Datuk Karpal Singh Kong - have kept the faith

Two weeks ago, on 3rd June 2017, Malaysiakini published Karpal Singh shrine surprises family in which we learned that a Sabahan admirer or political fan of the late Karpal raised funds to build an icon of Mr Singh and then to place that in the Tian Feng Gong temple in Teluk Intan as a 'Datuk Kong'.

Making a hero or holy man or warrior into a 'Datuk Kong' (an honorific for a local respected saint) is a popular form of Chinese Malaysian apotheosis (or deification or divinization).

In this, we could say Chinese Malaysians are racially blind as they have worshipped 'Datuk Kongs' of various races, mainly Malays and Thais but sometimes Chinese and Indians, and now a Punjabi.

When worshipping Malay 'Datuk Kongs' the Chinese also take very special care to observe Muslim dietary constraints. Thus you may assume accusations of non-Christian Chinese Malaysians not respecting Islamic dietary observations as likely to be false.

The Shrine of Datuk Panglima Hijau on Pangkor Island

photo in Dec 2007 by
Gryffindor in Wikimedia common

Datuk Panglima Hijau is supposedly the 4th ranking spiritual Datuk in Malaysia
FYI, the 9 Datuks below named according to their seniority from the eldest to the youngest:

1. Datuk Panglima Ali (Ali)
2. Datuk Panglima Hitam (Black)
3. Datuk Panglima Harimau (Tiger)
4. Datuk Panglima Hijau (Green)
5. Datuk Panglima Kuning (Yellow)
6. Datuk Panglima Putih (White)
7. Datuk Panglima Bisu (Mute)
8. Datuk Panglima Merah (Red)
9. Datuk Panglima Bongsu (Youngest)


hmmm, I wonder where would our own dear Karpal Singh be placed?

Back to our dear Karpal - Other than that we personally know, respect and adore him so much and that he was still alive until so recently, this practice of apotheosiz-ing (or deifying or divinizing) the late Karpal Singh is not so strange to non-Christian Chinese Malaysians.

The renowned, much respected and revered General Guan Yu (Guan Gong) of the Three Kingdom fame some two thousand years ago was similarly divinized, and is still worshipped today by Chinese as a deity, especially by businessmen as a symbol of integrity and honesty.

And rather unusually and uniquely for this famed warrior-god, in Hong Kong both the police and its arch foe, the unsavoury Triad, pray to Guan Gong, principally for the deity’s famous honour, courage, integrity, loyalty and unswerving brotherhood.

I believe the late Karpal Singh possessed many of those noble attributes.

There have been many worthy others but we needn’t delve into an opulent Chinese pantheon of multiple divinized heroes and heroines, other than to say those deities or icons are really not those of Taoism, Buddhism or Confucianism but rather of Shamanism or Shenism (Chinese folk religion or simply Chinese religion, also called Shénxiānjiào, or 'religion of gods and immortals').

The above clarification is just to correct a media-reported but erroneous imputation, and to put those reports misconstrued religious affiliation aside before we get on to the matter of our new Datuk Karpal Singh Kong.

especially in Peninsula Malaysia, it's very difficult to sift apart the various non-Christian religions (including Hinduism) when in most Chinese temples

we could accord it a new category, that of 'Malaysian Shenism'

To emphasize, his icon is not one of Taoism, and neither is the temple, much as some people might have described that religious institution as such.

Taoism is in fact, if I may say so without any disrespect but rather, with much admiration, a very profound though esoteric Chinese religious and philosophical tradition.

Briefly, Taoism (sometimes spelt Daoism) emphasizes on living in harmony with the Tao (the way and flow of the Universe or if you like it more simple, Nature).

Thus Taoism places importance on wu wei (effortless action), naturalness, simplicity, spontaneity, and its reputed Three Treasures of compassion, frugality, and humility.

Yes, Taoism is quite a long long way from being a Shamanistic religion as some in our local media had incorrectly believed and suggested, though in mitigation, the caretakers of our Malaysian eclectic-type of temples are and have been naturally liberal especially with their claims, wakakaka.

But the Westerners understand it best when we say Taoism is being at one with the Universe, or that the Taoists were the World’s original Greenies.

Anyway, back to Datuk Karpal Singh Kong – a recently divinized 'Ah Kong' as a new 'member' of our multitudinous array of Malaysian Datuk Kong’s – I am of the firm conviction the Shamanistic icon of this remarkable man known as Karpal Singh has come at a timely moment as if, if you are religious, by divine intervention, or if you are like me, a non-believer, wakakaka, by fortuitous coincidence.

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or better known as PAS has its Musyidul 'Am (spiritual leader) but he is a party personality whose position is concerned with the Islamic Divine and on the party’s religious matters, and in this I believe the Democratic Action Party (DAP), of which the late Karpal Singh was the party Chairperson until his untimely demise, also does require its own form of a party Musyidul 'Am.

But this is where the DAP’s Musyidul 'Am differs from the PAS’ Musyidul 'Am.

The DAP’s spiritual leader or better, Guardian (or Sentinel) of the DAP Ideology, should be a party personality whose role or party position is to remind the party members of its party ideological principles or to keep the DAP Ship on track with its avowed 'secular socialist democratic progressive multiracial ideology'.

more of above and none of 'god & hallelujahing' 

I propose this because when Karpal Singh was alive, he demonstrated his principled, ethical and courageous stand in admonishing ‘naughty lil’ boys and girls’ not only in his own party but those in Pakatan Rakyat. He was de facto the party’s ever vigilant sentinel of ideology and principles. Since his demise, I believe the DAP has ideologically gone on a circumnutating crazy cruise.

DAP Ship under Captain Lim Kit Siang just passed 

Dr Kua Kia Soong’s admonition to those Pakatan, especially DAP, ‘walking democratic dead’ or just 'walking dead' (zombies or kiangsi's) for allying themselves to an unrepentant unapologetic Mahathir Mohamed with his 22-year abysmal record has been an equally timely reminder of zombie-like politics pervading the DAP core ideology.

'walking dead' 

Do you recall how Karpal Singh demanded of Anwar Ibrahim to repent (bertaubat) in the case of the Perak Constitutional Crisis and the equally shameful froggy 916 Shamble?

In March 2009, Karpal was charged under the Sedition Act again for allegedly threatening to sue the Sultan of Perak following the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis. He said the Sultan had acted beyond his constitutional powers in appointing a BN nominee, Zambry Abdul Kadir, as Menteri Besar of the state.

Unlike our courageous Singh, many in Pakatan at that time, especially Anwar Ibrahim, panicked, went ‘tortoise’ and acted ‘dunno’, refusing to support Karpal’s suit against the Sultan of Perak, cowardly asserting that Karpal was doing so in his personal capacity and that the suit had nothing to do with Pakatan.

Yes, at that time Karpal also scolded Anwar Ibrahim for his shameless revolving door politics in Perak, telling him to repent and to resign as Pakatan’s leader because the latter’s froggy politics cost Pakatan the state government there.

Nor did Karpal spare DAP strongmen Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng for supporting Anwar’s party-hopping politics. That's why, where and when the principles of the DAP's leaders (eg. the Lim's) had behaved somewhat like North Korea's missiles on their test firings, wakakaka.

did I tell you of my former UMNO experience in Sabah in 1994?

There were those lovely lil' amphibians .....

Commenting on the incident which led Karpal to sue the late Sultan of Perak for acting beyond his constitutional powers, political analyst Prof Dr Ahmad Atory Hussein said succinctly in a TV3 interview: “He (Anwar) is like one who casts a stone and hides his hands.”

But Karpal was not just courageous in politics, for in 1986 he filed a lawsuit against the Yang Dipertuan Agong for assaulting a man.

This followed his criticism of the Malaysian King (Agong) in Parliament for allegedly assaulting two men, who were shanghai-ed to the royal palace by the police. Karpal refused to apologise as ordered by Parliament for his allegation.

As just mentioned, Karpal even filed a lawsuit against the King (then Sultan Iskandar of Johor) on behalf of one of the alleged assaulted men.

Karpal Singh was arrested and incarcerated under the Internal Security Act (ISA) a number of times for a variety of so-called ‘sins’ against the state.

In January 2000 under the Sedition Act along with four other opposition politicians Karpal was charged for making seditious remarks in court during Anwar Ibrahim's first corruption trial, that was, during Mahathir's PM days.

Now, this was unprecedented even in the Commonwealth where he became the only person or defence counsel charged for sedition for remarks made in court in defence of a client. And just to remind you, my dear readers, 'twas a time during Mahathir's PM-ship.

The courage, honour, integrity, resolute, principles and righteousness of the late Karpal Singh cannot be doubted. He was a true believer in DAP’s core ideology.

Given the current lamentable state of DAP political behaviour, especially by a very senior leader, like a monyet kena belacan, wakakaka, I believe the icon of Datuk Karpal Singh Kong should be moved to the Headquarters of the Democratic Action Party and placed in a prominent location to remind the members of the party’s core ideology, that of being 'secular, socialist democratic, progressive and multiracial', and certainly not that of opportunism, putar-belit-ism and whatever-it-takes-ism.

commination on 'opportunism' and 'hallelujah-ing' by any DAP members 

With permission from the Christians, I wish to quote 2 Timothy 4:7 (KJV), which tells us as if our Datuk Karpal Singh Kong is telling us:

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.