Arresting Liong Sik may have been a political blunder

Kenny Gan, Malaysia Chronicle

It’s not everyday that an ex-Cabinet Minister and one holding a Tunship gets charged, so the arrest of ex-MCA President Tun Ling Liong Sik over the PKFZ project must come as a shock to the public.

Is the government finally going after the big fishes in this multi-billion ringgit scandal now? Will we see more big names being dragged to court as BN tries to clean up its act before the next general election? Or is this a sandiwara meant to impress the public while actually doing nothing to fight corruption?

A closer look at the charge against Ling should give readers an idea of whether this is a sandiwara or a serious attempt to go after the sharks responsible for the costly PKFZ debacle. In a nutshell, Ling was charged with deceiving the Cabinet that the value of PKFZ land was RM25 p.s.f. not inclusive of interest when the Valuation Department had valued the land at RM25 p.s.f. inclusive of interest on deferred payment for 10 years or RM25.82 p.s.f. for 15 years. Hence Ling had ostensibly induced the government to overpay for the land to the tune of RM720 million.

What is strange is that the Valuation Department comes under the Ministry of Finance so how could Ling have deceived the Cabinet when the Minister of Finance is part of the Cabinet? To make this charge stand, the Finance Minister at that time who happened to be Mahathir should also be charged in court under suspicion of being in cahoots with the Transport Minister. Furthermore Lim Kit Siang has revealed that the Treasury and Attorney-General had recommended that the PKFZ land be acquired for RM10 p.s.f. but this was not accepted by the Cabinet which makes the case against Ling really weak.

If the government is serious about going after the big fishes it should have charged Ling with illegally signing a letter of implicit guarantee to the PKFZ contractor, Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd to raise funds in the bond market on his last day in office. Why stop there? Ling successor, Chan Kong Choy should also be charged for signing two (2) letters of implicit guarantee. The Attorney-General would have far better chances of securing convictions based on than on these letters than on Ling deceiving the Cabinet which would make the rest of the Cabinet look like incompetent fools even if he could secure a conviction.

Perhaps Ling’s feeble charge was designed to make it easy for his lawyers to overturn so he need not lose any sleep over it. The case may be dragged out until after the next general election to maintain the charade on a gullible public. But is the public as simple minded as BN thinks? What about the other big crooks which must be lurking in Umno?

Still, there are political risks to charge a man of Ling’s stature. It could initiate a break between Umno and MCA. Perhaps this is a signal that Umno has given up on MCA’s ability to bring in Chinese votes and a warning to MCA to shape up. But what use is a such a warning when the ability to pull in Chinese votes does not depend on MCA but on Umno’s behaviour?

But a possible strain in relationship between Umno and MCA is not the most weighty political risk. MCA is after all a subservient stooge largely irrelevant to Umno now and it has nowhere to go but stay in BN. A bigger political risk is that Mahathir will be dragged into this imbroglio. As the Finance Minister during Ling’s tenure, he could be taken to court to answer whether he was aware of the valuation done under his Ministry and more importantly why the recommendation to acquire the land at RM10 p.s.f. was not taken up which would have saved the government more than a billion ringgit. Mahathir cannot be pleased about this.

Conspiracy theorists may say that it could be a signal by Najib to Mahathir that he is not untouchable and to step lightly with Muhyiddin but this is hardly creditable. Najib is still petrified of the old man as we can see how he denied Khairy a Cabinet post twice. Indeed Najib should lose some sleep over Ling’s prosecution stepping on Mahathir’s toes.

Umno may have made a political blunder by coming up with a specious charge against Tun Ling which cannot stand scrutiny in court and would open a can of worms against Mahathir. Should they take the risk of proceeding to a full trial? Or will they make a laughing stock of themselves by allowing the charge to be dismissed without his defense being called?

One wonders what is going on in Umno nowadays. Why come up with something as idiotic as trying to wash their faces with dirty water? But smart people are scarce in the corridors of power these days.

Those who are there earn their positions not from their superior intellect but by being political street fighters, ball carriers, race mongers and vote buyers. The frightening thing is that we are governed by them.