Dr Alijah Gordon passed away last week. The obituaries in the local newspapers lauded her championing of various social and humanitarian causes especially the plight of the displaced Palestinians.

I was however intrigued with the by-the-way mention of her being American-born Shirley Gordon. In the past 20 years, I don't believe that I have seen any mention of her original name in print.

Is this Shirley Gordon the same as the one who was married to Lim Kean Siew, the socialist firebrand who lit up Penang politics in the 50s and 60s? If this is true then this fact appeared to have been totally unmentionable in all the obits. This would have been the very reason that brought Shirley Gordon to this part of the world in the first place.

Is this the Shirley Gordon with whom Lim Kean Siew was so enamoured with that he named his sailboat 'Honey Shirl'? After all, even fiery radicals have to relax in between ferocious class struggles.

As an epilogue, Mr Lim later underwent a political makeover and re-packaged himself as the MCA chief in Penang. However, Shirley Gordon was probably more successful after she had re-invented herself as Alijah.