KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — In death, all things become clear.

Despite having locked horns whenever they chanced upon each other in the Dewan Rakyat, former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu today reminisced of how the late DAP veteran Karpal Singh put aside political differences to assist the latter in resolving several court cases for the poor.

Samy Vellu, 78, who was the Sungai Siput MP, related that Karpal also took on the cases on a pro bono basis and brought them to successful outcomes.

“He was good friend. I used to ask him to me help with some cases that he had expertise in and he has helped us,” the former works minister told The Malay Mail Online.

Still, things were not always so cordial.

Karpal, while serving as the Jelutong MP in 1982, accused Samy Vellu of securing a highly-coveted plot of land in the capital city surreptitiously, to build a private swimming pool.

Samy Vellu, dubbed himself as the “Hindu lion” in defending that the land was transferred legally and challenged Karpal, who the former referred to as “the tiger of the court”, to repeat the allegation outside the lower house.

Karpal’s moniker as the “Tiger of Jelutong” was derived from the confrontation, when the former responded to Samy Vellu saying “he (Samy) could be the lion, and I could be the tiger, because there are no lions in Malaysia!”

But being adversaries in the Dewan Rakyat did not deter them from becoming friends, related the former MIC chief.

“As a member of parliament he asked the questions and as a minister I was responsible to answer all of it.

“He is the heroic type of man and never feared to raise what he felt was right,” said Samy Vellu, who was dropped from the Cabinet after failing to secure his Sungai Siput parliamentary constituency in 2008.

Karpal, DAP’s MP for Bukit Gelugor, was killed after the Toyota Alphard MPV he was travelling in crashed following a collision with a lorry along the North-South Highway near Gopeng, Perak at about 1.10am.

Long-time aide Michael Cornelius was also killed, while their driver is seriously injured. Karpal’s son, Ram Karpal Singh and their Indonesian helper, sustained injuries.

Karpal was believed to be travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Penang for a court hearing this morning.

Born in Penang on June 28, 1940, Karpal graduated with a law degree from the University of Singapore and joined the DAP in 1970.

He ran for Parliament in the 1978 general election and won the federal seat for Jelutong, which he held for five terms. Karpal lost in Jelutong in 1999 national polls and contested in Bukit Gelugor, for the first time 2004 and in subsequent elections.

Karpal leaves behind a wife, five children and 11 grandchildren.

* Note: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that Karpal has four grandchildren. It has since been corrected. The error is much regretted.