September 12, 2012
Tan Koon Swan: A Victim of UMNO's "Black Hand", says Jui Meng
by Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
UPDATED; Former MCA President Tan Koon Swan was a plant of UMNO's "black hand"
as well as a Malaysian Chinese should cheer a recent acknowledgment by Singapore's former open prosecutor which Koon Swan had been poorly charged as well as locked up since it vindicates a village as a whole.
"Koon Swan was a fastest rising Chinese leader. He hold in his hand a hope as well as aspirations of a complete community. They devoted him implicitly. His youthfulness as well as dynamism set him a class upon tip of a alternative leaders. This is since he became a target of a Umno chosen for a tremendous hope he brought to a Chinese," PKR Vice President Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
Koon Swan: A Reformist of a 1980s
"Like Anwar Ibrahim in 90s, Koon Swan in a 80s represented remodel in all sectors a more equitable economy, multitude as well as educational opportunities. He was a brilliant male as well as for this, UMNOchopped him down cruelly. Koon Swan was publicly mutilated, his reputation was crushed to smithereens. Why? Because he did not toe a line set by a UMNO bosses as well as they feared his energy as well as influence over a Chinese."
Accomplices in greed
Indeed, amongst those who follow a domestic development of a Malaysian Chinese, grousing during a injustice heaped upon Koon Swan is not new. The sourness was widespread as well as low though in a 1980s, former premier Mahathir Mohamad ruled with a fist of iron, freely regulating a Internal Security Act as well as Sedition laws to prison domestic opponents as well as shut o! ut criti cism.
His greatest accomplices were former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin as well as a mainstream media, which continuously topsy-turvy out stories to execute a situation which Mahathir deemed most useful to his plans. It did not help which Mahathir refused to accede to licenses to independent press organizations, as well as until a appearance of a Internet, news which carried a neutral or pro-Opposition picture did not exist in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was marked down as a sinister traitor who not usually tricked his village though additionally swindled their poor, most of whom lost their life savings when a MCA-linked co-operatives they placed income with crumbled.
"The law is regularly stranger than fiction as well as God moves in mysterious ways. No one approaching Glenn Knight to uncover remorse as well as to write about all his aged cases. And Glenn did not usually mention Koon Swan though additionally alternative big cases he prosecuted upon behalf of his government. Maybe Singapore didn't identical to a dynamic young personality who can rival a likes of Lee Kuan Yew. It reacted cruelly as well as threw a book during Koon Swan. you was in Singapore with him during which time as well as you approached a UK law expert who told us Koon Swan had plain drift to quarrel a Singapore box though in a finish he buckled," pronounced Jui Meng.
"He could not take a pressure. We will never know what else he as well as his family were threatened with until they tell us, though for sure he was a plant as well as it was UMNO which led a pull to crucify as well as to cover up him. This is a history which Malaysian Chinese, generally a young, contingency know. Koon Swan's jot down upon a Pan-El situation as well as how he was forced to give up a MCA presidency contingency be set straight. you am not pe! rplexing to have him a hero. He had his scandals though he did not misuse a Chinese. For years, his jailing has been used a symbol of shame to uncover which Chinese leaders tricked their people generally a poor. Many in a MCA did do which though not all. Each time, UMNO longed for to crow over a Chinese, they would point a finger during Koon Swan as well as Pan-El. Now, a law is out loud as well as clear it was not him. It was a Umno chosen as well as detached from politics, there was greed. They longed for a income in a MCA as well as a crown jewel Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd."
Black symbol upon a village lifted
Jui Meng, a former MCA Vice President as well as Health Minister, was responding to a conflict lifted by Glenn Knight's recently published book "Glenn Knight: The Prosecutor". The former tip legal eagle certified he had poorly prosecuted Koon Swan in a 1985 Pan El Industries case.
Glenn pronounced he felt pained for putting Koon Swan during a back of bars upon discovering his inapplicable designation 
years later, as well as he had since apologised to Koon Swan. The acknowledgment done a tip news in all a vital Chinese papers in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was slapped with 15 charges of fraud, cheating, batch marketplace strategy as well as abetment of criminal crack of trust (CBT) in a tumble of Pan El. He was sentenced to eighteen months prison as well as fined S$ 500,000 (RM1.2 million) upon self-assurance in 1986.
Despite quitting as a MCA President as well as portion out his Singapore sentence, a Malaysian authorities were not appeased. He was locked up again when he returned as well as done a bankrupt as well.
"It was a worst humiliation for any male to continue though Koon Swan gimlet his cross with bravery as well! as dign ity. He was 10 years too early, though you hope he will speak out now. In 1998, Anwar was in a better position to quarrel back opposite guys identical to Mahathir as well as Daim. Even still, demeanour during how he suffered, you unequivocally take my shawl off to Anwar," pronounced Jui Meng.
"Perhaps now, Malaysians can assimilate how much bravery it takes to quarrel a immorality in a domestic system. When you talk about a a quarrel in between Good as well as Evil, you can clarity some people consider you am exaggerating. But have no mistake, a quarrel is still upon as well as in fact during a really peak. Malaysians contingency reject Evil in UMNO-BN. They contingency regularly select to follow a light as well as never darkness."
Paving a approach for resources to be sole cheaply?
Jui Meng slammed a "vindictiveness" of a Mahathir administration department for a second-round of punishment inflicted upon Koon Swan. He believes which it was not usually to safeguard which a ashamed MCA boss could never have any domestic comeback though to pave a approach for a takeover as well as asset-stripping of a MCA companies as well as properties.
"Multi-Purpose was a huge conglomerate which could affect East Asian markets. It hold a Malaysian French Bank, Bandaraya, vast tracts of plantations as well as estates. It additionally had shipping interests. Yet Ling Liong Sik who took over as a brand brand new MCA President had to sell it off for a mere RM500 million. It was simply worth multiform times more," pronounced Jui Meng.
"Who was during a back of a purchase? Many have purported it was Daim since he had Mahathir's ear during which time. In a UMNO character of those days, a word was spread to a Malays by a vernacular papers as well as a grapevine whic! h a Mala y village would good from Koon Swan's fall. But you consider a usually people who gained were a UMNO elite. Their fervour got worse as well as worse until Daim himself has been accused of receiving UMNO's resources as well as keeping these for himself. It is a classic e.g. of a domestic as well as mercantile hegemony a Umno chosen has enforced upon a rakyat (people)."
Cowed as well as demoralized
Now 72, Koon Swan done his domestic debut, winning a parliamentary chair in Raub, Pahang. The following year, he was elected to a party's Central Committee as well as allocated Chairman of MCA Wilayah Persekutuan State Liaison Committee. In 1982 he clinched a landslide victory in a Damansara parliamentary seat, violence a Opposition in their fortress.
In 1984, he was allocated as Vice-President of a MCA. However, he was shortly sacked from this post along with 13 alternative members for urging a party to investigate a part of records for a participation of non-existent people, an issue which had sparked off factionalism as well as predicament inside of a MCA. Koon Swan as well as a alternative 13 were all backed two months after with a support of 1,600 MCA members in an extraordinary ubiquitous meeting.
In Nov 1985, Koon Swan was voted as boss of a MCA, winning 76.9% of a votes cast, a largest infancy in a party's history, as well as a initial challenger since 1954 to win national leadership.
Koon Swan was then during a tallness of his popularity, symbolizing a brand brand new breed of Chinese leaders smart, savvy as well as people-oriented. The Chinese village was indeed roving high buoyed by a enormous mercantile clout wielded by a MCA as well as gifted Chinese leaders such as Koon Swan, who tapped as well as leveraged upon a overseas diaspora, regulating to a fullest advantage absolute commercial operation contacts in both Hong Kong as well as China.
Regarded as a monetary sorceress Koon Swan additionally originated a Deposit-Takin! g Cooper atives or DTCs, which sought to accumulate capital for a Malaysian Chinese by investments. But with a onset of a 1985-86 recession triggered by plunging world oil as well as palm oil prices as well as Koon Swan's own troubles, mismanagement of a DTCs' funds led to a scandal with a executive Bank Negara stepping in to freeze a resources of up to 35 DTCs. The total loss was estimated to be RM3.6 billion, as well as a depositors usually recovered 62% of their deposits.
The Pan-El box as well as a result not usually changed his predestine as well as a MCA's though additionally severely impacted upon a Malaysian Chinese community. They were visibly discouraged as well as cowed by his jailing. Many incited opposite him as well as his second mother Penny Chang, blaming them for a tough times sparked by a DTCs' tumble as well as a slip in a economy, which contracted by 1.2% in 1985.
Pardon
Pan El's tumble additionally caused a Singapore as well as Malaysian batch markets to hindrance trade for three days. The high-profile Pan El box resulted in Glenn Knight being awarded a Public Administration Gold Medal.
In a book, a 63-year-old Glenn had created about a most high-profile cases he handled. He pronounced which in 1996, a box identical to Koon Swan's came up for conference as well as Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung How "concluded which you was wrong to assign Tan for a offence".
"It was intensely unpleasant for me to unexpected find which a Singapore courts had got it wrong. It was a rarely significant box which led to enforceable regulations being introduced in to Singapore's stockbroking industry. As Koon Swan was a head of a MCA, you put up a paper upon his impasse in a Pan-El saga though left it to my superiors to confirm his predestine as he was out of (Singapore) as well as in Malaysia. In a end, a supervision decided which a CAD could take to court Koon Swan," Glenn wrote.
"Chief Justice Yong was of a perspective which a section you had charged Koon Swan with was wrong in law for you could not assign a person for stealing from a company since as a director, it was not a crack of a law in which sense. Chief Justice Yong concluded which it was wrong to convict any one for stealing income if a wrong assign had been used to proceed with. The visualisation cracked my idea in a legal system. In a United Kingdom, such a landmark visualisation would have set aside Koon Swan's self-assurance though a jurisprudence does not allow for this though technically, Koon Swan could still have been granted a pardon."
Glenn additionally told of how he apologized to Koon Swan in 2010. He pronounced Koon Swan was really romantic upon conference a matter. In 1991, Glenn himself was charged with CBT as well as after locked up in Singapore. He was struck off from practising law in 1994 though was backed in a Law Society of Singapore in 2007.
As for Koon Swan, who is now overseas, he has pronounced he would decline comment until he has review Glenn's book.
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