The morning after the massive funeral procession to send off the late Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh, reports in some of today's mainstream English and Malay dailies indicate that nothing worthy of their front pages took place yesterday.

Every major Chinese daily today front-paged the day an estimated 15,000 turned up to pay their last respects, and trailed the cortege to the crematorium along the 2km long procession along massive traffic jams.

However, readers of BN-linked dailies New Straits Times (NST) , The Star , Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian for example, would not be blamed for thinking Penang saw a quiet day yesterday.

Berita Harian , for instance, front-paged an event in George Town, but it wasn't the emotional day-long funeral.

'Wild party at homestay' screamed its headline on the report that about 88 people were detained at a bungalow that was raided, for taking drugs and hard liquor.

The death of a baby took the other headline, with not a single mention of Karpal's funeral on the Berita Harian front page.

Instead, it ran a medium-sized article on page 13 with a photo of the funeral.

Umno-owned Utusan meanwhile front-paged recent bus accidents, and also failed to mention the funeral on the front page sidebars.

It buried a small nondescript report on page 8, 'Karpal's body cremated at Batu Gantung'.

The funeral was also a non-event for Malay tabloid Cosmo, that also found the drug raid in Penang more newsworthy of its front page.

Chinese dailies chalk 24-page coverage

Similarly major English dailies NST and the Star buried their reports on page 12, and page 6 and 8 respectively.

They preferred to front-page headlines on drug tests and gambling respectively, but at least mentioned the turnout of thousands at the funeral in their sidebars.

The Star 's lack of front-page enthusiasm is particularly curious considering the daily sent a delegation to pay its respects at the Penang function yesterday.

The delegation led by its group chief editor Wong Chun Wai bowed three times before Karpal's casket.

Borneo Post, The Sun and Malay Mail however stood apart and carried front page headlines of the unprecedented public sendoff for the 74-year-old former DAP chairperson, whose death in a road accident on Thursday shocked the nation.

In contrast, all the main Chinese dailies ran full front page pictorials on Karpal's funeral, with extensive photo spreads inside.

Four of the mainstream dailies totalled 24 pages dedicated to Karpal.

China Press ran nine pages that included a centrespread, Nanyang Siang Pau ran five full colour pages, and Oriental Daily News and Guang Ming Daily likewise had five each, all inclusive of the front pages.

Kwong Wah Daily also carried a full front page headline, as did Tamil dailies Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai that both ran full page headlines of the mammoth turnout at Karpal's funeral.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in a statement today estimated the overall attendance to be 25,000, calling it perhaps one of the largest in the state's history.