GEORGE TOWN, April 19 — A newly-built park facing the sea along Jelutong here will be renamed after the late Karpal Singh, Lim Guan Eng announced today.
The Penang chief minister said the promenade near Jalan Sungai Pinang will be renamed “Karpal Singh Drive” in honour of the DAP veteran who was killed in a car crash April 16.
“The IJM promenade will be renamed Karpal Singh Drive or Persiaran Karpal Singh in Malay.
“It will be 0.8km long and is located next to the first Penang bridge,” he told reporters here today.
A visibly distraught Gurmit Kaur, who was present together with Lim, thanked the Penang government for the announcement and for assisting in the funeral preparations.
“The Tiger of Jelutong now has a road named after him in Jelutong,” Karpal’s wife said, struggling to finish her sentence.
Today is the last day of Karpal’s wake at his house along Jalan Utama where the public can pay their last respects until 11pm tonight.
Crowds have started gathering to pay their last respects as early as 8am today.
The whole road continued to be jammed up as traffic slowed down near Karpal’s house due to the growing crowd spilling onto the road.
Flower wreaths and other tributes from paintings to artworks depicting Karpal’s face next to a tiger were crammed all around the compound of the double-storey bungalow.
Canopies were also set up across the road from the house for the overwhelming numbers of flower wreaths from various organizations, individuals and parties.
The late Bukit Gelugor MP was killed in a car crash at about 1.10am on April 16 after the car he was travelling in collided with a lorry.
He will be accorded a funeral with state honours where the state flag is flown at half-mast until his cremation.
Tomorrow, the cortège will leave the house at 8am to make it’s way to Dewan Sri Pinang on Lebuh Light for a public ceremony.
The ceremony at Dewan Sri Pinang is from 9am to 11am to allow the public to pay their last respects to the man fondly remembered as the “Tiger of Jelutong”.
The cortège will go on a short procession around several places that marked milestones in Karpal’s life that includes the Penang High Court, his legal firm in Green Hall, the Penang state legislative assembly on Lebuh Light and his alma mater St Xavier’s Institution on Farquhar Street.
After the procession, the cortège will head to the Batu Gantung crematorium for the final funeral rites.
