OBITUARY | I sat next to Kerk Kim Hock at a fundraising dinner for the Sarawak DAP at Lok Thian Restaurant in downtown Kuching one fine evening in 1999.

Kerk was the secretary-general of the DAP and I was the secretary-general of the State Reform Party (Star).

DAP, PKR and Star were Sarawak allies in Barisan Alternatif (BA). Pakatan Rakyat was not born yet. BA was the opposition alliance formed to fight Barisan Nasional in the 1999 general election.

It was at that dinner during that fine evening 18 years ago that I came to know Kerk Kim Hock – the man, the politician and the fighter.

The dinner-cum-ceramah dragged on for some three hours. There were speeches by DAP leaders like Chong Eng and Wong Sing Nang, who was Sarawak DAP chairman at the time. Even the fiery tones from Lim Kit Siang and the late Star president Dr Patau Rubis did not distract Kerk and me from our deep conversation.

Somehow we clicked that night. We were mere political acquaintances in the past, and had never had the opportunity to engage each other until that evening.

We clicked possibly because we are both “monkeys”, born in 1956 in the Year of the Monkey. Never mind that he is five months older than me, we are still monkeys. The fire monkey is said to be ambitious and adventurous and I guess we possess similar traits.

When two politicians sit down for dinner, you can expect them to talk about politics and nothing else. But Kerk and I went further than that. Yes, politics invariably formed part of our conversation but we also discussed family, friends, even God, and other social issues.

I recall him telling me that God, family, and friends were more important than any political position.

“As politicians, we can fight each other like sworn enemies but after that, we must realise that it’s only politics.

“Never ever consider or treat your political opponents as long-time adversaries. Believe that your opponents are also in politics to serve the people, only that they choose the path that is different from yours”, Kerk told me.

I remember sharing with Kerk how demoralised I was after my electoral defeat in the 1996 state polls but he attempted to lift my spirits by saying that he had had his own share of electoral setbacks, only to bounce back again.

That was true. Kerk lost the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat in the 1995 general election, but in the 1999 polls, he won Kota Melaka and was back in Parliament...