Dr Tan Chee Khoon: The giant who treated the poor and challenged power

Lim Chui Choo

Growing up in a poor family of eight children, I lost my father when I was 10 in 1963.

From then on, I looked up to a giant of a man who helped shape my character and values.

The late Dr Tan Chee Khoon, known to all as ‘Mr Opposition’, spoke up on issues of public interest without fear or favour throughout his life.

So it was a real ‘blast from the past’ to hear his youngest daughter, Tan Poh Lai, along with Dr Francis Loh, give an inspiring talk on his legacy. The 5 September event, on principled politics, multiracialism and fearless dissent, was organised by Aliran and Penang Institute, which hosted the forum at its hall.

A doctor for the poor

Dr Tan was born into a poor family. He lost his left eye in an injury while tapping rubber. The hardship made him determined to become a doctor and help the poor.

His clinic on Batu Road in Kuala Lumpur, later renamed Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, was legendary. He treated scores of poor patients there every day.

He also chaired the board of governors of 13 schools and sat on the council of the University of Malaya.

It was insightful to learn that Dr Tan fought fiercely for Ungku Aziz to be appointed professor of economics at the university. Ungku Aziz was up against a strongly favoured British academic, much to the chagrin of the colonial-era establishment.

This paved the way for Ungku Aziz to later become University of Malaya’s longest-serving vice-chancellor, from 1968 to 1988.

Into politics by chance

Education, healthcare and helping the poor were his lifelong concerns. But Dr Tan’s move into politics, though largely by chance, was fought with just as much valour.

Standing for the Labour Party in the 1964 general election, he won the Batu parliamentary seat and the Kepong state seat. In Batu, he defeated the MCA’s Yap Chin Kwee and the People’s Action Party’s Too Chee Cheong.

From the mid-1950s to the 1960s, the Labour Party’s ranks were depleted by detentions under the Internal Security Act or ISA, which Poh Lai quipped stood for “Ikut Suka Aku” (as I please).

Only Dr Tan escaped the dragnet. He later left to form Gerakan in 1968, together with academics, trade union leaders and private sector professionals, including Dr Lim Chong Eu.

In the 1969 general election, Gerakan won most of the state seats in Penang, while the DAP made major gains that challenged the dominance of the ruling Alliance.

Race and religion then reared their ugly heads in the aftermath of the 13 May 1969 riots.

When Dr Lim decided to align Gerakan with the federal ruling coalition, Dr Tan became disillusioned. He left to help form Pekemas, the Malaysian Social Justice party, in 1972.

Poh Lai fondly recalled how her father was nicknamed Paderi (preacher) by MPs on both sides of the House. As a devout Christian, he freely peppered his parliamentary speeches with quotes from the Bible.

Then, in 1976, Dr Tan suffered his first stroke, which forced him to withdraw from frontline politics.

A voice that endured

It was a mark of the statesman he had become that Hussein Onn, Malaysia’s third prime minister, visited him at the University of Malaya’s hospital at the time.

He was one of the rare opposition leaders of his era to command respect across the political divide, for his integrity and his contributions to public life and medicine.

In 1980, the king conferred a Tan Sri-ship on him. A true son of Merdeka, Dr Tan refused the use of a wheelchair. He walked “a journey of a thousand miles” to receive his well-deserved honour from the king.

The stroke did not stop him from starting a new chapter: he began writing his popular Without Fear or Favour column for The Star.

With the Tan Sri-ship, he was now considered acceptable to the establishment, so the mainstream media competed to sign him up. This gave him free rein for his no-holds-barred commentaries on public issues.

A second stroke in 1993 left him severely paralysed until his death in 1996, ending his active public life. He had earlier served as the first chairman of the Aliran Trust Board.

In retrospect, his illness-forced exit was a sign of things to come. By then, multi-racial politics had been weakened, and race and religion had become the rallying cries of sectarian politicians.

One member of the full-house audience, mostly older people, lamented that today’s political turmoil stems from a lack of statesmen like Dr Tan. Many of today’s leaders, he suggested, are consumed by greed, power and self-interest.

Another wondered whether his flame will still flicker on as a beacon of hope.

It is up to us to carry the torch of multiracialism and concern for the poor into the future.

Lim Chui Choo is an activist with a keen interest in sustainable development and ecological protection, especially in Penang and the Klang Valley.

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