COMMENT My experience working with Karpal Singh was just legendary. When I took the job I was, to be honest, a bit scared and nervous, as I had always seen the strict and fierce ‘tiger’ roaring away on television, in Parliament and various other platforms.

However, as I was introduced to him the first time, and the days that followed that day, I learnt that he was a very nice and humble ‘tiger’.

A living legend in the legal world, he was never stingy about teaching or sharing his wisdom with anyone who have ever worked with him.

He was a man of principle. He has his principles, and he stuck by them fiercely, no matter what the situation was.

People have said that he was the voice of the voiceless, the voice for the weak, and I know for a fact that he was. A man to whom the most important thing was justice - he did not look at creed, race or colour when he defended someone.

To him, there must be justice, no matter what the cost, but the ends never justified the means. He did not cheat to get justice done, he did not corrupt to get justice done. He got justice by doing justice.

His work was his passion. The betterment of this nation and serving the people was what drove him. He gave his life to people, serving people, helping people, legally and politically. He would help people in any way he could.

Beneath the tiger that fiercely fought for justice was a very nice man, a soft-spoken and respectable man. He never scolded me like other bosses do for no reason, and if there was a need for me to get scolded (whenever I erred), he always apologised afterwards, saying “Sorry if I was harsh on you”. He was a true gentleman.

His staff and lawyers respectfully addressed him as ‘Boss’. Everyone who has worked with him will always know him as Boss. I have met other lawyers who are bosses themselves now, but if they had served him at any point, they would always call him Boss. That was the kind of mark he left on people. For me, he will always be my Boss.

I am very lucky to have been blessed with the opportunity to serve with him, and Boss will be my boss forever.

He never knew rest in his lifetime. For him, it was always work, and there was always a battle worth fighting. He attended court, even lower courts, case managements and mentions.

He even did document filings himself, did his own submissions, and did his own research. He read law reports like they were best-seller novels, and he could recite citations and provisions off the top of his head.

That was the kind of unshaken passion and brilliance he had. One of the things he would always tell me was, “In this line, you can't help it, you've gotta work like a bull. It is what it is.”

Only one Tiger of Jelutong

I received the call saying he is no longer with us at 3.30am on April 17 and it was a hard thing to believe. I thought evil people were just spreading rumours, that it was a sick joke pulled by evil pranksters, but it turned out not to be.

It felt like a dream and it still does. I had spoken to him the day before about cases and he was supposed to attend court that morning. When I went to the court to inform of his passing on, I was thinking ‘maybe last night was a dream’.

‘Maybe Michael (Cornelius, his assistant) would call in a minute and tell me “the Tiger is on his way!” with Boss laughing in the background as he always does whenever I reach the court first and I call him to check.’

His passing away is a great loss to this nation, and to the legal world.

There’s only one Tiger of Jelutong, and no matter how many aspire to be like him, there will always be only one Tiger of Jelutong.

MUHAMMAD ARIF SHAHARUDDIN is legal assistant at Messrs Karpal Singh & Co, Penang.