By M. Kula Segaran
DAP Vice Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat

I first heard about this great legend in 1974 when he defeated People’s Progressive Party’s co-founder S.P. Seenivasagam in the general election. I was then a young boy but had waited eagerly for the Menglembu Parliamentary seat results which ended S.P. Seenivasagam’s political career.

I was indeed very excited when he returned to the DAP in August 1998 after having left the party for two decades. Soon I became close to him and would seek his advice on political issues.

Fan had always been a compassionate man, ever so generous and humble.
He had an Indian lady to clean up his rented house in Ipoh and although he did not have much personally, he paid her handsomely to ensure that she would have decent food on the table for her family.

He was passionate on environmental issues. He had been very concerned on the mutilation and rape of limestone mountains in Perak.

He truly loved his country and the people and he was also committed to the cause of fighting for an equal and just society for all.

I shall forever remember the advice he gave me in 2004 when I was invited to speak in the New Zealand Parliament on the issue of Malaysia becoming a member of International Criminal Court of the Rome statute and had asked him to vet my paper.

He threw it to me and said “Kula, when you speak in a foreign land you speak as a Malaysian MP and not like a narrow opposition MP”.

A good man he was, he will be missed by many who will remember that in his stay in mother earth he did what an honourable, principled and honest man would.[THE ROCKET]