RIGHTEOUSNESS was a virtue literally worshipped by my father, the late Tun Tan Siew Sin. On a wall high above the first altar in our ancestral home in Malacca hangs a plaque inscribed with two large characters: the spirit of righteousness.
And under the plaque hangs a painting featuring Guan Yu, an enduring symbol from Chinese literature of steadfast loyalty and righteousness, and Zhang Fei. The two characters, along with another called Liu Bei, swore an oath of brotherhood in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a novel depicting 60 years of constant warfare, shifting alliances and frequent betrayals.