Honouring a people’s champion
Son recounts disbelief when told father was jailed for helping group of sacked estate workers
PETALING JAYA: The Sikh community has long played a prominent role in shaping Malaysia. Among them was Karam Singh Veriah, a prominent lawyer and people’s advocate who until today holds the record for being the country’s youngest parliamentarian and lawyer.
Speaking to theSun, Karam’s eldest son Keshminder said he was only seven years old when his father was incarcerated in 1967 in Kajang Prison under the Internal Security Act. He could not see his father for four years.
“I was going to school when I heard a loud cry. My mother was sobbing on the ground. She said he had been jailed for helping the poor. I was confused. Why would he be put in jail for helping the poor? That incident paved the way for me to help society in any way I can.”
The 63-year-old former Subang Jaya City councillor recounted how Karam was helping some 500 workers in the Bukit Asahan rubber
estate in Malacca.
“They had been unfairly dismissed. Although he won the case and the court ruled in favour of the workers, the company that owned the estate refused to follow the court order.
“As a result, the workers began a week-long march from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca and had two clashes with police along the way.
“Karam was arrested after the march.”
Keshminder said Karam was also held at the Batu Gajah detention camp in Perak and the detention camp in Muar at different times, adding that his mother, Harvans
Kaur, would care for the children.
“Muar was interesting because we crossed the river by sampan. She was a temporary teacher. We were poor but she kept us happy. We didn’t feel as if my father was in prison.”
Karam was known as a firebrand among his peers.
“He was a man who did not stand nonsense. He was a revolutionary. He read about Lenin and was hellbent on starting a revolution. Even when he served as an MP, he rarely spent time with the family. He was working as a lawyer too. In that sense, we led a simple life.”
According to the Kuala Lumpur
Bar website, Karam studied at King George V school in Seremban. He did his Senior Cambridge at 15 and completed his law degree at Gray’s Inn in London. He was just 19 years old.
However, the rules barred him from practising until he was 21.
In 1959 and at just 22 years of age, he became an MP on a Socialist Front ticket in Malaysia’s first general election after independence. He was elected MP for Damansara and assemblyman for Serdang and served one term.
Few knew that Karam had also served in India, organising the unions there. This included the first union for police officers. However, he was deported for his activism.
“Thankfully, he got the union recognised in 1966. When he had to go on leave, the policemen went on a 12km march from Old Delhi to the prime minister’s residence.
“Their demand to the government then included an increase in their wages, recognition for the union and for the ban on my father to be revoked.
“They (union members) had promised a fee of INR1 million (RM57,000) but my father never took anything from them.”
Karam was released unconditionally in 1971 and later joined the Socialist Democratic Party as its legal adviser.
In 1993, the Indian government lifted the ban on his entry, nearly 30 years after he was deported.
He died of a heart attack on Jan 22, 1994, in New Delhi.