Chopped down at the height of his power by what many say was a conspiracy by political enemies, former MCA president Tan Koon Swan tries to forgive those who jailed him and forced him to live a life in the shadows for 27 years. But even so, he acknowledges those memories are still fresh in his mind.
"After doing time in Singapore, and upon returning to Malaysia, I was sentenced to another year of imprisonment. Later (I was) declared a bankrupt over debt matters. All these are still fresh in my mind," Sin Chewreported Koon Swan as saying.
Koon Swan is currently overseas and was responding to the shock revelations that he had been wrongly prosecuted and jailed by the Singapore government, as claimed by former public prosecutor Glenn Knight in his just-released book Glenn Knight: The Prosecutor.
Glenn had said he felt remorse for putting Koon Swan behind bars on discovering his mistake years later, and he had since apologized to Koon Swan. The admission made the top news in all the major Chinese papers in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was slapped with 15 charges of fraud, cheating, stock market manipulation and abetting criminal breach of trust when his Singapore-listed flagship Pan El collapsed in 1985. He was sentenced to 18 months jail and fined S$500,000 (RM1.2 million) upon conviction in 1986.
Mixed feelings: A black conspiracy to split the Chinese
Now a low-profile businessman, the 72-year-old Koon Swan said he had mixed feelings when Glenn met up and apologized to him two years ago. He kept quiet about the incident but the recent release of Glenn's book has rehashed the entire episode that many observers of Malaysian politics believed was exploited and played up by former premier Mahathir Mohamad to split the Chinese and keep them disunited.
"Which MCA leader will dare to deny that after Koon Swan stepped down, the party never fully recovered. Team A and Team B politics became a permanent fixture in the MCA and this worked to Mahathir's advantage. He wanted to control who would be the MCA president and indirectly call the shots in the party. For example, who would say it isn't true that current president Chua Soi Lek takes his orders from Umno and not from the Chinese community?" PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
Jui Meng, a former Health minister and MCA vice president, quit the party to join the Opposition in 2010 after failing to convince the MCA top leadership to withdraw from the Umno-led BN coalition if promised reforms were not forthcoming. In the 1980s, he was a staunch supporter of Koon Swan's and part of the latter's inner circle.
Tumultous 80s: Dr M under pressure to strengthen his grip
MCA, which was then riding high, basking in the inspiring success and rise of many rags-to-riches Chinese tycoons such as Robert Kuok and Lim Goh Tong, was ripe for Mahathir's plucking.
The MCA and Koon Swan became the sacrificial lambs he offered to impress Umno members and to convince them that it was he who deserved Hussein Onn's vote to rule rather than his rivals Tengku Razaleigh and Musa Hitam.
The 1985-86 recession triggered by plunging world oil and palm oil prices was exacerbated by the financial mess of the Pan-El crisis and Koon Swan's jailing. The resulting uncertain economic picture plus a cowed populace allowed Mahathir to carry out his racial supremacy and 'race re-engineering' experiments.
With the help of former Finance minister Daim Zainuddin and a compliant mainstream media, Mahathir 'created' a special breed of Malay entrepreneurs to compete with the Chinese tycoons. At the same time, he also 'elevated' several non-Malay businessmen by giving them opportunities and access to government contracts.
Mahathir's coterie of cronies included Tajudin Ramli, Halim Saad, Rashid Hussain, Vincent Tan and Ananda Krishnan. Since then, all of Mahathir's cronies and Daim's 'boys' have been dogged by scandal and the powerful duo have been accused of using billions of public money to bail them out at the expense of the ordinary and low-income folk.
Reign of terror: A turning point for the Malaysian Chinese
Pan El and Koon Swan have often been cited as examples of why business and politics should not be allowed to go hand in hand. While that might be true, many of his supporters say he should not have been crucified for what was the 'style' of politics in those days.
Over and above all, they insist that it still did not make it right for Mahathir to move in on the MCA and throw Koon Swan to the wolves in order to achieve his own ambitions. They allege it only paved the way for Mahathir to build an even more corrupt corporate Malaysia, with his cronies the 'new Kings' who called the shots.
A born-again Christian who now dabbles in low-key property development projects, Koon Swan and his second wife Penny Chang came under immense public scrutiny during the Pan-El and MCA days.
His supporters did not dare speak up for him due to Mahathir's ham-fisted use of the Internal Security Act and Sedition laws to jail and silence critics. The awful silence and his own guilty plea demoralized the entire Chinese community. Many turned on him and Penny as result.
"Koon Swan's jailing was a turning point. The entire episode made the Chinese bury their heads in the sand. Mahathir's Ops Lalang in 1987 further terrorized the rest of the country into complete obedience to his wishes and politics. No one wanted to go to jail, no one wanted to rock the boat. Guys like Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh were appreciated but only secretly and they suffered too," said Jui Meng.
"I am glad society has changed and Malaysians of all races are now more vocal due to the greater awareness spread by the alternative media and the Internet. If Mahathir were to try his old tricks again, I don't think the people will let him jail them anymore. More likely, they will jail him!"
To those who have "rewritten his life story" : Political comeback?
Speculation is also swirling that he may wish to mount a political comeback. While he is likely to demur, given his age, long-time observers of MCA will say that nothing is ever impossible in the fast-shifting world of politics.
There is also hope in many quarters within the party that Koon Swan will offer himself as an alternative to the scandal-tainted Soi Lek, whose standing has been sharply declining amid criticism of hypocritical politics based on mudslinging against the Opposition while closing a blind eye to the Umno-BN's own wrong doing and corruption.
"What he does next is something for Koon Swan to decide for himself and for him to speak about if he wishes to," said Jui Meng.
Ling Liong Sik, who succeeded Koon Swan and has been condemned for selling several of the MCA's core assets including Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd for some RM500 million when these were allegedly worth many times more, has said a mere "sorry" is not enough to pay back for Koon Swan's humiliation and suffering.
Sad to say, while Ling hoped that the Singapore government would follow up with some action, including compensating Koon Swan, his family, and even the MCA which suffered as a result of the court decision, not once did he call for or even mention similar repentance from Malaysia's Umno-BN government.
As for Soi Lek, he has declined to comment, saying he is not familiar with legal issues.
WELL! Well! Well! It’s indeed a rare embarrassment and dent to Singapore’s super efficient administration. At least, till now that is, the island republic’s government had not behaved like Malaysia’s monkey ways – running amok to deny and condemn an admission of mistake by one of its former top prosecutor.
Do you think any top official in Malaysia will admit any mistake? To ask for fair treatment and justice is already too much to ask in Malaysia.
However, the expose is still too early for response and comments, as I believe it is just the tip of the iceberg. Tan Koon Swan’s cautious response or non-response is telling, politically.
San Choon quit in frustration
For those who remember MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and Malaysian politics, the country’s second largest ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition party was plunged into a leadership crisis after its then president Lee San Choon quit politics.Lee is remembered for his gutsy political move to stand in the Opposition DAP stronghold - Seremban in the state of Negri Sembilan - in the April 22, 1982, general election against DAP adviser Dr Chen Man Hin. Lee won with a narrow 845-vote majority in a seat which MCA then had never won in previous national polls.
Many reasons had been given for Lee’s decision to take on the DAP, though Lee had actually accepted the then DAP secretary-general Lim Kit Siang’s challenge to contest in a Chinese majority seat.
Yes! The “great” Lim Kit Siang surprisingly did not keep his word to contest in Seremban.
However, Lee’s acceptance was a frustrated political manoeuvre to boost MCA’s deteriorating image as a party that stood for the rights of the Chinese.
Lee’s victory should have served to show that the MCA is still a party backed by the Chinese community. Lee’s gambit was that his electoral victory would then put him in a firmer stead in negotiations with Umno - the BN’s dominating force - on outstanding Chinese issues and concerns, especially on education, employment and economic opportunities.
However, that was not to be as Umno did not see it that way and continued to treat MCA with utter disdain. Lee then quit in frustration.
Yee Pan & Hon Kam were Umno's choice
It sparked a bitter and splitting leadership struggle, first between businessman Tan and acting president Neo Yee Pan. Neo, more an academician than a politician, was Umno’s choice but he had to be abandoned when he made too many blunders and mistakes in the leadership crisis, including the sacking of 14 senior party central leaders.That split the MCA into two entities, one led by Tan and the other by Mak Hon Kam who was Umno’s choice after Neo had to be sacrificed. Umno stepped in and the then Umno deputy president, Ghaffar Baba, was the acting MCA president to ensure there were no two MCAs and fair elections were held.
Tan emerged the winner in the party presidential election, much to the chagrin of Umno. Umno was then led by Mahathir Mohamed, a man with an ego bigger than this planet.
Dr M's connivance
It is said that Tan, after serving his jail sentence, had remarked to friends that his greatest fear in Malaysia is Dr M (Mahathir), no one else. That speaks volume of what type of leader is Dr M as a conniving politician.
Dr M is not the Umno president and prime minister today, but somehow he wields unbelievable political power.
As an ordinary Umno member, he is the adviser of the racist Perkasa (a Malay right wing masquerading as a non-governmental organisation) that champions for Malay supremacy by spewing highly seditious racial and religious slurs to disunite multi-race and multi-religious Malaysians.
It also resorts to violence but the now infamous Umno police (so dubbed by Malaysians for its selective persecution of Malaysians based on Umno’s interests) also don’t have the will to take action against Perkasa.
The timing of this expose is also suspicious, coming so close to Malaysia’s 13th General Election which must be held latest next June.
In the days, weeks and months to come, Malaysians may perhaps see Tan making a political comeback and this will surely spell trouble for the morally-tainted MCA president Chua Soi Lek who was caught on camera with his pants down in a hotel room with his …friend?
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