Like most Malaysians, I was taken by a "landmark" judgement handed down by a three-man Court of Appeal bench, last Thursday with Judge Sri Ram reading out a damning verdict of possible offences allegely committed by certain landmark personalities on the Malaysian scene.
I'm putting on record theSun's report yesterday which Desi deems an "encouraging" sign of changing times.
But the real test is what happens now? As the Latin phrase aptly puts it:
QUO VADIS?
Malaysians have to be XX-tra Patient to see any meaningful action after monumental pronoucements. Sometimes Desi gets wary and tired.
What about you, mGf? Tell me-lah, is Desi the IMpatient one?
WEB EDITION from theSUN:: Local News
Mon, 16 Jan 2006
Judgment for toll firm gets high praise
PETALING JAYA: Revelations arising from the Court of Appeal's judgment in the case against toll concessionaire Metramac Corp Sdn Bhd have been lauded by various quarters.
The court had on Thursday ordered Metramac to pay RM65 million to Fawziah Holdings Sdn Bhd for loss of advertising rights as a result of the sale of the company following the suspension of toll.
In its 52-page judgment released on Friday, Justices Datuk Gopal Sri Ram, Datuk Hashim Yusoff and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin unanimously held that two prominent businessmen had siphoned RM32.5 million from a toll operator and that they could have been flirting with an aggravated form of criminal breach of trust.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said: "I think this is a very interesting case because judges passed such comments ... In a situation where some people benefited from the government's pay-off.
"This is something that would have been impossible two or three years ago, and it is something for the judiciary system to be proud of.
"It is good that we have paid attention to such cases as there are more cases which deserve similar attention," said Shahrir who is also the Backbenchers Club chairman.
He expressed the hope that the judiciary and courts will continue to be brave and objective in cases, especially commercial cases.
In a similar vein, Transparency International president Datuk Param Cumaraswamy said the findings must be investigated by the Attorney General and Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).
"The court's findings are most welcomed as it is one of very few civil cases with findings of possible criminal improprieties and corrupt deals among high ranking ministerial figures and prominent businessmen.
"It also raises questions on the administration of the National Economic Policy under former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad," he said.
"As the court's findings also impute possible ministerial corruption, we urge the ACA director to commence investigation and take appropriate action if the evidence warrants," Param said.
He added that such investigations could lead to revelation of grand corruption at high levels of government during the previous administration in the light of widespread speculations then.
Joining the fray, Opposition Leader and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang said the case raised questions on the integrity of Tun Daim Zainuddin who was finance minister in 1991.
"The case should be the first case study of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity, headed by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok."
He said the question is whether the police will immediately commence investigations into alleged aggravated form of CBT based on the judgment.
The NST today frontpaged the update with an attractive header:
HALIM vs SRI RAM
Former poster boy of corporate Malaysia Tan Sri Halim Saad joined that small group when he issued a nine-page statement hitting out at the ruling handed down by Datuk Gopal Sri Ram.
The businessman has been seething since the appeals court delivered its judgment in the matter of Fawziah Holdings and Metramac Corporation on Thursday. With his reputation at stake and the manner in which the Government did business then under scrutiny, the normally reticent Halim let fly.
"I have been judged and condemned by a court of law without a hearing accorded to me," he said in the statement.
"The Court of Appeal went so far as to conclude that my former partner and I had misappropriated the RM32.5 million from Metramac, an offence of criminal breach of trust of an aggravated nature, assisted by Tun Daim Zainuddin, the former Minister of Finance.
"All this was said about us without any opportunity accorded to us to be heard before we were condemned. I am deprived of this basic natural justice and human right, which has been recognised since Biblical times. I have large business interests locally and overseas. The erroneous statement in the judgment has damaged me, probably in an irreparable way."
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal ordered Metramac to pay about RM65 million to Fawziah Holdings in compensation for loss of advertising rights. The case involved Datuk Fawziah Abdul Karim and her mother Maimon Bee, who were shareholders of Syarikat Teratai K.G. (STKG) Sdn Bhd, now known as Metramac.
In July 1986, Fawziah had obtained a tender to design, build and operate the privatisation of a number of roads. However, the toll collection was suspended in September 1990 after a demonstration at the Cheras toll plaza.
STKG was in a spot. It had spent large sums of money on the project and was in dire straits after the toll collection was suspended. Some RM764 million was supposed to be paid as compensation to STKG, but Sri Ram noted that in 1990, Daim had said the Government was in no position to pay the compensation.
STKG was then bought over by Metro Juara for RM97.5 million. Halim and Anuar Othman were the shareholders of Metro Juara.
After this, the Government found the money to compensate the company.
DESIDERATA: I won't place much hope that anything impactful -- like criminal charges being preferred against the named protagonists -- would come out of this opera entertaining Citizens Joe&Jane. Malaysians have seen too many "sandiwara" to be fooled, again and again, to harbour that some substantive and meaningful changes will take place in Malaysia's political and civic society.
What essentially takes place is the changing of the guards. New guards-corporate cronies of New Orde versus Old guards-corporate cronies of the Olde Orde.
Desi would be happy to be proven wrong for his sceptism.
Another Tuesday with minor worries for some.
Small change for a Sunday fling at the stock market or Genting, anyone?
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