COMMENT Karpal Singh Deo has been dead for three and half months now, his passing lamented in a plethora of encomiums to his career and eulogies on his life. All justified of course.

The advocacy of the 'Tiger of Jelutong' in a court of law and in the premier arena of the country - Parliament - is said to be sorely missed by hypothetical clients questing after justice and legions of citizens hungering for an egalitarian Malaysia.

But there’s this bit of wisdom about the devil being in the details that now comes to spoil things, including the Deo legacy which underwent an understandable amount of posthumous inflation by reason of the tragic circumstances of his passing and the void it is said to have left in the Malaysian opposition’s advocacy of exigent causes.    

Karpal's driver, C Selvam, who was at the wheel when his car was involved in the accident on April 17 that took two lives - Karpal's and that of his aide and factotum, Michael Cornelius - is languishing in jail for want of a bailor.

On July 9, Selvam, an Indian national, was charged in the Kampar Sessions Court with dangerous and reckless driving.

Selvam, 27, pleaded not guilty to committing the offence at Km306.1 of the North-South Expressway near Gua Tempurung in Kampar on April 17 at 1.10am.

Bail for Selvam, who is the younger brother of Michael Cornelius, was set at RM5,000. There was no one to post it for him.

So Selvam languishes in jail until Aug 8 when his case will be up for mention. If there is no bailor then, he will continue to languish there until the case comes up for trial and judgment.

‘We cannot get involved’

Ramkarpal Singh Deo, who was in the accident that killed his father and Michael Cornelius, in indirect explanation of the lack of a bailor for Selvam was reported to have said: "I have also been summoned to be a prosecution witness for the trial, so we cannot get involved in the case."

The "we" here is strangely insular.

Clearly, it does not include the DAP which gifted him on a silver platter with the parliamentary seat of Bukit Gelugor, which was held by his late father, despite Ramkarpal only joining the party last November at the relatively late age - for memberships of this nature - of 37.

The insularity of the pronoun "we" in the circumstances is further underlined by the knowledge that a not inconsiderable sum was collected from DAP donors and others for the family of Michael Cornelius, who in the reckoning of many who had observed his service, was an assiduous factotum of Karpal's.

The DAP chairperson after the accident that left him paralysed from the waist down nine years ago, required round-the-clock attendance, mainly tendered by Michael who was 39 when he died.

Selvam is a brother of Michael (right) and on that score comes within the ambit of the concern for Michael's dependents - he has a wife and three kids back home in India - that was responsible for raising a goodly amount for the bereaved family.

DAP party faithful are known to be generous in matters of this nature; an appropriately large sum, reflecting the value the donors had for Michael's service, was said to have been raised for the welfare of his bereaved ones.

It is believed that Selvam's driving credentials were commended to the late Karpal by Michael who was reputed to be the sort of person willing to go out on a limb for others at the doff of a cap.

It beggars belief there is not now someone from within the fraternity of party and family who is willing to justify Michael Cornelius, who died by the side of the man to whom he was virtually sutured for nine years, for the altruism that was the hallmark of his tragically abbreviated life.


TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades now. He likes the profession because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.