Prof Khalid

Prof Khalid honoured with first Merdeka Award

By FARIK ZOLKEPLI

The Star, 1st September 2008

JOHOR BARU: For more than 30 years, Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Abdul Kadir has been researching the human body’s response to stress and diabetes.

The efforts by the 60-year-old head of the Johor Baru Monash University Clinical School and endocrinologist paid off when he was honoured with the first Merdeka Award for Health, Science and Technology.

“The award will inspire me to work harder in my research,” he said in an interview.

The award is jointly initiated by Petronas, ExxonMobil and Shell. The Star is the official media for the Merdeka Awards.

The first part of his research work, which started in 1973 at Monash University Australia, focused on how the body responds to stress and ways to modify the responses as its effects might lead to diseases.

Prof Khalid explained that the second part of his research involved studies on the number of people with diabetes and the reason they suffered the disease.

Scrolls of honour: Prof Khalid holding up one of his many certificates testifying to his achievements in Johor Baru recently.

“We discovered in the early 1980s that 4.6% of the country’s adult population suffered from the disease and the number increased to 8% between 1996 and 1997.

“At present, the number continues to grow – between 10% and 12% are effected despite the Government’s efforts in healthy lifestyle programmes,” he said.

He noted that the orang asli community, even those near urban areas, were not affected by diabetes, unlike the Malays, Chinese and Indians.

“We are very interested to know why they are 'protected' from the disease whereas Aborigines in Australia are more prone to it compared to Caucasians,” he said.

Born in Nong Chik, Johor, Prof Khalid admitted that it was difficult balancing his research with being an endocrinologist, his duties as a professor and his family.

“Young researchers must understand that medical clinical research can be quite an arduous journey.

“Collaborating with intelligent, enthusiastic, and bright group of people is important as research is a team effort,” he said.

Prof Khalid’s main inspiration for becoming a doctor was former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, who treated him when he had chickenpox as a child.

He said Prof John Funder of Monash University also inspired him to become a researcher in stress hormones during his PhD studies.

He is no stranger to stature as his parents were none other than former law minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Yusof and the nation’s first woman minister Tun Fatimah Hashim.

Family Trees

TAKING ROOT, BRANCHING OUT

By DZIREENA MAHADZIR

The STAR, 1st April 2007

For many Malaysians, our beginnings can be traced to an ancestor who put down roots in this land so that the family tree could grow. Through the years, these “trees” put forth branches, with some branches reaching higher and growing longer, producing offspring who left their mark on the country. In many ways, how families prospered through marriage, education and economic opportunities reflect the way the nation prospered and grew too.

As part of The Star's run-up to Merdeka, StarMag introduces Malaysian Families, a five-part series on the first Sunday of every month, that will look at individual family trees, starting with that ancestor who begat it all, and trace the interesting “branches” that had an impact on Malaysian society and history. We kick off the series today with the family that gave us Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar as well as Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Ungku Zeti Akhtar.


ROQUAIYA Hanim (1864-1904) was nothing short of remarkable. Little is known about the woman and her sister, Khatijah, except that they were brought from their native Turkey to Johor some time between 1884 and 1885 as brides for the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Abu Bakar, and his brother, Ungku Abdul Majid ibni Temenggong Ibrahim. Khatijah married the sultan and became the Sultanah of Johor in 1892 and Roquaiya married Ungku Abdul Majid.

When her husband died, Roquaiya married Syed Abdullah Syed Mohsin al-Attas. They divorced later and she married Datuk Ja'afar Haji Mohamed.

From the three husbands, she had 10 children and many of them and their descendents played important roles in the country's political system and in the birth of an independent Malaysia, and now serve in the fields of politics, academia and economics.

Roquaiya's grandson Lt Jen (Rtd) Datuk Ja'afar Onn, (pic) who is in the midst of compiling information and writing a book on the family, a labour of love that was started long ago by other members of his family, says her descendants include some of the most well-known names in Malaysia.

They include the first, fourth, sixth and seventh Mentris Besar of Johor, the first and third president of Umno, Malaysia's third prime minister, two vice-chancellors of Universiti Malaya, the current education minister and the current governor of Bank Negara.

Ja'afar, 73, the grandson of Roquaiya, says his grandfather Datuk Onn Ja'afar was the first Mentri Besar of Johor.

“Sultan Abu Bakar appointed my grandfather and he held the post till he died. It was during his tenure that the state government was developed. In Johor, all the MBs were chosen by the Sultan, it wasn't a hereditary position.

“While your family did count, it was your own efforts that mattered more. In my family we had several of Mentris Besar of Johor, including my grandfather and father, Datuk Onn.”

Onn is, of course, best remembered in history as the founder and first president of Umno, a role he took up after resigning as MB.

Ja'afar's brother Tun Hussein, a lawyer by training, went on to become Malaysia's third Prime Minister and whose son, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin, is the current Education Minister.

When it came to the extended branches of the family, Ja'afar said that Onn also took care of the children from Roquaiya's previous marriages.

Roquaiya's children by Ungku Abdul Majid were Ungku Abdul Aziz, who became the sixth MB of Johor, and Ungku Abdul Hamid. The latter's son is Prof DiRaja Ungku Abdul Aziz, the former vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya whose daughter is Bank Negara governor, Tan Sri Dr Ungku Zeti Akhtar.

“Dr Zeti is actually descended from Roquaiya from both sides. Her mother, Azah Aziz, is Roquaiya's daughter, Azizah, my aunt,” says Ja'afar.

The branch of the family tree that his grandmother begat with her second husband, Syed Abdullah Syed Mohsin al-Attas, gave the nation the late Prof Datuk Dr Syed Hussein Alatas and Prof Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas, the current director-general of the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim).

Rashid Maidin

Rashid pious late in his life

By IAN MCINTYRE

YALA: In his twilight years, former leader of the defunct Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) Rashid Maidin was a different man devoting himself to prayer and doing social work.

According to his only daughter Kamariah Rashid, 45, from his second marriage, Rashid never spoke much about his time as a CPM leader to his family.

He preferred to discuss it only with ex-comrades, visitors, politicians and security officials.

“Family for him was about personal matters. Not ideology or politics. He was a great father, often humble and willing to help,” she said.

HAPPY TOGETHER: Rashid with second wife Serama, a Malaysian Chinese, with whom he made several trips to Mecca and China.

Rashid, 89, who suffered from old-age ailments, died on Sept 1, at his daughter’s home in Sisakoin, Narathiwat, southern Thailand.

During his last months, Rashid spoke mostly about prayer and never expressed regret or doubts from his time as a communist guerilla where he fought against the Japanese, British, Malayan and Thai troops, Kamariah, a housewife, said when met her home here.

Her husband Mat Surin Che Mat, 50, a bank worker, said Rashid did not disclose much except of his respect for the country’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman.

“During his time in Thailand, he led by example by being a pious person, advocating Islamic teachings and performing social work.

“It was like assuming a new life when he resettled here. He showed strong character and never reprimanded his grandchildren or us. Kindness and humility were his assets,” Mat Surin said.

Rashid, who was born in Kampung Gunung Mesah, Gopeng, Perak, on Oct 10, 1917, joined the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) in 1951 along with Malay nationalists like Ishak Mohamad (Pak Sako), Ahmad Boestamam and Abdullah C.D. in Perak.

After the PKMM was outlawed by the British administration, Rashid opted to join the CPM and was entrusted by then CPM secretary-general Chin Peng to lead the party’s 10th regiment in Bentong, Pahang, before fleeing into the dense jungles along the Malaysia-Thailand border pursued by the Malayan Armed Forces.

Rashid first came into the limelight at the Baling Peace Talks in 1955 as part of the CPM delegation led by Chin Peng. The Malayan Government delegation comprised Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and David Marshall.

FOND MEMORIES: Kamariah with her father’s framed photographs. — STARpic by SAZUKI EMBONG

With a self-vested rank of Colonel, Rashid led the 10th Regiment consisting 90% of Malays and was believed to be the No. 3 in the CPM.

Rashid took a second wife, Serama Abdullah – a Malaysian Chinese – who died last year and was buried in their home in Cholaborn 11 village.

The village is one of the several friendship villages in Yala which were established to house ex-CPM members after their surrender.

It was renamed Cholaborn after it became part of the Thai royalty poverty eradication scheme in southern Thailand.

Rashid together with Serama made trips to Mecca and China, judging from the family photo albums showed by Kamariah.

There were also photographs of him clad in his CPM uniform in the jungle with Chin Peng beside him.

Rashid was heavily involved in religious work in Cholaborn, having raised funds for a mosque and he taught Jawi besides leading prayers for comrades who followed him to the village.

He grew dokong fruits and cultivated rubber trees in his orchard. His ramshackled home was the largest in the settlement.

Several of his former comrades at Cholaborn said Rashid showed signs of serious illness when he fell from his motorcycle in March.

Kamariah cared for him after the incident and as his ailment became worse, he was brought to her home in Sisakoin where he stayed until he died.

Relatives, including his brothers from Perak and former CPM lieutenants, came to pay Rashid their last respects.

It was learnt that Chin Peng also forwarded his condolences to the family through an emissary.

Chin Peng is believed to be in southern Thai awaiting proceedings of his court case in Penang where he is seeking the right to return to Malaysia.

An ex-comrade, Abdul Rahman Che Mamat, 42, whose mother hails from Kuala Krai, said Rashid was a disciplinarian who never allowed his men to see pornography, do drugs or loiter aimlessly.

Abdul Rahman, who joined the CPM when he was 11, said CPM members preferred to engage the Thai Army, who did not seem that committed to fight them compared with their Malayan counterparts.

Another ex-comrade, Kodai Muhammad, 43, said Rashid was a pious person and often advocated Islamic teachings to every villager here.

Kodai said Rashid also disliked current terrorism tactics of planting bombs in civilian areas, saying to fight is to engage in a battle with the army of our foe, not civilians.

Karpal Singh

His pillar of strength

Karpal Singh’s devoted wife, Gurmit Kaur, candidly shares her shock and grief at seeing her once strong and active husband become physically dependent on others and reveals tender insights into their relationship that began when they were children.

Her rock, his anchor. Gurmit prays that Karpal will regain his ability to walk again.

IT has been nearly two years since Karpal Singh’s accident, but his wife, Gurmit Kaur, can recall every moment with precision. It was during a time of happy expectations as their only daughter Sangeet was about to marry.

“We were putting up decorative lights for the wedding,” relates Gurmit, 58, when we sit down for a coffee at her Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, home.

“The bell rang around midnight and I thought it was him. Instead of seeing my husband at the door, it was the taxi driver. He was frantically shouting, ‘Sudah langgar YB. Sudah langgar!’ (YB has been hit).

“I ran to the car and Karpal was lying inside face down. He said his back was hurt. I pulled him out while my eldest son Jagdeep carried his body from the other end. It must have been God who guided our hands as we carried him out because one wrong move and Karpal would have been even more seriously injured.

“I was initially relieved that Karpal was still talking. Until he asked me, ‘Where are my hands?’ That was when I realised he couldn’t feel his body.”

Karpal’s accident was headlines in the local press but no one suspected that he had been so severely injured. Reports merely said he had suffered “neck injuries”. Throughout his hospitalisation, Gurmit remained by his side.

Sangeet's wedding was postponed to Jan 1 this year. She had wanted her father to give her away but it was not to be. Her four brothers helped organise the traditional Punjabi wedding, which lasted nearly a week. Eldest sibling Jagdeep gave her away.

“Do you know I never really sat down to think about the whole situation?” says Gurmit. “I’ve become so busy – the nights I keep awake and the days I am running around. Deep inside I really don’t know what I feel.

But there were times I was so overwhelmed with frustration and misery that I got into my car and just drove around and around where I cried and cried.”

Compared to 1987 when Karpal was detained for 15 months under the Internal Security Act, Gurmit says his present situation was “unimaginable”.

“It is something you can’t even fight against, I can only pray. When he was in detention, he could walk, I could visit him, speak and fight for his freedom. Who can I speak to now? As they say, anyone can make big plans, but only God can implement them.”

Gurmit is particularly affected by Karpal’s helplessness.

“I want to see him walk again,” she says, lowering her voice to an intense whisper. “I want him to live in honour again when he can have his own privacy. I don’t want people to help with even his bath. I did that for one year and I was so tired. We now have someone to help him.

The accident that changed Karpal’s life.

“I won’t bargain with God but I have begged Him, for all the good Karpal has done, to give him back just one percent of that (goodness).”

Despite all that, Gurmit is grateful that Karpal remains “the same Karpal that I know”.

The couple have known each other since she was eight, and he, a shy student of 16. They met when he was helping his father herd cattle in Thean Teik, then the backwaters in Penang.

She was staying at Kampung Melayu in Air Itam and he was living at MacAlister Road. But he was good friends with her brothers all the while she was “the little sister”.

Gurmit was born in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat where her farmer parents had migrated to during the 1930s from Punjab, India. They moved to Penang when she was seven.

“We were friends for 10 years and never thought anything could happen!” Gurmit says, laughing. “It wasn’t until I had finished Form Five and Karpal came home from Singapore for chambering that things started looking different.”

The outspoken politician Malaysians know so well, never once approached the girl he had his eye on for a decade.

“He had set his sights on me a long time ago, but I was too young to know.

“There was always this guy looking out for me. I’d come out of school and sometimes he’d be at the bus stop. At the library where I frequently went, he would be there sitting quietly in a corner.

His wife, Gurmit Kaur, never left his side during his hospitalisation.

“The best thing about Karpal was that he never approached me until I had finished my Form Five. He had waited for me till I was old enough to understand such things. Then he finally came up to me and asked if we could be friends.

“He went like: ‘Can I meet your father? It’s because I want to marry you!’ That’s Karpal for you. He wanted to get my parents’ approval before we proceeded in our friendship. Through the year as I did my A-Levels, we’d meet for coffee, exchange birthday presents and did all those lovey-dovey things! The Penang library was often our dating spot.

“When he came to ask my father’s blessings for our marriage, my father told him, ‘There is no one better than you whom I can get for my daughter, there is no better son-in-law I want.’ Karpal always recite that to me!”

They married on July 30, 1970, the same year Karpal started his legal firm and joined the DAP.

The children came immediately with Jagdeep, now 36, Gobind, 34, Ram, 30, Sangeet 27, and the youngest, Mankarpal, 19.

They are also proud grandparents to four grandsons – Akhsay, three, Rohit, two, Jayden, one, and the newest addition, Sangeet’s son Johrran, who was born on August 18.

Twelve years ago, the couple bought the Damansara Heights house and Karpal planted saplings in the garden which have grown into fruitful rambutan, banana, mango and langsat trees today. Prior to the accident, his routine was to wake up to coffee and then potter around the garden with the dogs.

There are no more walks although he continues to enjoy the company of his bulldog, aptly named Babbar which means “lion” in Punjabi.

He also insists on going to office early every morning to help his sons with their cases in between daily physiotherapy and hydrotherapy on weekends.

The therapists who faithfully come to the house each day refuse to charge for their service.

“They are Karpal’s ardent supporters!” says Gurmit. “They take the trouble to come to our house after a whole day’s work, because they want to see him walk again.”

Just as there are caring, sensitive and sympathetic people, there are those who are not. Gurmit’s eyes narrow at the mention of the insensitivity demonstrated by a few MPs in Parliament.

“I was very upset. I don’t see how these people can stoop to that level,” she says. “I wanted to write a letter to the newspapers about them but my children would not let me. They said other people would do it.”

This woman, with large, expressive eyes, speaks fluent Thai and dishes up a mean Tom Yum alongside extremely fiery Indian food! Karpal insists he is not a “cat” at home but remains a tiger.

But it’s clear that this woman has been a pillar of strength for the family especially this past year.

Indeed, Jagdeep, who is based in Penang, credits his mother for helping the family cope after the accident.

“My mother has been holding up the entire family, but then, she’s always been an ‘Iron Lady’. Thank God my father is very strong and resilient. You can already hear him roaring in Parliament again! His spirits are high and we can’t even keep him from appearing in court with us. He is as sharp and focused as ever.

“After what we’ve been through, we don’t take things for granted anymore and appreciate the people closest to us. I’m so grateful my father is well and recovering, it has been a humbling experience for us all.”

Third son Ram Karpal, who accompanies his father to court and Parliament, as he is based at the KL office, says:

“Initially it was very difficult seeing my father in this condition, but eventually we got used to it. I was very upset of course, but my mother has been very strong for all of us.

“It’s not easy hearing what some people say about my father in Parliament, but politicians will be politicians. There is nothing we can do about it.”

Unknown to many, one of Karpal’s hobbies was in drawing little cartoons. He liked making birthday cards for all his children, each card having a hand-drawn picture and story.

“On my birthday on May 10, 1987, when Karpal was under ISA, I was feeling particularly down and lost, and went to his office. Suddenly an assistant ran in calling, ‘Mr Karpal has sent you a letter!’

“Inside the envelope was a little card with a drawing on it. It started off with ‘To my girl in blue…’

“You see, I had a lovely blue frock when I was nine or 10 which I wore everywhere. He remembered that!

“That was the most beautiful thing he had ever done just to tell me he was still there and that he loved me! I don’t know how he managed to get that card delivered right on time,” says Gurmit, her eyes misty, adding that she had the card framed.

While Gurmit refuses to give up hope that Karpal will one day be able to walk again, she also realises that they have been lucky.

“A doctor told me that Karpal could’ve very easily died. But his life was spared. Once when I was driving around in tears, I kept seeing disabled people: there was a blind man, another had no legs....

“That was when I realised now lucky we were and how much we take things for granted. He may not be walking but we still have him.”

Related Story:
‘I will walk again’

Karpal Singh

‘I will walk again’

DAP chairman Karpal Singh has been wheelchair-bound since an auto accident last January. During his hospitalisation, he and his family downplayed the severity of his injuries. For the first time, he tells CHIN MUI YOON how he survived the ordeal and how he is coping with life as a disabled person.

The Tiger of Jelutong at home accompanied by his faithful pet Bulldog Babbar, which means Lion.

PARLIAMENT is in full swing and veteran opposition MP Karpal Singh is in his element.

“You are not brave enough to allow me to speak!” he accuses Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad when he is denied the chance to question the Home Affairs Minister on the issue of whether Malaysia is an Islamic state.

That’s typical Karpal. Throughout his 36-year legal and political career, the 66-year-old DAP stalwart has been booed, cursed, ridiculed, threatened, fined, suspended and jailed. So taking on a government minister – even from a wheelchair – is just another day’s work for a man “all out to oppose”.

Publicly, the man whose admirers call the Tiger of Jelutong for his astonishing fifth electoral win in the Penang constitutency, remains as sharp and formidable as ever. But privately, he is struggling to regain his health and the full use of all his limbs since his accident in January 2005.

“I am fighting an internal battle that people don’t see and which I can’t express,” he says. “Life is so different now. I can’t stand to address the court or Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat. I need assistance even to scratch my forehead. It’s a terrible thought when you can’t do simple things that were once so normal.”

I meet the legendary lawyer at his office located in an old part of Pudu in Kuala Lumpur, tucked amidst colonial houses, backpackers’ inns, mamak restaurants and Sikh and Hindu temples.

A dozen people cram inside the little office with tired faces, dusty slippers and stained shirts as tattered as the threadbare carpet.

Framed plaques from clients decorate the walls. One proclaims “Karpal is an institution by himself”; another is a pair of preserved lobsters from a grateful client of case CV6088/99.

Never mind their lawyer is wheelchair-bound, these people still want Karpal Singh to take up their cases.

Work has become therapy for Karpal. When the mind is occupied, you forget your troubles, he says. He returns even on weekends to prepare cases for his lawyer sons.

“I’ve never been the sort who enjoyed golf and things like that; my hobby is reading law journals. But before the accident, I was on the move all the time and could be in several states in one day. Suddenly, I can’t even move. Helplessness overwhelms me sometimes. Still, I can’t fall into depression, which is difficult to get out of. I keep telling myself to get on with life. My family’s support had been necessary to keep me going.”

A fateful decision

The accident that has crippled him should not have happened if he had not changed his routine. Karpal regularly flew from KL to Alor Star where his eldest son, Jagdeep, who runs his legal office there, would pick him up at the airport and drive him home to Penang.

But on Jan 28, 2005, Karpal changed plans. He didn’t want to trouble Jagdeep, opting instead to catch the last flight out of KLIA directly to Bayan Lepas. Neither did he want his Penang driver to stay awake just to drive him home from the airport.

Before his accident, Karpal was always on the move, promoting one campaign or another.

“So I took a taxi home,” Karpal recalls. “I always sit in front with the driver to chat. Somehow this time, I sat at the back.”

The taxi stopped in front of Karpal’s home in Jalan Utama and signalled to turn right into the driveway. Suddenly a car rammed into the taxi from behind and violently flung Karpal about inside the car.

“What have I done, I hit the Tiger of Jelutong!” bank manager Lau Yee Fuat had reportedly cried out upon seeing who was in the taxi. (Lau was later charged under the Road Transport Act 1987 for reckless driving).

“I felt an excruciating pain in my neck and down my back; I knew it was a spinal injury,” says Karpal. “I told the driver to get my wife. Gurmit rushed out to the car. I told her I had hurt my back.”

Scans at the hospital revealed a severe contusion to Karpal’s thoracic vertebrae as a result of whiplash to his spinal cord which often occurs in such accidents.

Painkillers were administered and Karpal was unconscious for days. When he woke up, doctors told him that for him to walk again, it would be “a very slow process.”

While Karpal is not paralysed, his nerves and tissues in the spine have been damaged, causing sensory impairment and reduced motor strength. Immediately after the crash, he lost all sensation of his body.

Ram Singh making sure his father is in position in the Dewan Rakyat. Karpal’s place in the front row of the Opposition box was moved to the back to accommodate his wheelchair.

But he has since regained sensation and can feel his toes and fingers. He can move his legs and “walk” on water during hydrotherapy and stand for short moments. However, his mobility remains badly affected. He requires rigorous physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to continue his recovery.

“My life was changed, just like that – all because of a decision I made,” says Karpal quietly. “I kept asking myself: What if I had taken an earlier flight instead?

“Yet, once it’s fated, somehow or rather, we would still arrive at these points. In just a moment, my life and future was altered.”

An internal battle

Throughout 2005, Karpal was in and out of several hospitals in Penang and Singapore and had one major operation.

Since January this year, he has been undergoing physiotherapy two hours daily and hydrotherapy on weekends.

Karpal’s mobility needs were swiftly handled. His bedroom was relocated from the lowest floor to the entry level of his three-story split level home in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.

An electronically operated lift was installed in his KL office and a ramp built in his Penang office.

Kiwi writer Tim Donoghue’s biography on Karpal was put off after the DAP's disastrous loss during the 1999 election. Karpal hopes to have the book out this year.

But accepting and dealing with the devastating loss of his bodily functions took longer. It was not until February this year that Karpal regained a little movement in his arms.

“I was surprised when I tried to hold a pen to sign a piece of paper and I found that I could. Not only that, my signature was the same as before!” he says.

That is significant progress considering he is unable to raise his arms more than a few centimetres.

Unfortunately most courts remain inaccessible although the new buildings in Putrajaya are disabled-friendly. Parliament installed a ramp for Karpal when he returned on June 27 last year, just before his 65th birthday.

A place was made for him in the back row beside Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan in the Opposition block as the aisle leading to his usual front row seat beside Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang is too narrow for his wheelchair.

But not everyone is so noble when a political opponent is down. On June 28 this year, Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) drew flak when he told Karpal to “Shut up and sit down. You are lucky you are only in a wheelchair and did not die. Even in a wheelchair you want to create trouble in here.”

Karpal retorted by requesting for “this animal” to be taken out.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk M. Kayveas also couldn’t resist taking a jibe at Karpal on the same day by saying “You are now in a wheelchair. Later, no one will know what your condition will be.”

“There are always people who are insensitive, we just have to take it,” says Karpal. “There is nothing you can do about it. We cannot be discouraged, as that’s exactly what our enemies would want.

“Yes, I am more humbled now. Once you are in this situation, you realise how little the disabled have in this country. Governments in many countries make lots of allowances to include them in society.

“We haven’t reached that stage. I will do what I can to make sure the disabled are given all opportunities in line with other countries.”

Does it mean we will see the Tiger back for the next elections in 2007 or 2008?

“Yes! I hope to, even if I am still in my wheelchair,” Karpal readily replies. “After all, American president Franklin D. Roosevelt directed World War II from his wheelchair. But it depends on the party’s decision. I would like to contest; I’m not that old!

“I tell myself I must walk again. It is possible with physiotherapy but it will be a very slow process. I have to walk. God willing, I will.”

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His pillar of strength