He was also the father of Kerk Chee Yee, the Deputy Speaker of the Melaka State Legislative Assembly and MLA for Ayer Keroh.
In 1987, he was detained for 60 days without trial under the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) as part of Operasi Lalang, a government sponsored crackdown that saw the arrest of many people, including activists, intellectuals and opposition politicians.
[3][4][5] In 1990 he was elected as a MP for Pasir Pinji, Perak but in 1995 he lost the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat by a slim 292 vote majority.
He served in the state executive council as Communications, Multimedia, NGO, Youth and Sports Committee chairman from 16 May 2018 until 2 March 2020 during the political crisis.
[8] Kerk died at 6.10 pm on 9 August 2017 at the age of 61 at his home in Taman Kenanga Seksyen 3, Melaka Tengah District of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) from surgery complications three days after slipping into a coma.