SUNGAI PETANI: Padang Serai incumbent MP M. Karupaiya, who died on Wednesday, has been described as an officer and a gentleman who always honoured his duty.
Karupaiya was a former Warrant Officer 1 of the Malaysian Armed Forces and had been an avid advocate of veterans’ rights in the Dewan Rakyat.
“He was a man of integrity and very humble despite being an MP,” said his friend and fellow army man Chye Deng Siang, 71.
Chye who lives in Taman Selaseh, Kulim, said he used to serve with Karupaiya in the Regimental Sergeant Major unit in Taiping in the 1980s.
P. Sivalingam, 71, said Karupaiya had stayed the same even after becoming Padang Serai MP.
“In 2019, he was visiting the constituency when he saw me from afar and called out to me. I was shocked that he still remembered me,” he said.
Sivalingam said his death was not only a loss to the people in Padang Serai but also to the army veteran community in the country.
Both were at Karupaiya’s house in Taman Cekur Manis in Kulim yesterday to pay their last respects.
About 50 members of the Malaysian Armed Forces Indian Veterans Association (Perim) were also there to pay their respects.
Karupaiya’s coffin, draped in the Jalur Gemilang, left the house at 2.15pm and a fleet of trucks and vehicles followed the hearse to the cremation at 2.30pm in Berapit, Bukit Mertajam.
Karupaiya, who was 69, was set to contest in a six-way tussle.
The others in the fray are Datuk C. Sivarraajh (Barisan Nasional), Datuk Azman Nasrudin (Perikatan Nasional), Hamzah Abdul Rahman (Pejuang), Mohd Bakri Hashim (Warisan) and Sreanandha Rao (Independent).
Sivarraajh was at Karupaiya’s house yesterday, along with Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy, Batu Uban assemblyman A. Kumaresan, Machang Bubok assemblyman Lee Khai Loon and Pakatan Harapan incumbent MP for Bayan Baru Sim Tze Tzin.
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