Karpal Singh (left) was described as contemptible by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a letter to the veteran lawyer, who had asked the former premier to apologise to three ex-judges who were removed from office.
The DAP leader wrote to Dr Mahathir on 27 March, 2007, some 20 years after former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and six Supreme court judges were tried before two tribunals for judicial misconduct.
During the 1988 judicial crisis , Karpal was held in Kamunting under the draconian but now repealed Internal Security Act.
This was revealed in his soon to be released biograpy book titled Karpal Singh: Tiger of Jelutong.
Karpal said the judiciary had never regained its superiority as one of the finest judiciary in Asia. He also believed the judges were unfairly removed from office.
He called on Dr Mahathir to make an unqualified and unconditional personal apology to Salleh and Supreme Court judges Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh and Datuk George Seah and their families.
According to the book written by New Zealand journalist Tim Donoghue, Dr Mahathir offered no apology nor Karpal had expected one.
Dr Mahathir said Karpal would never believe him no matter what he said.
In a letter dated April 3, 2008 to Karpal, Dr Mahathir wrote:
"You are moved by pure hatred and I cannot respond to people who can never accept reality... My conscience is clear. I have done what was my duty and I owe nobody any apology. I am sure you will make use of this letter to dirty my name further. That is your right. I think you are the most contemptible of politicians and individuals.
Karpal, 73, never made public the letter until it was published in the book.
In 1988, Salleh was brought before a tribunal convened on the advice of Dr Mahathir (pic, right) on grounds of misconduct.
Salleh filed a lawsuit in the High Court to challenge the constitutionality of the tribunal chaired by Tun Hamid Omar.
While proceeding with the suit, Salleh applied for an interim stay against the tribunal but was denied.
Later however, five judges of the Supreme Court - Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader, Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohamed Salleh, Wan Suleiman and Seah - convened and granted Salleh an interim order against the tribunal.
Soon after, the five were also suspended and a tribunal was formed to try them.
Salleh, Wan Sulaiman and Seah were later removed from office. The other three judges were later reinstated.
The 325-page book will be the third book on Karpal and will be available on the market soon.
Karpal said the book was supposed to be released in 1999 but was postponed following his defeat in the general election for the Jelutong parliament seat that year.
"Since I had lost the seat, I though it was not suitable to launch the book then," he said when met at his office in Kuala Lumpur.
The book traces his humble beginnings, and the many legal and political battles he fought over the last 40 years.
Karpal said the book, published by Singapore's Marshall and Cavendish, will be launched in Malaysia next month.
He said Donoghue first met him in Penang in 1987, soon after Australians Kevin Barlow, his client, and Geoffrey Chambers went to the gallows for drug trafficking.
Donoghue was the Hong Kong-based New Zealand Press Association's Asia correspondent at the time.
He was also a frequent visitor to Malaysia between 1986 to 1990 when he covered the drug trafficking trial of New Zealand mother and son, Lorraine and Aaron Cohen, in Penang.
Karpal was the lawyer for the mother and son who were sentenced to death but later had their sentences commuted to jail terms.
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