The next year he challenged MIC heavyweight S Samy Vellu in Sungai Siput, losing by a surprisingly small margin of 644 votes.
[5] In 1978, he and Lim Kit Siang were arrested under the ISA after they exposed the scandal of the purchase of four Swedish-made SPICA-M fast strike crafts by the Royal Malaysian Navy.
In the race for Ipoh he bagged 21,401 votes winning by a majority of 5654 over Wong Chin Chye of Barisan Nasional while Chan Kok Keong of the Socialist Democratic Party came a distant third.
The operation saw the arrest of at least 106 people—political activists, opposition politicians, intellectuals, students, artists, scientists and others—who were detained without trial.
Within three months of the election, he died at the age of 48 at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital on July 12, 1995, due to a heart attack.
Jalan P. Patto was completed and officially opened by the then Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng, on 31 July 2011.