Wednesday, 12 September 2012 00:53
27 YEARS IN THE SHADOWS: Koon Swan was a victim of Umno's "black hand" - Jui Meng
Written by
Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
UPDATED
Former MCA president Tan Koon Swan was a victim of Umno's "black hand"
and the Malaysian Chinese should cheer the recent admission by
Singapore's former public prosecutor that Koon Swan had been wrongly
charged and jailed because it vindicates the community as a whole.
"Koon Swan was the fastest rising Chinese leader. He held in his hand
the hope and aspirations of the entire community. They trusted him
implicitly. His youthfulness and dynamism set him a class above the
other leaders. This is why he became a target of the Umno elite - for
the tremendous hope he brought to the Chinese," PKR vice president Chua
Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Like Anwar Ibrahim in 90s, Koon Swan in the 80s represented reform
in all sectors - a more equitable economy, society and educational
opportunities. He was a brilliant man and for this, Umno chopped him
down cruelly. Koon Swan was publicly mutilated, his reputation was
smashed to smithereens. Why? Because he did not toe the line set by the
Umno bosses and they feared his power and influence over the Chinese."
Accomplices in greed
Indeed,
amongst those who follow the political development of the Malaysian
Chinese, grousing at the injustice heaped upon Koon Swan is not new. The
bitterness was widespread and deep but in the 1980s, former premier
Mahathir Mohamad ruled with a fist of iron, freely using the Internal
Security Act and Sedition laws to jail political opponents and shut out
criticism.
His greatest accomplices were former Finance minister Daim Zainuddin
and the mainstream media, which continuously churned out stories to
portray the situation that Mahathir deemed most useful to his plans. It
did not help that Mahathir refused to grant licenses to independent
press organizations, and until the advent of the Internet, news that
carried a neutral or pro-Opposition picture did not exist in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was labelled as a vile traitor who not only betrayed his
community but also swindled their poor, many of whom lost their life
savings when the MCA-linked co-operatives they placed money with
crumbled.
"The truth is always stranger than fiction and God moves in
mysterious ways. No one expected Glenn Knight to show remorse and to
write about all his old cases. And Glenn did not just mention Koon Swan
but also other big cases he prosecuted on behalf of his government.
Maybe Singapore didn't like a dynamic young leader who can rival the
likes of Lee Kuan Yew. It reacted harshly and threw the book at Koon
Swan. I was in Singapore with him at that time and we approached a UK
law expert who told us Koon Swan had solid grounds to fight the
Singapore case but in the end he buckled," said Jui Meng.
"He could not take the pressure. We will never know what else he and
his family were threatened with until they tell us, but for sure he was a
victim and it was Umno which led the push to crucify and to bury him.
This is the history that Malaysian Chinese, especially the young, must
know. Koon Swan's record on the Pan-El incident and how he was forced to
give up the MCA presidency must be set straight. I am not trying to
make him a hero. He had his scandals but he did not betray the Chinese.
For years, his jailing has been used a mark of shame to show that
Chinese leaders betrayed their people especially the poor. Many in the
MCA did do that but not all. Each time, Umno wanted to crow over the
Chinese, they would point the finger at Koon Swan and Pan-El. Now, the
truth is out loud and clear - it was not him. It was the Umno elite and
apart from politics, there was greed. They wanted the money in the MCA
and its crown jewel Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd."
Black mark on the community lifted
Jui Meng, a former MCA vice president and Health Minister, was
responding to the uproar raised by Glenn Knight's recently published
book "Glenn Knight: The Prosecutor". The former top legal eagle admitted
he had wrongly prosecuted Koon Swan in the 1985 Pan El Industries
case.
Glenn said he felt pained for putting Koon Swan behind bars on
discovering his mistake years later, and he had since apologised to
Koon Swan. The admission made the top news in all the major Chinese
papers in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was slapped with 15 charges of fraud, cheating, stock
market manipulation and abetment of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in
the collapse of Pan El. He was sentenced to 18 months jail and fined
S$500,000 (RM1.2 million) upon conviction in 1986.
Despite quitting as the MCA president and serving out his Singapore
sentence, the Malaysian authorities were not appeased. He was jailed
again when he returned and made a bankrupt as well.
"It was the worst humiliation for any man to endure but Koon Swan
bore his cross with courage and dignity. He was 10 years too early, but
we hope he will speak out now. In 1998, Anwar was in a better position
to fight back against guys like Mahathir and Daim. Even still, look at
how he suffered, I really take my hat off to Anwar," said Jui Meng.
"Perhaps now, Malaysians can understand how much courage it takes to
fight the evil in our political system. When I talk about the the fight
between Good and Evil, I can sense some people think I am exaggerating.
But make no mistake, the fight is still on and in fact at the very peak.
Malaysians must reject Evil in Umno-BN. They must always choose to
follow the light and never darkness."
Paving the way for assets to be sold cheaply?
Jui
Meng slammed the "vindictiveness" of the Mahathir administration for
the second-round of punishment inflicted on Koon Swan. He believes that
it was not only to ensure that the disgraced MCA president could never
make any political comeback but to pave the way for the takeover and
asset-stripping of the MCA companies and properties.
"Multi-Purpose was a huge conglomerate that could affect East Asian
markets. It held the Malaysian French Bank, Bandaraya, large tracts of
plantations and estates. It also had shipping interests. Yet Ling Liong
Sik who took over as the new MCA president had to sell it off for a mere
RM500 million. It was easily worth several times more," said Jui Meng.
"Who was behind the purchase? Many have alleged it was Daim because
he had Mahathir's ear at that time. In the Umno style of those days, the
word was spread to the Malays through the vernacular papers and the
grapevine that the Malay community would benefit from Koon Swan's fall.
But I think the only people who gained were the Umno elite. Their greed
got worse and worse until Daim himself has been accused of taking Umno's
assets and keeping these for himself. It is a classic example of the
political and economic hegemony the Umno elite has enforced on the
rakyat (people)."
Cowed and demoralized
Now
72, Koon Swan made his political debut, winning a parliamentary seat in
Raub, Pahang. The following year, he was elected to the party's Central
Committee and appointed Chairman of MCA Wilayah Persekutuan State
Liaison Committee. In 1982 he clinched a landslide victory in the
Damansara parliamentary seat, beating the Opposition in their fortress.
In 1984, he was appointed as vice-president of the MCA. However, he
was soon sacked from this post along with 13 other members for urging
the party to investigate its member records for the presence of
non-existent people, an issue that had sparked off factionalism and
crisis within the MCA. Koon Swan and the other 13 were all reinstated
two months later with the support of 1,600 MCA members in an
extraordinary general meeting.
In November 1985, Koon Swan was voted as president of the MCA,
winning 76.9% of the votes cast, the largest majority in the party's
history, and the first challenger since 1954 to win national
leadership.
Koon Swan was then at the height of his popularity, symbolizing a new
breed of Chinese leaders - smart, savvy and people-oriented. The
Chinese community was indeed riding high buoyed by the enormous economic
clout wielded by the MCA and talented Chinese leaders such as Koon
Swan, who tapped and leveraged on the overseas diaspora, using to the
fullest advantage powerful business contacts in both Hong Kong and
China.
Regarded as a financial wizard Koon Swan also originated the
Deposit-Taking Cooperatives or DTCs, which sought to accumulate capital
for the Malaysian Chinese through investments. But with the onset of the
1985-86 recession triggered by plunging world oil and palm oil prices
plus Koon Swan's own troubles, mismanagement of the DTCs' funds led to a
scandal with the central Bank Negara stepping in to freeze the assets
of up to 35 DTCs. The total loss was estimated to be RM3.6 billion, and
the depositors only recovered 62% of their deposits.
The Pan-El case and its outcome not only changed his fate and the
MCA's but also greatly impacted on the Malaysian Chinese community.
They were visibly demoralized and cowed by his jailing. Many turned
against him and his second wife Penny Chang, blaming them for the hard
times sparked by the DTCs' fall and the slide in the economy, which
contracted by 1.2% in 1985.
Pardon
Pan
El's collapse also caused the Singapore and Malaysian stock markets
to halt trading for three days. The high-profile Pan El case resulted
in Glenn Knight being awarded the Public Administration Gold Medal.
In the book, the 63-year-old Glenn had written about the many
high-profile cases he handled. He said that in 1996, a case similar to
Koon Swan's came up for hearing and Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung
How "concluded that I was wrong to charge Tan for the offence".
“It was extremely painful for me to suddenly discover that the
Singapore courts had got it wrong. It was a highly significant case that
led to enforceable regulations being introduced into Singapore's
stockbroking industry. As Koon Swan was the head of the MCA, I put up a
paper on his involvement in the Pan-El saga but left it to my superiors
to decide his fate as he was out of (Singapore) and in Malaysia. In the
end, the government decided that the CAD could prosecute Koon Swan,”
Glenn wrote.
“Chief Justice Yong was of the opinion that the section I had charged
Koon Swan with was wrong in law for we could not charge a person for
stealing from a company because as a director, it was not a breach of
the law in that sense. Chief Justice Yong concluded that it was wrong to
convict anyone for stealing money if the wrong charge had been used to
begin with. The judgment shattered my belief in our legal system. In the
United Kingdom, such a landmark judgment would have set aside Koon
Swan's conviction but our jurisprudence does not allow for this though
technically, Koon Swan could still have been granted a pardon."
Glenn also told of how he apologized to Koon Swan in 2010. He said Koon Swan was very emotional on hearing the matter.
In 1991, Glenn himself was charged with CBT and later jailed in
Singapore. He was struck off from practising law in 1994 but was
reinstated in the Law Society of Singapore in 2007.
As for Koon Swan, who is currently overseas, he has said he would decline comment until he has read Glenn's book.
Malaysia Chronicle
