陈仁贵（1939年1月18日-2011年6月14日）

TAN JING QUEE (18 Jan 1939 – 14 June 2011)

Teo Soh Lung

I shall always remember that day in 1986, when without any prior arrangement, Jing Quee came to my office in Geylang. It was during the time when the Law Society of Singapore was under attack from various quarters, including anonymous writers to the Forum Page of The Straits Times. He was in a sort of a hurry and came straight to the point. He told me to be careful and asked why I had set up my law office in Geylang and not in the city. He said I was attracting undue attention.

I was surprised and asked him why he thought I was in danger. I told him that everything I did was in the open and the government knew that I have hidden nothing from them.

Jing Quee was agitated and snapped back. “We also did nothing and yet we were detained.”

I was taken aback and was silent. But still, I did not experience any fear of arrest. The 1977 arrests of my former boss, G Raman together with other lawyers - Jing Quee, R Joethy, Ong Bock Chuan and many of their friends who I knew had long been forgotten. I didn't know what they did to get arrested. When they were released, they never spoke about their detentions though I must admit that I never asked them. But I believed then and now, that they were innocent of the allegations brought against them by the government.

Jing Quee's visit was short. It was as if his mission was just to warn me of the danger ahead. But even if I had wanted to take precautions of any kind, it was I think, too late. The eggs had been cracked and turned into omelette. A few months later, Jing Quee's words rang in my ears when I shivered in the dark cold room!

Jing Quee was a man of many talents. He was not only an excellent lawyer but also a thinker, poet, writer and self-taught historian. He would have written a play. It was all in his head. But alas, his health did not permit that. He had to finish his more urgent work which was the Operation Coldstore book.

When I visited Jing Quee in hospital, he was at peace. He had already dictated the outline to Lysa Hong and he knew that she would finish the book when he is gone. He was lucid and told me in a calm voice: “Everyone must go this way.” Yes, he was prepared to go into the void.

Jing Quee wrote his final farewell to his family six months before he died.

• DO NOT SHED YOUR TEARS
  
• 
  I had a vision cruising down the canal
  The ship chugged along the left bank
  lined with beautiful flowers of multi hues
  the music filled the air
  as I sailed along towards open seas
  If you wake up to find that I have gone
  do not shed your tears
  
• 
  When I fade away
  and the qi has departed from my body
  construct a life for yourself and those close to you
  do not shed your tears when I have finally gone
  
• 
  When I shall glide away
  towards the void of peace sans consciousness
  No one will even remember what good I may have done
  nor the wrongs I may have committed
  So do not shed your tears
  when I eventually slide
  into absolute silence and peace
  So my loved ones
  do not shed your tears when I finally go
  
• 
  I shall go gently when it is time
  I shall not rail or curse
  against the declining sun
  I shall go gently
  Into a vastness
  I have not seen or experienced
  
• 
  I shall go gently
  Knowing that I have done what I have
  In my allotted span of time
  The parade of all images, faces
  appear one by one across my mind
  I shall go gently when it is time
  Only memories of others may retain my presence
  I shall go gently when it is time
  So my beloved
  do not shed your tears when I have gone
  
• 
  My humanity is but a speck
  Within the vast cosmos
  Inseparable
  Therefore as I go gently
  though body and spirituality be severed
  the larger body remains
  
• 
  Existence is but a bleep
  Followed by
  a permanent silence
  
• 
  December 2010