Ramkarpal ready to conquer Tiger of Jelutong's den

GEORGE TOWN: Ramkarpal Singh, the third “cub” of the Tiger of Jelutong, is looking forward to conquering his father’s “den” after being picked to stand in the Bukit Gelugor by-election.

The 38-year-old lawyer was named DAP’s candidate by party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who also launched the Bukit Gelugor DAP by-election operations centre here yesterday.

The announcement coincided with the birthday of Gurmit Kaur, Ramkarpal’s mother.

Born on April 9, 1976, Ram­karpal, a law graduate from Bristol University in Britain, was called to the Bar in 2000 and deals mainly in criminal litigation.

“I thank the party leaders and members for entrusting me, for giving me this opportunity to defend the seat, which holds a sentimental value to me,” said Ramkarpal, adding that he would focus on two main issues during campaigning – PAS’ hudud law and the persecution of opposition leaders under the Sedition Act.

The Bukit Gelugor parliamentary by-election, which is being held following Karpal’s death, will see nomination day on May 12 and polling on May 25.

In Petaling Jaya, former party leader Wee Choo Keong warned that DAP might risk losing Bukit Gelugor on technical grounds due to the illegitimacy of its central executive committee (CEC).

He said the party had yet to get RoS’ recognition over the results of its CEC re-election, eight months after the controversial event.

“An RoS letter to DAP – dated Dec 6, 2013 – has clearly stated that its CEC cannot make any decision on behalf of the party until RoS has finalised on the validity of the committee,” he told reporters.

As such, Wee stressed that no one in the DAP had the authority to allow anyone to use the party’s Rocket logo in the by-election.

“Even if DAP were to win the seat, its victory may be nullified in court by virtue of the fact that the letter of authorisation (watikah) to use the Rocket logo was signed by an unauthorised officer,” he said.