To many, Karpal Singh was a fiery politician but for others, he was a figure who helped inspire a new generation of legal practitioners.

Ahmad Nizam Hamid was among the young lawyers who looked up to Karpal as he began his journey in the legal profession.”When I was at Universiti Malaya in the late 1980s, many of my friends wanted to be Anwar Ibrahim. They even kept their goatee and wore Mandarin collar like Anwar Ibrahim.

“But I declared to my friends, I wanted to be Karpal Singh – that was when we were in the law faculty of UM,” he told KiniTV at Karpal’s wake.

Karpal passed away in the early hours of April 17 in a road accident near Kampar, Perak.

Nizam said he looked up to Karpal even though at that time, Karpal was demonised in the 1987 Operasi Lalang crackdown.

“He was a honest man. For example, on the issue of hudud, he did not shy away but made clear he did not agree with hudud due to constitutional issues – not because he was against Islam.

“At the same time, two years ago at a Pakatan Rakyat convention, he also declared he would defend Islam with his life as is in the Federal Constitution, but that was not highlighted,” he said.

A ‘fighter’ with human touch

Nizam, who had travelled from Temerloh, Pahang to Penang to pay his last respect, said Karpal had always been kind to the junior lawyers.

Meanwhile, Wilson Moorthy (right), a volunteer for Karpal in the last four general elections described the veteran politician as a “fighter” with a human touch.

“He is a down to earth and very humble person… There is no such thing as protocol as you can approach him at any time, you can knock on his door and he will listen to your problem,” he said.

Another visitor at Karpal’s wake who only wanted to be known as Raju said the Bukit Gelugor MP had assisted him in an accident case.

“He did a lot of welfare work. He had helped a lot of people even after he came up to this level (to become a prominent politician),” he said.