Another MCA leadership shame?

Free Malaysia Today - Ling ordered to enter defence

In delivering his ruling, High Court judge Ahmadi Asnawi says with the absence of other evidence, he will not hesitate to conclude that the former transport minister intentionally induced the government to pay a higher price for a plot of land for the PKFZ project.

“He opted not to make known to the Cabinet what he had known,” he added.

Ahmadi said that Ling, as the “number one man” in the transport ministry then, should hold the highest accountability and cannot claim ignorance over a recommendation on interest that caused the price of the land of about 1,000 acres to balloon from RM1.088 billion to RM1.808 billion.


Of course, according to the laws of Malaysia, he is deemed innocent until proven guilty. But as a layman, I have to say, what with his Lordship's words, Ling's case sure as hell doesn't look good.

If he is found guilty, he will have the dubious record of being the second MCA President (or ex President) to be jailed.

Tan Koon Swan was the first. Remarkably Tan had, just prior to his imprisonment, won 76.9% of the votes cast in the MCA party presidential election in November 1985.

It was the largest majority in the party's history, thus it could be reasonably claimed that Tan KS was the most popular president ever elected in the MCA. He was also the first challenger since 1954 to win the party's national leadership.

Alas, his popularity among MCA delegates didn’t prevent him from another 'first', being jailed by not one but two nations, firstly by the courts of Singapore and THEN after his 2-year sentence was served there, by the courts of Malaysia.

And in those imprisonments, he achieved yet another 'first', the first MCA President to masuk lokap, and as mentioned, not once but twice.

What Tan’s successful election as the most popular MCA president ever elected, coupled with his subsequent imprisonments, showed was the stupidity of the MCA delegates, who repeated their dumbo-ness in recent times by electing CSL and Liow Tiong ‘my beloved PM’ LIE as their pair to lead an already severely wounded and moribund party, instead of a more rambunctious Ong Tee Keat who was actually preferred by the Chinese community (but lamentably, not the MCA delegates and their self-interests).

I suppose that must be what people call 'death wish'.

Thus far, no UMNO, Gerakan or (wakakaka) MIC president has ever been jailed, which I'm sure would be due to their low-cholesterol high-Omega-3-oil diet wakakaka.

I wonder whether Datuk Seri Harun Idris was the only UMNO leader to be jailed for corruption. He was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment but on recommendation by PM Dr Mahathir, was pardoned by HM after 3 years in Pudu (where it was said he served in its library).

Like another UMNO leader who went to prison for murder (and also subsequently pardoned), he went into and exited prison with his Datukship intact. If found guilty, Ling could well be be the first Tun, though I'm quite sure HM will tarik balik that dulu wakakaka.

It’s a pity that years after Harun Idris was pardoned, Dr M failed to recommend to HM to pardon Lim GE who was incarcerated not for corruption but for what was a blatant miscarriage of justice - where the courageous defender of the rights of an underage Malay girl was jailed while the (statutory) rapist not only got clean away, but was subsequently honoured by HM as a Tan Sri.

We are still waiting for Dr M's long overdue apology to Lim GE, and also to HM for recommending an award to a sleazy slimy scum.

If I fail and have to go to jail, I have no regrets. I have no regrets of going down fighting for the principles of truth and justice. And pursuit of human rights, especially women's rights. There can be no women's rights if women rape victims are considered equally responsible, and even detained, whilst the accused remain free — Lim Guan Eng