LETTER | You will be missed - a personal tribute to KC Vohrah

LETTER | My wife Bae Ling and I lost a good friend yesterday, on Easter Day 2020. KC or Karam as he was fondly known, a fellow Teochew (well, half! his mother was) with a wry sense of humour, but certainly a man of great distinction and renown integrity and erudition.

I was first introduced to him and his dear wife Beatrix Vohrah, by Leong Yoke Faie and his wife Dr Margaret Hooi. We used to be dining kakis, usually during Chap Goh Meh, under the august invitation of Leong (Malaysia's first non-Caucasian chairperson of British Petroleum, BP).

We must have met maybe less than a dozen times, but those were memorable exchanges of curious minds and strong opinions. Here, under splendid meals, we'd discuss all things simple though national: disparate shifting alliances and political chicanery, ethnoreligious ascendancy, particularly the tribulations of our checkered democracy, our political misuse of the law and the occasional peculiar judicial decisions.

But, more importantly, I learnt from Karam that one mustn't let our personal emotion colour our perspectives, not that we cannot have our own opinions, but that we must also see the more rigorous points of law, that can run counter to our own experience or viewpoint. And the laws of the land count, despite our disagreements with them.

Being high ranking justice, he was always a believer in "karmic" justice, that the law is just, that bad laws or regulations would someday be overturned and be replaced with better ones. We just have to be patient, and ultimately, despite political choices occasionally undermining the quality of good judicial officers, good judges would emerge to make informed decisions that benefit Malaysia in the long term. There is always one better law beyond... the "ne plus ultra". I'm a tad more visceral and emotional, but I can see his wisdom.

We shared our passion for advocacy for human rights, as he was then Suhakam's commissioner for at least two terms. We shared some common grounds of interests. Ten years ago, I had participated in a few of Suhakam's inquiries into human rights violations, particularly health and human rights for the Orang Asal/Orang Asli and migrants in Sabah and Sarawak, as well as deaths and maltreatment of detainees in lock-ups, prisons, as MMA (Malaysian Medical Association) Human rights chair and the president then.

In April 2015, during the heady rhetoric period of boiling-point racial and religious tension, some 40 of us (dubbed by the media as the G40), public leaders from various walks of life, co-signed a letter to the media and our political leaders, seeking greater tolerance and urging for a climb down from such dangerous divisive posturings. 

Karam and his brother Lal Chand Vohrah, (another fellow illustrious legal authority, a judge then, of the International Court of Justice), were among the chief architects of this appeal letter for calm and calling for a speedy return to our racial harmony, and abiding by our constitution. Together with the other moderate Malays G25 in our appeal for unity and sanity, we believed we succeeded in cooling the ugly atmosphere of racial tensions, then.

KC was always calm in demeanour, proper and correct in conduct, and a humble gentleman first and foremost, without airs or pomposity. I was put at ease from my first meeting with this august personality who simply oozed engaging compassion, despite his stern demeanour and facade.

We shared too our cravings for childhood comfort foods - our chwee kueh, mee pok, kueh teow kiah; our diminishing sing-song mother tongue prowess, our common Teochew heritage.

The world he'd left behind is just that little bit dimmer, from his lustrous presence and his simple, humble but enduring contributions.

As he had always maintained, there's something rotten in 'Denmark'! But that doesn't mean we give up and do nothing. And good men and women, no matter how big or small, must exert whatever powers we have to check these flea-bitten foundations, shoring them just that little bit better.

Karam had read some of my pointed occasionally irreverent opinion pieces in the media then, and had encouraged that we all do more, to speak up, to be fearless and more engaged in relevant national discourse and conversations.

Malaysia is still worth saving from its seeming foundering self-destruct trajectory. We must all contribute to try and deflect this dismal slippery-slope projection (My personal reckoning, KC was far more optimist and an unflagging realist).

We will miss him, his integrity, his cerebral astuteness and his learned erudition...

So long and salute KC Vohrah!

God bless Karam.

Heartfelt condolences dear Beatrix.

The writer is a cardiologist and past president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA)

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini.