KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — Organisers were forced to shift a planned memorial for opposition stalwart Karpal Singh tomorrow night to a new venue, after the Education Department rejected their application to hold the event at a Chinese vernacular school in the city.
Acting DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai said the department slammed the door on the plan to hold the memorial at SJKC Chung Kwo at Jalan Loke Yew, deeming it to be a political event.
“We submitted the request on Monday, but at 9am today, it was rejected,” Tan said at a press conference here today.
The DAP had earlier announced plans to host a nationwide roadshow starting tomorrow, in memory of their former chairman who was killed in a car crash last week.
Though the first memorial event was initially scheduled to be held at the school from 7.30pm, the party has since shifted the venue to the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH).
Tan said today that they have used the school’s hall regularly for party fundraisers in the past, and also helped collect the money needed to build the school hall.
He acknowledged that the school’s administration had no choice in the matter as it must abide by the department’s ruling, which he alleged to be a “political agenda” by the Barisan Nasional federal government.
“There is surely a political agenda here, but this is not even a political event; it is a gathering to honour the late Karpal Singh.
“They not only feared him when he was alive, BN is also scared of him after his death,” Tan said.
Karpal’s second son and Puchong MP, Gobind Singh Deo, is scheduled to speak at tomorrow’s memorial, which will be attended by the party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and advisor Lim Kit Siang, de facto Pakatan Rakyat chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PAS deputy president Mohamed Sabu.
Others who have confirmed their attendance are prominent lawyer and former Malaysian Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, and former Malaysian Human Rights Society head, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
In Perak, the memorial will be held at the Kinta Riverfront Hotel, Ipoh, on April 25.
The remembrance in Johor is scheduled for April 27 with the venue to be confirmed later.
The Malacca memorial will be conducted at the state DAP headquarters on April 30, and in Negri Sembilan on May 2 with venue to be confirmed.
The DAP said it will also set up a donation box for the family of Karpal’s long-time aide and India-born nurse, Michael Cornelius, 39, who was also killed in the same road accident on April 17.
Karpal, who was seated in the front passenger seat was killed on-the-spot together with Michael at 1.10am, when the MPV in which they were travelling with three others from Kuala Lumpur to Penang collided with a lorry along the North-South Highway near Gopeng, Perak.
