COMMENT Every law student would say that they want to be the next Karpal Singh however not many actually walk the path taken by the Tiger of Jelutong. The path he took comes with many adversities ranging from imprisonment, defeats in elections, graduating late from law school and objection to the long call to the Bar.

All these challenges made him the man that he was and makes us realise that we have to face our own challenges in life to realise our true potential.

Today marks the second year of his passing yet he still remains a figure of inspiration to many others wanting to walk the footsteps of the tiger.

I first came across the late Karpal Singh back in 2010. Karpal donated a smartboard to his old alma mater St Xavier’s Institution (SXI). I have the privilege of welcoming him the school’s computer club as the then SXI Webteam chairman. That fine smartboard was placed in the school’s computer club to be used for interactive lessons in the future.

He continued the culture of giving back to the school like many other Xavierian’s (term used to called students of SXI) before him. I was 19 years old then doing my Form Six and never have I imagined I would later be setting foot into the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya (UM).

It was always a sensitive issue to be bring an opposition politician to schools as there exist a culture of politicking involved in the education system denying opposition MPs and state assemblypersons from stepping into government schools.

A few years down the road, our path crossed again, this time in the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex where I started taking those babies steps as a university student.

Karpal and his daughter Sangeet Kaur Deo represented Kolej Universiti Insaniah (KUIN) in a matter against some students from the university. I have a habit of going to court once in a while to watch a case or two particularly if it is a high profile matter.

Being a student activist at the same time, it is not uncommon to find that one or two people you know were being charged in court.

In Karpal’s career, he handled many high profile cases, particularly on drugs. It is in his biography by Tim Donoghue ‘Karpal Singh: The Tiger of Jelutong’, which is a must-read for those who have passion for law and politics.

The 13th general election came soon enough and I found myself travelling home to spend the weekend campaigning for Zairil Khir Johari, the current MP for Bukit Bendera. It was indeed a great experience and on May 3, 2013, all candidates from DAP gathered at Esplanade to take their pledge before polling day.

I managed to take a picture with the man together with a senior from law school who campaigned for Ng Wei Aik, the current MP for Tanjung. The experience of watching the mega ceramah on stage at Esplanade and IJM Promenade (now called Karpal Singh Drive) was probably the best moment in the entire campaigning period.

Thousands of Penangnites crying for change for a better Malaysia. Though we did not win GE13, but I can say the results paved way for many young Malaysians to step up and become change agents in their own way.

I now have more peers joining political parties or working with civil society NGOs to make Malaysia a much better place.

This generation is what I call the Blackout 505 generation. A generation of disillusioned youths who have come out to make a difference after GE13. The previous Reformasi and Bersih 1 and 2 generations have now come of age and you see many of them in the public arena creating change in their own way.

This can only be a sign of better things to come but Karpal did not live to see the day real change would happen.

He, together with the previous generation of freedom fighters, did lay the foundations.

The aftermath of GE13 saw a sedition dragnet where many opposition lawmakers and civil society were charged under the Sedition Act. This sparked a movement by local lawmakers and civil society to form Gerakan Hapus Akta Hasutan (GHAH) or in English, Movement to Abolish The Sedition Act.

Karpal was charged himself and convicted with a RM 5,000 fine for questioning the role of the sultan of Perak then in the 2009 constitutional crisis in Perak where a change of menteri besar occurred as a result of three state lawmakers declared support for Zambry Abdul Kadir from BN causing the collapse of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat state government.

Once again my friends and I played truant to lend our support to Karpal during the decision of his case at Kuala Lumpur High Court.

I never imagined that such sedition charge would also fall upon one of my lecturers, Azmi Sharom. This sparked my friends and I to campaign against the Sedition Act. We started small by forming the #Solidarity4AzmiSharom campaign to rally support behind our lecturer where 500 people gathered at the Tree of Academic Freedom in University of Malaya as a sign of protest.

We urged the abolishment of the Sedition Act, defend academic freedom and a stop to selective prosecution in this country. Thank God his charges were now dropped .

Shocked by news of Karpal’s passing

Everyone was shocked by the news of Karpal’s passing in the morning of April 17, 2014. I was sitting in one of my tutorial classes waiting for the tutor to come in while scrolling the news feed on my Facebook .

I texted Zairil to confirm the news and then decided to make a trip back home to Penang to attend the funeral.

Those who attended the funeral would tell you the story of how thousands of people joined in the procession around George Town and it shows how much the people of Penang loved Karpal Singh.

It was not a surprise that the late Karpal received the Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award.

My past internships and experiences allowed me to meet a few people whom were taught and brought up under the wings of Karpal himself.

His son Gobind Singh Deo represented me as my counsel when I was detained at Jinjang police lock-up for organising a protest called ‘Tangkap Najib’ at Sogo Shopping Complex. My Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) lecturer was also a lawyer trained by him.

My current master, whom I am doing my pupilage with, also was from Karpal Singh & Co. It is amazing how fate works to connect people together in live and how fate allows for a single person like Karpal to inspire the lives of many others.

A lot of things have changed since Karpal’s passing, and I mean a lot. Pakatan Rakyat whom we supported and voted for in the last GE ceased to exist and is now replaced by Pakatan Harapan. PAS is no longer an ally of the DAP and a new splinter party Amanah replaced it in the coalition.

The economy is not looking good and we are now living in a state of political uncertainty. We look to the lessons of the past so that we don’t repeat the mistakes made by our previous generation. With this I sincerely recommend the reading of Karpal Singh’s biography titled “The Tiger Of Jelutong” by Tim Donoghue. It is a must read for those who aspire to become lawyers as well as politicians.

Every lawyer would know the landmark cases of Teh Cheng Poh and S Arulpragasan where Karpal’s triumphs set precedents for a change in the law which would later inspire many other lawyers to challenge the boundaries of the law in their own pursuits.

Karpal pushed the boundaries of the law until Parliament had by introducing the Emergency (Essential Powers) Bill on Jan 17, 1979 after the Teh Cheng Poh's Privy Council case to validate the Escar [Essential (Security Cases) Regulations 1975] regulations which has retrospective effect on the Escar prisoners, thus condemning them to the gallows.

Another fine example of how Parliament showed its superiority against the courts.

While in the case of S Arulpragasan, judges reinterpreting the standard of proof at the end of the prosecution’s case in a criminal matter was held by the courts to require it to be ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, which is a higher standard of proof.

This case later laid the foundations for another legislative intervention to amend the CPC's ‘prima facie’ (on the face of it) as the standard of proof required at the end of the prosecution’s case, which is much easier to prove conviction should the accused does not rebut the prosecution’s evidence. Today the word ‘prima facie’ can be found in the provisions of Section 173 and Section 180 of the CPC.

We have come a long way since the dark ages of human rights under Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s time but that would not be possible without the people’s dissent and political tsunami back in 2008. We are in a better state today than before.

There are a lot of youths out there like myself who wants to see a better Malaysia but a better Malaysia will not come if we sit idle and not do anything. While speaking out is important, taking action is even better.

I hope to see more young tigers walking the footsteps of the Tiger of Jelutong. Revolution begins not in the streets but it starts from within ourselves.

VINCE TAN is a chambering student based in Penang. After his adventures in law school, he now travels around experimenting on ways to create social change.