SEPT 3 — When Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was hauled up to shoulder a chunk of the blame for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, his persecution was viewed as a whitewash to take the heat off the real perpetrators.
During mention of his case in court today however, the former Transport Minister showed that in no way was he ready to go down alone.
When his case was called, Dr Ling asked for the Cabinet documents on PKFZ to be declassified, a move that will surely put the present administration in an uncomfortably tight spot.
Dr Ling’s lawyers pointed out in court today that the documents were necessary for the defence to prepare its case.
They asked that all Cabinet documents on the project, like the Cabinet meeting minutes, Cabinet committee meetings and post-Cabinet papers, all under the Official Secrets Act 1972, be declassified.
With so much public scrutiny on the scandalous multibillion ringgit PKFZ failure, the Najib administration is now faced with tremendous pressure to reveal the documents.
Doing so however, may only open up a can of worms, one that was kept successfully sealed shut and gathering dust all these years. More bigwigs may finally be hauled up to face the music along with Dr Ling who has been seen so far, as the government’s scapegoat to close the books on the scandal for good.
Outside of court, Dr Ling also cleverly told reporters that he would “definitely” be found guilty for his cheating charge if his former boss, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said so.
In the same breath, Dr Ling thanked the former Prime Minister for his “generous offer” to testify in his trial and at the same time, also said that if Dr Mahathir were to testify that he had cheated the Cabinet, then he would indeed be guilty.
In saying so, Dr Ling appears to be making room to share some of the limelight with Dr Mahathir, who had at first kept conspicuously silent after Dr Ling’s arrest.
Now, the onus seems to rest more on Dr Mahathir instead of the court, to determine Dr Ling’s guilt.
When he was questioned during the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probe last year, Dr Ling had also said that it was Dr Mahathir himself who had been in charge of overseeing the PKFZ’s land valuation.
Now, since Dr Ling is facing cheating charges for purportedly misleading Dr Mahathir’s Cabinet into approving the purchase of land for the PKFZ project, his testimony last year may likely come in handy.
During the same probe, Dr Ling’s secretary-general in the Transport Ministry Zaharah Shaari had also gone on record to say that the land acquisition had been made in full knowledge of the Cabinet.
Zaharah had also mentioned that Dr Ling was aware that the government would have saved over RM600 million if the land had been acquired in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act 1960 and had apparently spoken about the matter to Dr Mahathir.
Although everything now hinges on the truth of these few testimonies, there is already a strong enough doubt cast on the case.
Should the government be willing now to agree to the declassification of the Cabinet documents, it could, above all things, determine if the testimonies above were somewhat true.
Should this bid be rejected however, it would only serve to exacerbate the already escalating suspicion that Dr Ling’s persecution was merely a part of the Barisan Nasional government’s well-manufactured strategy to close the books on the PKFZ and paint the administration, under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in a good light as effective graftbusters.
HASSAN SKODENG
RONALD McDONALD
ART HARUN
