had served it with great honour and dignity. May you rest in peace - But can you, YB Wee Choo Keong, can you rest in peace?