Former transport minister Ling Liong Sik was charged in the Putrajaya Sessions Court over his involvement in the multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
He is charged under Section 418 of the Penal Code with misleading the cabinet between Sept 25 and Nov 6, 2002, into agreeing to purchase 999.5 acres of land on Pulau Indah for a project, now known as PKFZ, at a price of RM25psf on a deferred payment basis for a 15-year period, at a 7.5 percent interest rate.
The cumulative interest paid would total RM720 million at the end of the repayment period.
He was also offered an alternative charge, under Section 417 of the Penal Code, for the same offence.
According to the charge sheet, the Finance Ministry had already valued the land at RM25psf - inclusive of compounded interest - and this fact was withheld from the cabinet by the accused.
The relevant authority should be applauded for taking the necessary action on an important personality implicated in the financial scandal. However, this is only the beginning. It is now up to the prosecutors to ensure that they stitch up a solid piece of evidence to charge Ling.
Like many other cases before this one e.g. Perwaja etc. Ling may still get away with a full acquittal if the investigation is clumsy and shoddy.
At the end of the day, this scandal cannot be swept under the carpet. It is important to find out if Ling acted alone or with the inducement of others. Those who are connected or participated in the financial scandal must be brought to the court of justice and the money squandered from the project must be returned to the people.
We should take a serious interest in the case. Hopefully, the PKFZ will start a thorough scrutiny of all public projects which are suspected to involve any element of fraud.
12 comments:
Can PKA PLEASE hold on to defer payment to those mysterious bondholders while the court cases are pending? Funny why the new transport minister is so adamant to insist PKA quickly pay up while the whole mess is uncleared whereas the previous minister said no payment and got stripped naked immediately.Gentlemen,it's OUR money not your grandfather's money.PKA board should resist the illogical instruction-WE THE RAKYAT YOUR BOSS TELL YOU SO !
dear kkp,
looks like ling wants to be a movie star. he is not a bit worried as his ka-tun will provide him immunity in the end. what the charade is all about is to divert the attention from the real thievery of paying off the kdsb special purpose vehicles. and then use this money for the coming sarawak elections. the majority of malaysians certainly cant be fooled by this? but i am sure the msm will go to bat for their umno masters to rah-rah the longhouse folks.
Good & Bad News!! Good is that high profile VVIPS are called in for the PKFZ scandal.Bad is that diversion of other scandals viz defence spendings etc is in place.
An article published in 'The Sun' dated 20/8/2007 headlined "Dodgy deal" about this PKFZ affair.Please go and read it up and get more insights of how this deal become a scandal.
The big fish is not caught yet.
This is a ploy to hoodwink the rakyat. Even the PAC was surprised that DrLing was hauled up instead of ChanKChoy & OC Phang ! Which begs the question why so?
The modus operandi is thus - better to silence the critics once and for all by charging the kepala ikan for all to see. After this Dr.Ling will go scot free in Malaysia's kangaroo courts and the matter is thus closed. Dr.Ling would be proven innocent legally, the corrupted will be let off the hook, the cronies still get their monies and the best thing is that the real criminals will walk free.
A small sacrifice by the BN to hoodwink the rakyat by showing that the gomen is impartial while at the same time give legality to put an end to this fiasco.
Alam bells should have rung loud and clear when the Arabs pulled out due to the lack of transparency and diligence. Instead, those who were involved took the opportunity to go for the kill, literally. And what an overkill this is. It's just like walking into a bank vault and helping yourselves to all the cash without anybody stopping you.
My opinion is that this event is just one to buy time by the government. With GE on the horizon, it wants to be seen to be doing something about it.It's would also be a very good diversion on the latest instruction by the Transport Minister to pay up the RM200+. You do need a big enough fish to distract attention away from the money.myfish
khoo, i m no fan of lls.but the whole cabinet was there n no body noticed lls was misleadinng them? wtf were the miniters doing during the meeting? they must be idiot or moron, including tdm , najib n company.
This is only one of the big sharks, perhaps a sacrificial one just to please the rakyat. From day one, i can sense this so called MCA president look like a crook. When he was in his prime as President, his son, only in his twenties nearly become a BILLIONAIRE. How amazing indeed. It does not take 1
+1=2 to understand the whole corrupted practices.Meanwhile, i also have the gut feeling this big white shark will go scoot free, ultimately, by the present bunch of judges in our so called tainted "judiciary". No evidence, no documentary proof etc.... case "tuptup" as usual.Happily, he will enjoy his billions....
Remember also, there are still plenty of big sharks involved in this PKFZ fiasco out there, now protected either by UMNO/BN or the super duper powerful tycoons.
Please go to read the CPI internet site titled'Justice in Malaysia is Still Illusory',dated 30/7/2010.In it was quoted that The CJ(Zaki) said the Lingam case dealt with the past and he more concerned about the future,so that why he is not pursuing the matter anyfurther.So,likewise this case also dealt with the past,so do not be surprised, the CJ will just instruct his boys to drop the whole thing saying that we want to look forward to the future,lets not waste our time on what has happened in the past!
Yet to see the big shark from the UMNO aquarium !
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