BUKIT GELUGOR As the question of nepotism hovers over DAP's choice of Karpal Singh’s son as its candidate for Bukit Gelugor, the party’s Penang chief Chow Kon Yeow says there is no need to explain for the party has chosen "the best".

"Can you name someone who is more suitable than Ramkarpal Singh?" Chow asked, when met in Kampung Melayu, Air Itam, during the launch of the party's election operations centre last night.

"We think he is the best, in view of the current political scenario. We need someone to fill the void and continue the mission and struggle left behind by Karpal Singh, in terms of the legal profession and politics," he said.

Ramkarpal, 38, a practising lawyer, is the third son of the late Karpal Singh. The Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat fell vacant on April 17, after Karpal died in a road accident in Perak.

He was chosen over four other names proposed for the parliamentary seat that will go to polls on May 25.

Allegations of nepotism against the DAP surfaced even before Ramkarpal was nominated for the seat yesterday.

He faces three candidates standing as Independents - Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Huan Cheng Guan, retiree Mohamed Nabi Bux Mohd Nabi Abd Sathar and lawyer Abu Backer Sidek Mohamad Zan.

Ramkarpal himself has denied charges of nepotism levelled against him and the DAP for choosing him as the Bukit Gelugor candidate.

'How is that nepotism?'

"I am Karpal's son and I have known him all my life. How is that nepotism?" Ramkarpal asked at a ceramah in Seri Delima last night.

"I worked with him for half of my life. I appeared in court with him. I had the privilege of assisting him in his political work, I helped him draft questions for Parliament and we spent a lot of time discussing issues to raise there," he added.

"How can they say I have no experience whatsoever? I hope you will consider me not because of my father but because I, too, have something to offer."

He was speaking to about 200 residents in Island Glades who turned up with their umbrellas to listen to DAP leaders speak despite the heavy downpour.

"There are a lot of important issues to focus on like death in custody, selective prosecution by using the Sedition Act against the opposition and the Goods and Services Tax, not only the issue of nepotism," he said.

Ramkarpal has worked with his family legal firm in Penang and Kuala Lumpur for about 14 years after he graduated from Bristol University in the United Kingdom.

Earlier, in Air Itam, Ramkarpal's eldest brother, Jagdeep Singh Deo ( right ), explained that according to the dictionary, "nepotism" refers to a person who has benefited from links with the family.

"For us who are in Karpal's family, what kind of benefit have we gained?" he asked.

Jagdeep recalled the 15 months when Karpal was detained in the Kamunting Detention Camp in 1987, and the two Sedition Act charges against his father.

The first was during the Sodomy I trial, when Karpal claimed that former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's health was deteriorating due to a high level conspiracy to poison him with arsenic.

He was charged again with sedition and on March 11 this year fined RM4,000 for insulting the Perak sultan during the state's constitutional crisis in 2009.

"So what is the benefit of being his son?" Jagdeep, who is Dato Keramat assemblyman asked.

Nepotism is totally different with the BN, he said. In the nepotism they practise, "their children become millionaires, whereas we suffered from childhood".

"I was only 17 years old when my father went into detention camp," Jagdeep lamented.

He also asked what benefit - financial or otherwise - has Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary Lim Guan Eng reaped from his father, Kit Siang.

"Nothing at all! The only thing we inherit is their spirit, struggle and commitment," Jagdeep added.