Sdr Fan Yew Teng, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, 7 December 2010, at 1:40pm at Bumrungrad International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.
Fan is survived by his wife, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, twin daughters, Lilianne Fan and Pauline Fan, and siblings: brothers, Fan Ken Tang, Farn Seong Than and Fan Chee Tang. sisters, Fan Wai Fong, Farn Fee Leng and Farn Fee Chan.
Fan was Acting DAP Secretary-General from 1969-1970, and had held various important positions in the party, including National Organising Secretary and Editor of the party organ, the Rocket.
Fan was MP for Kampar in 1969, MP for Menglembu and State Assemblyman for Petaling Jaya in 1974.
A memorial service for Fan will be held on Thursday 16 December 2010 at 10:00am at the Holy Redeemer Church, Soi Ruam Rudee, Bangkok, Thailand.
A memorial will also be held in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday 5 January 2011 at 8.00pm at the YMCA Hall, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur
RSVPs for the Bangkok memorial service or messages of condolence can be sent to: [email protected]
#1 by yhsiew on Friday, 10 December 2010 - 7:01 pm
Fan Yew Teng was a great politician who had done his job well as a politician. May he rest in peace.
#2 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Friday, 10 December 2010 - 7:50 pm
John Donne
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and souls deliver.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppie, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better then thy stroke; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
#3 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Friday, 10 December 2010 - 7:58 pm
Sdr Fan Yew Teng,
Great men never die.
The good that men do is not interred with their bones; they live in the lives of others.
God rest you gentleman and grant you the eternal bliss you so richly deserve.
#4 by monsterball on Saturday, 11 December 2010 - 10:58 am
His sufferings ended.
May he rest in peace.
#5 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 11 December 2010 - 11:30 am
Until his demise, there could be many, especially the younger, who might not have heard of Fan Yew Teng.
In early 1970s, I was invited and attended a public forum on Malaysian politics/affairs in which amongst the speakers were two distinguished “socialists” – Fan Yew Teng and one senator, Dr Mahathir. I had no idea at all of what’s socialism and who’s a socialist. So I asked the one seated next to me, one Prof Tommy Koh (S’pore ambassador at large) what’s a socialist and he said he didn’t blame me for not knowing for there were real socialists and those “degenerate ones” who were actually capitalists adorning the livery of socialists”.
Fan was a fiery orator passionately rebutting the other socialist on his advocacy of wealth transfer from the haves to the haves not via the NEP. Both also held claims to be socialists – and ‘patriots’ and champions of the ‘oppressed’ but who’s the real one?
Though I had heard him speak in other occasions as well and browsed through one or two of his books, I had never known him beyond exchange of social pleasantries.
His brother Farn Siang Teng said, “He lived like a “pauper” and never once owned his own property…There were times when he had no money in his own pocket but he would part with his last dollar to help the needy”.
I guess it depends on how one defines who is a “pauper”. If money were not the only attribute/indicia of wealth then he was a wealthy man. He had a compassion passion to fight for the down trodden and the oppressed not only as DAP’s politician but even after he left DAP, as an activist wrote and spoke for their causes. Compassion & passion are also indicia of wealth. So is moral courage. In the 1974 general election, he daringly took on PPP founding president SP Seenivasagam in Menglembu parliamentary seat. (Now, Seenivasagam was a giant in his own right: he was popular from daring to challenge the Minister of Health then Rahman Talib for corrupt practices!).
The other attribute of wealth is principles, and that too he had. Its not just fighting the powers-that-be in the ruling coalition but in his case even his own party. In 1976 he supported a motion by the Dutch Labour Party to expel Singapore’s ruling PAP from the Socialists International – a grouping of left-minded political parties headquartered in Helsinki, of which the DAP and PAP were members. Fan supported the expulsion on grounds that PAP was guilty of human rights abuse, curbing press freedom and the use of detention without trial in Singapore.
#6 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 11 December 2010 - 11:34 am
(Continuing from earlier post) The DAP then prioritized maintenance of close fraternal relations with PAP leaders and over this disagreement with DAP’s other leaders, Fan left DAP and joined in 1978, the Social Democratic Party. (On this issue, the PAP subsequently avoided expulsion by resigning from Socialist International).
Fan returned to the DAP fold 20 years later 1998, on Kit’s invitation, to give the party an intellectual boost that it lacked. For Fan was an avid reader with wide intellectual breath and insights.
In an interview with New Sunday Times Magazine December 11, 2010. his daughter Lilianne Fan said, “A normal conversation with my father, Fan Yew Teng, the most avid reader of history and literature I know, could span from the legacies of various Roman emperors to a history lesson in post-colonial Indian politics”. As a recovery and development advisor at the Asean Humanitarian Task Force, she helps victims of tsunami, hurricane and earthquake. So it looks as if he transmitted compassionate genes to his offspring as well.
Again being principled, courageous and passionate and very dedicated to one’s ideals and his beliefs in achieving a just an equal society, and possessed of an intellectual bent and bringing up children well – are also measurement of one’s success and wealth! That’s one path, often strewn with thorns – and the path to “wealth” of a true socialist.
There are of course many people in this world – I would think majority – who don’t share this idea. There is a more expedient and conventional path where the destination, wealth is defined as power, fame and money and the reason for that is this : Life is a competition by design in which all have to compete for everything – from party positions, business opportunities to even sexual partners; that those of us who fail to compete effectively, will be eliminated from the gene pool – and that to compete effectively we ought not to care much for principles and scruples not to hurt and side line others in the process. After all supply in good things in life are scarce relative to demand and as we were not all created with an equal opportunity to compete in the first place, when we compete we do so single-mindedly with the goal of obtaining our objectives of wealth and power without extraneous distractions of scruples fair-play and principles. What’s the point of fighting for the Oppressed when they neither appreciate nor even know about you except when some one eulogize your good attributes upon death?
What is important is here and now and the benefit one receives when one is alive, not eulogies of being “patriot and champion of the oppressed” – when different people have different definition of who is a patriot and who is oppressed – received only when one passes on (in Shakespeare, hamlet’s words) to that “undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns (to tell a tale)? Does it then matter? Well that’s the other worldly view, the capitalist’s definition of wealth, held by many including those politicians criticized here. It will explain why they do what they do.
Which path to wealth would you choose? .
#7 by k1980 on Saturday, 11 December 2010 - 2:05 pm
in 2003, the mamak gave his successor bad awi 2 sealed letters. “Open them one at a time each time you encounter a crisis”, he ordered.
so just before the 2004 ge, bad awi opened the first letter. there were only 3 words in it– “Arrest 2 Crooks”
so eric chia and kasi-take geddem were charged in court for corruption.
then after the 2008 rout in the 2008 GE, a desparate bad awi opened the 2nd letter. 3 words only inside it–“Write 2 Letters”
so now jibbi, facing the 13 GE, has opened his first letter. And Ling Long Sick and Dental Toyol has got it.