E Contrario

Our most pleasant surprise in our Cameron trip was the discovery of Apalasamy’s operation room. We bumped into his place by mere coincident.

We picked up Seong Khoon from Simpang Pulai, and then turned to the highland. On my car were: Pei Nei, Teck Hai and now SK. We drove from Simpang Pulai went towards Tanah Rata, which was our destiny.

Just as we were passing Kampung Raja, suddenly we noticed a sign board pointing leftward indicating “DAP Cameron Highland–200m”. We were even more excited when we saw flags of PAS and KeADILan flying above the sign of rocket.
Cameron Highland DAP is still retaining Barisan Alternatif spirit! Hooray, we were so thrilled to discover this.

We decided to come back to this place the next day. On Friday (Nov 17) afternoon, a few of us—SK Chua, Jasmine, Pei Nei, Ginie, Teck Hai and me—drove back to Kg Raja to look for DAP Center in Cameron Highland. From afar, we were greeted by the flags flying high. We came with such jubilant mood.

DAP Cameron Highland office

We entered a wooden house, painted bright navy blue; interestingly the door frame is painted red. We knocked lightly and woken up an Indian man. He came to the door to welcome us warmly. The man who introduced himself as Apalasamy, I recognized him at once. We met in several places previously, all during by-elections. We met at the latest Pengkalan Pasir by-election, he too came to assist the campaign despite his party contrary stance.

Apalasamy was a true opposition man, a veteran fighter. We were very impressed with his collection of documents through out history. He showed us his old archive of Rocket since ’70s. His office was a great library full of historical documents and reference material. We were going to give him some copies of Suara Keadilan; to our surprise, he said “I have got it”. He then showed us a receipt of subscription to our newspaper.

Apalasamy and I, with pictures of Nik Aziz and Anwar behind

Apalasamy talking and showing us his old material

Apalasamy joined DAP in 1975. He has stood election 3 times: twice in DUN and last year in Parliament Cameron Highland. His fight was lonely. He said most voters in Cameron were farmers occupying unapproved land, so they often dare not vote opposition. He holds alone for years, but tirelessly. He traveled by bus or catch a ride from friends to various meetings, protests or campaigns. He had even led a delegation to visit Nik Aziz a couple of months back.

DAP heroes: V David, LKS, Patto

He is indeed a ‘unity’ man. On the wall of his office, we could see pictures of all heroes, local and international, ranging from Nehru, Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, to Prabhakaran. Local heroes include leaders from DAP and PAS, as well as Anwar.

As we were leaving, he held my hand and earnestly said he wants all of us to be united, to consolidate our strength as the force to challenge the unjust forces of BN. His dream is to see all oppositions join hand to replace BN.

Before leaving, we presented him a new KeADILan flag so that he can replace the torn one outside

As we drove out, we felt proud watching the flags of all parties standing straight, flying on the hill. Long live the spirit of solidarity, displayed by a sincere and comitted soul. We salute you, Apalasamy!