LOOK AT THE BN SPIN: DAP founder Hock Huan - a power unto himself!

A POWER UNTO HIMSELF: The first DAP secretary-general bares all about his political life, the break with his party, his tumultuous relationship with his mentee, Lim Kit Siang, and his dreams for Malaysia.

HE had it all: the promise to make it to the very top of the MCA leadership, the total trust and confidence of then prime minister  Tun Abdul Razak, and the acumen to etch a name for himself in the political annals of Malaysia.

Goh Hock Guan -- an orator with almost magical abilities to mesmerise audiences across the board, of superior intellect and political acuity, and with a charisma few could rival -- could have been an elder statesman today if he had wanted to.

But as fate would have it, the twists and turns of political life prematurely ended a promising career at the youthful age of 39 when an unexpected defeat at the polls left him out in the cold.

It was the beginning of the end of the Goh Hock Guan era in politics.

For a short 10 years or so, he had sat and discussed issues of the day with the likes of Tun Razak, former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, former MCA leader and finance minister Tun Tan Siew Sin, and former Singapore president Devan Nair.

Even earlier, he had been identified by the first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Raman, who had been arrested by the vitriolic personality of the young architectural student in Melbourne, turning heads with dreams for his country of birth.

Goh, whose upbeat personality today belies his 78 years of age, thumps the conference table with a forearm strengthened by daily rounds of golf, the ensuing sound reverberating around the small room at the unexpectedly sedate offices in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur, of an internationally renowned architect and town planner.

"I said 'this is nonsense. I won't have any truck with you guys'," he tells me in a stentorian voice that should have rightly belonged on a political stage about why he parted ways with Lim Kit Siang (DAP adviser and the man who took over as party supremo) and DAP, the party he founded and helped build.

It had been just a little while since the DAP's victory at the 1969 general election and the new opposition members of parliament had, according to Goh, assumed a lifestyle alien to that which they professed under their socialist ideals.

The first secretary-general of the DAP had been unhappy with Lim's decision (and that of DAP MPs who engaged in other so-called excesses) to buy a Mercedes-Benz "with a driver to boot and I realised that these were not people cast in the Ghandhian mode".

Goh, acknowledging his imprudence at raising the matter at a fateful central executive committee meeting, remembers many of those present taking umbrage at his opinions.

"I was prepared to risk all for what I believed in," he says of those heady days when he ate, drank and breathed politics and refused (as he does now) to compromise on his democratic-socialist ideals.

Even today, nearly 40 years after that incident, there is a latent but sometimes tangible anger in Goh that emerges occasionally to do battle with his twin and opposite personality, that of a benign boss, doting father and amiable friend.

Even as I take quick notes of the words that fly out at breakneck speed from the man seated across me, I am amazed that this soon-to-be octogenarian packs such a passion for politics past and present, which he talks about with the outright frankness that is usual in people of his vintage.

Youngest daughter Sun Lin, who holds a doctorate in architecture and is sitting in on the interview, which is being video-taped in the event he writes his memoirs, nods when I ask her if Goh is as frank and forthright as this at home.

With the ability to dig deep into his memory for nuggets of information from the past, he tells me of how he "hero-worshipped" Lee Kuan Yew ("a powerful motivating force for me"), thought the world of Devan Nair ("he was a big-time communist"), celebrates the Malaysian monarchy ("it is the final arbiter in Malaysia") and loves multiracialism ("the way to salvation for the nation").

There was an incident one day when Datuk (later Tan Sri) Lee San Choon came to his office and told him that Tan wanted to see him urgently.

"San Choon and I were not on talking terms. Anyway, I went to Siew Sin's house. All the MCA ministers were there, including Khaw Kai Boh and Kam Voon Wah. They stood to attention when I entered. Siew Sin came in and asked 'are you ready to sign the agreement?'"

Goh was perplexed. He did not know what was going on.

"The MCA ministers there said they would resign their seats to let me contest. Siew Sin said he would call Razak immediately to tell him that I was joining the party. I said 'Tun, hold on. We have not even had a chance to talk about anything.'"

Goh walked out and that was the end of MCA's bid to entice him into their ranks (Goh joined Gerakan later and lost in his bid for the then Bungsar parliamentary constituency in the 1974 general election).

Apparently, Goh had been invited for three discussions before that by Razak, who had wanted him to join forces in mobilising the people to make the government of the day more broad-based (with Razak possibly intimating this to Tan).

Today, Goh is happy to sit on the sidelines of politics as he has for nearly four decades, as he dedicates his time to his first love, architecture and town planning.

NST