Karpal Singh - Political Career - "Political Tsunami"

"Political Tsunami"

Karpal retained his seat in the 2008 election with a near 20-fold increased majority. The election saw historic gains for the opposition, who managed to deny the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time. The three main opposition parties subsequently formed a formal coalition—Pakatan Rakyat.

Karpal was listed as the DAP's representative on Pakatan Rakyat's Shadow Ministry of Home Affairs Committee in July 2009.

In April 2010, he was suspended from parliament for ten days after calling the speaker a "dictator". In December that year, he was suspended again for six months along with opposition MPs Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali and Sivarasa Rasiah. Anwar was suspended for stirring up controversy over the government's links with APCO Worldwide, while the rest rest were punished for making public the report by the Rights and Privileges Committee which found Anwar guilty before the report was presented to parliament.

In December 2011, Karpal and Penang second deputy chief minister P. Ramasamy feuded over the latter's purported accusation that dissidents within the DAP were plotting against him for not handing them projects and favours. Karpal labeled Ramasamy a "warlord" and asked for him to resign as deputy chief minister. Ramasamy retorted by asking the party to remove its "godfathers", in apparent reference to Karpal. The feud was resolved internally, while Ramasamy later denied ever making the plot accusation. At the DAP national conference in January 2012, Karpal closed ranks with Ramasamy and asked the party's "warlords and godfathers stand together against Barisan Nasional."