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 victim of UMNO’s “black hand”
and the Malaysian Chinese should cheer the recent admission by Singapore’s former public prosecutor that Koon Swan had been wrongly charged and jailed because it vindicates the community as a whole.
“Koon Swan was the fastest rising Chinese leader. He held in his hand the hope and aspirations of the entire community. They trusted him implicitly. His youthfulness and dynamism set him a class above the other leaders. This is why he became a target of the Umno elite – for the tremendous hope he brought to the Chinese,” PKR Vice President Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
Koon Swan: A Reformist of the 1980s
“Like Anwar Ibrahim in 90s, Koon Swan in the 80s represented reform in all sectors – a more equitable economy, society and educational opportunities. He was a brilliant man and for this, UMNO chopped him down cruelly. Koon Swan was publicly mutilated, his reputation was smashed to smithereens. Why? Because he did not toe the line set by the UMNO bosses and they feared his power and influence over the Chinese.”
Accomplices in greed
Indeed, amongst those who follow the political development of the Malaysian Chinese, grousing at the injustice heaped upon Koon Swan is not new. The bitterness was widespread and deep but in the 1980s, former premier Mahathir Mohamad ruled with a fist of iron, freely using the Internal Security Act and Sedition laws to jail political opponents and shut out criticism.
His greatest accomplices were former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin and the mainstream media, which continuously churned out stories to portray the situation that Mahathir deemed most useful to his plans. It did not help that Mahathir refused to grant licenses to independent press organizations, and until the advent of the Internet, news that carried a neutral or pro-Opposition picture did not exist in Malaysia.
Koon Swan was labelled as a vile traitor who not only betrayed his community but also swindled their poor, many of whom lost their life savings when the MCA-linked co-operatives they placed money with crumbled.
“The truth is always stranger than fiction and God moves in mysterious ways. No one expected Glenn Knight to show remorse and to write about all his old cases. And Glenn did not just mention Koon Swan but also other big cases he prosecuted on behalf of his government. Maybe Singapore didn’t like a dynamic young leader who can rival the likes of Lee Kuan Yew. It reacted harshly and threw the book at Koon Swan. I was in Singapore with him at that time and we approached a UK law expert who told us Koon Swan had solid grounds to fight the Singapore case but in the end he buckled,” said Jui Meng.
“He could not take the pressure. We will never know what else he and his family were threatened with until they tell us, but for sure he was a victim and it was UMNO which led the push to crucify and to bury him. This is the history that Malaysian Chinese, especially the young, must know. Koon Swan’s record on the Pan-El incident and how he was forced to give up the MCA presidency must be set straight. I am not trying to make him a hero. He had his scandals but he did not betray the Chinese. For years, his jailing has been used a mark of shame to show that Chinese leaders betrayed their people especially the poor. Many in the MCA did do that but not all. Each time, UMNO wanted to crow over the Chinese, they would point the finger at Koon Swan and Pan-El. Now, the truth is out loud and clear – it was not him. It was the Umno elite and apart from politics, there was greed. They wanted the money in the MCA and its crown jewel Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd.”
Black mark on the community lifted
Jui Meng, a former MCA Vice President and Health Minister, was responding to the uproar raised by Glenn Knight’s recently published book “Glenn Knight: The Prosecutor”. The former top legal eagle admitted he had wrongly prosecuted Koon Swan in the 1985 Pan El Industries case.
Glenn said he felt pained for putting Koon Swan behind bars on discovering his mistake 
years later, and he had since apologised 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 abetment of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the collapse of Pan El. He was sentenced to 18 months jail and fined S$500,000 (RM1.2 million) upon conviction in 1986.
Despite quitting as the MCA President and serving out his Singapore sentence, the Malaysian authorities were not appeased. He was jailed again when he returned and made a bankrupt as well.
“It was the worst humiliation for any man to endure but Koon Swan bore his cross with courage and dignity. He was 10 years too early, but we hope he will speak out now. In 1998, Anwar was in a better position to fight back against guys like Mahathir and Daim. Even still, look at how he suffered, I really take my hat off to Anwar,” said Jui Meng.
“Perhaps now, Malaysians can understand how much courage it takes to fight the evil in our political system. When I talk about the the fight between Good and Evil, I can sense some people think I am exaggerating. But make no mistake, the fight is still on and in fact at the very peak. Malaysians must reject Evil in UMNO-BN. They must always choose to follow the light and never darkness.”
Paving the way for assets to be sold cheaply?
Jui Meng slammed the “vindictiveness” of the Mahathir administration for the second-round of punishment inflicted on Koon Swan. He believes that it was not only to ensure that the disgraced MCA president could never make any political comeback but to pave the way for the takeover and asset-stripping of the MCA companies and properties.
“Multi-Purpose was a huge conglomerate that could affect East Asian markets. It held the Malaysian French Bank, Bandaraya, large tracts of plantations and estates. It also had shipping interests. Yet Ling Liong Sik who took over as the new MCA President had to sell it off for a mere RM500 million. It was easily worth several times more,” said Jui Meng.
“Who was behind the purchase? Many have alleged it was Daim because he had Mahathir’s ear at that time. In the UMNO style of those days, the word was spread to the Malays through the vernacular papers and the grapevine that the Malay community would benefit from Koon Swan’s fall. But I think the only people who gained were the UMNO elite. Their greed got worse and worse until Daim himself has been accused of taking UMNO’s assets and keeping these for himself. It is a classic example of the political and economic hegemony the Umno elite has enforced on the rakyat (people).”
Cowed and demoralized
Now 72, Koon Swan made his political debut, winning a parliamentary seat in Raub, Pahang. The following year, he was elected to the party’s Central Committee and appointed Chairman of MCA Wilayah Persekutuan State Liaison Committee. In 1982 he clinched a landslide victory in the Damansara parliamentary seat, beating the Opposition in their fortress.
In 1984, he was appointed as Vice-President of the MCA. However, he was soon sacked from this post along with 13 other members for urging the party to investigate its member records for the presence of non-existent people, an issue that had sparked off factionalism and crisis within the MCA. Koon Swan and the other 13 were all reinstated two months later with the support of 1,600 MCA members in an extraordinary general meeting.
In November 1985, Koon Swan was voted as president of the MCA, winning 76.9% of the votes cast, the largest majority in the party’s history, and the first challenger since 1954 to win national leadership.
Koon Swan was then at the height of his popularity, symbolizing a new breed of Chinese leaders – smart, savvy and people-oriented. The Chinese community was indeed riding high buoyed by the enormous economic clout wielded by the MCA and talented Chinese leaders such as Koon Swan, who tapped and leveraged on the overseas diaspora, using to the fullest advantage powerful business contacts in both Hong Kong and China.
Regarded as a financial wizard Koon Swan also originated the Deposit-Taking Cooperatives or DTCs, which sought to accumulate capital for the Malaysian Chinese through investments. But with the onset of the 1985-86 recession triggered by plunging world oil and palm oil prices plus Koon Swan’s own troubles, mismanagement of the DTCs’ funds led to a scandal with the central Bank Negara stepping in to freeze the assets of up to 35 DTCs. The total loss was estimated to be RM3.6 billion, and the depositors only recovered 62% of their deposits.
The Pan-El case and its outcome not only changed his fate and the MCA’s but also greatly impacted on the Malaysian Chinese community. They were visibly demoralized and cowed by his jailing. Many turned against him and his second wife Penny Chang, blaming them for the hard times sparked by the DTCs’ fall and the slide in the economy, which contracted by 1.2% in 1985.
Pardon
Pan El’s collapse also caused the Singapore and Malaysian stock markets to halt trading for three days. The high-profile Pan El case resulted in Glenn Knight being awarded the Public Administration Gold Medal.
In the book, the 63-year-old Glenn had written about the many high-profile cases he handled. He said that in 1996, a case similar to Koon Swan’s came up for hearing and Singapore Chief Justice Yong Pung How “concluded that I was wrong to charge Tan for the offence”.
“It was extremely painful for me to suddenly discover that the Singapore courts had got it wrong. It was a highly significant case that led to enforceable regulations being introduced into Singapore’s stockbroking industry. As Koon Swan was the head of the MCA, I put up a paper on his involvement in the Pan-El saga but left it to my superiors to decide his fate as he was out of (Singapore) and in Malaysia. In the end, the government decided that the CAD could prosecute Koon Swan,” Glenn wrote.
“Chief Justice Yong was of the opinion that the section I had charged Koon Swan with was 
wrong in law for we could not charge a person for stealing from a company because as a director, it was not a breach of the law in that sense. Chief Justice Yong concluded that it was wrong to convict anyone for stealing money if the wrong charge had been used to begin with. The judgment shattered my belief in our legal system. In the United Kingdom, such a landmark judgment would have set aside Koon Swan’s conviction but our jurisprudence does not allow for this though technically, Koon Swan could still have been granted a pardon.”
Glenn also told of how he apologized to Koon Swan in 2010. He said Koon Swan was very emotional on hearing the matter. In 1991, Glenn himself was charged with CBT and later jailed in Singapore. He was struck off from practising law in 1994 but was reinstated in the Law Society of Singapore in 2007.
As for Koon Swan, who is currently overseas, he has said he would decline comment until he has read Glenn’s book.
Koon Swan got his dignity and respect back. But he must still be hurting deep inside for what had happened to him in 1986. Mr Bean, what he can do now? He can walk tall, but nothing else, I guess.–Din Merican
I think everyone has misunderstood what Knight wrote. Koon Swan was perhaps charged under the wrong criminal code section. He did not say Koon Swan did not commit any crimes.
Anyway, what Knight and the ex-CJ in S’pore said absolutely makes no sense. If a company director committed fraud, CBT or misappropriation of that company’s funds, why is not stealing? What is it then – a stirringly benevolent act? What about all those investors who lost $millions when Pan Electric collapsed?
Remember too that Koon Swan was also convicted and made bankrupt in M’sia when he could not repay his huge $million loans with Amex.
Dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Human Race
Chua Jui Meng had fallen apart after his defeat in the MCA Elections, and now like Anwar is fighting a lost battle in PKR, harping on outdated issues to convince Johore Chinese to vote th opposition, forgetting that Johore has always been BN stronghold.
Yup, i’ll second that don. That guy was by no means an “innocent”.
To paint him so would be like saying the Singaporeans were derelict. Invisible hands over there? Certainly. But over here, Octo and Cronies were despicable hands.
The problem with that unmentionable lap-dog party was that it somehow lost it’s way after it’s formation as all it’s leaders including Georgie, emphasized materialistic achievements (aka ‘profit’), consumerism, hedonism(including mistresses or concubines galore) and chauvinism. Instead of tapping into the intrinsic strength and stoicism of the Chinapek in all fields of commerce, education and personal responsibility – they manipulated their supporters to mimic the Melayu Hidup fantasy and discrimination. Thus we have a whole stinking mess of competing agendas, none of which the typical Chinapek cares two hoots for.
They’re called lapdog lackeys i.e. scrotal stimulators, for no other reason than they have failed miserably to project or emplace themselves as champions of the underdog. They have in effect with the connivance of UMNO, divided the country into fiefdoms – with two Chinapek generations being inbred monolingual chauvinists – with funny ideas of what constitutes ‘success’ and who have an identity crisis equivalent to a metamorphosing tadpole.
Born again Christian? Yeah, right.. Forgiven and repented? We’ll see. Miracles are myths made of these fables.
I’m reminded of Johnny Cochrane’s “If it doesn’t fit you must acquit’.
If you talk about charges being wrongly framed and the verdict therefore cannot stand a motion for re-trial, may fall foul of the rule against double jeopardy.
Mr Bean, what he can do now? He can walk tall, but nothing else, I guess.– Din Merican
My advice? Let sleeping dogs lie. Don’t kick it in the rear. Time is better served kicking the old goat in the rear.
“I think everyone has misunderstood what Knight wrote. Koon Swan was perhaps charged under the wrong criminal code section. He did not say Koon Swan did not commit any crimes.”
It could be like charging someone with common law rape when it should be statutory rape. In the end it is still rape.
Sonny your assessment of Chua Ju Ming is completely not correct. Chua had make an impact in Johore and Ghani MB admitted that BN might lose up to 10 to 11 Parliamentary seats in Johore. Currently they have only one.
What’s the difference between criminal breach of trust and a simple theft? It is in the sentencing. The former is much more serious.
Wasnt glenn knight also charged twice for corruption and disbarred from legal practise. He was only reinstated in 2007
IF wrongly charged (!?) wat were his lawyers FOR !!????
When all the kojadi and koperasis and multi purpose and pan-el collapsed, people lost their life savings – do that count to people like Tan Koon Swan?
Well, I attended the services in Andrew cathedral in Singapore. That was Glenn knight shared his life experiences. One thing that struck me when he says that when he reaches god like status, his ego will consume the entire of him. Not his exact words though but that’s what I understood.
Not sure what invisible hand clf talking about in Singapore. Like it or not, rule of law is paramount. GOm of Singapore said (not exact words), don’t touch the system. Do so I will hantam you Kau Kau. Do you know that jbj son, Philips jeyaratnam was once the president of law society? Plus you really think that jbj was forced to be bankrupt for Nong Nong time. Te moment he set reform party, his bankrupt status was struck out. Hahahaha!
The Chinese people worked so very hard, laboured day and night, toiled like kuli, (with blood, sweat and tears) just to pay taxes, cukai pintu, cukai tanah and renew licences, to the Ruling Elite Evil UMNO-BN Regime for the past 50 odd oppressive, dictatorial & tyrannical years! (Especially 22 years under Dictator Maha-Zalim Dr.M!)
Now what did the UMNO-BN Govt rewarded you Chinese people? The ever increasing influx of Pendatang Haram’s! These Pendatang Haram’s are awarded Blue IC MyKad with the criteria that they enroll as UMNO members and MUST be converted to Islam!
On Polling Day GE-13 , these Pendatang Haram’s (Indians, Indonesians, Bangaladeshis, Myanmese, Africans, etc) will be queing-up standing next in-line beside you 2nd-Class citizens, with the same rights to vote the Govt that have granted them illegally the licence (MyKad) to be a citizen of Malaysial!
Ultimately the day will come when these Pendatang Haram’s will be appointed as MP’s in Parliament.
Well, right or wrong it served well for some at least CJM who jumped on immediately to share his 2 cents worth of opinions. Kind of like telling us he was there for TKS thick and thin. Also, the main stream media are quick to point their fingers for injustice done by its the little red dot. And many will say “I told you so”.
Many don’t read to understand or read without understanding and some just scan through, set opinions and start commenting like an expert. The worst is the main stream media who are supposed to publish articles intelligently went on a witch hurt, most for political gain.
Ha! Many were right here. Of Course, there was a crime committed, either directly or indirectly. It can be said also with or without TKS direct involvement. Remember, TKS is the person in charge and is responsible for all. That incident took lives within the management of Pan-El and some holding Pan-El stocks. TKS spent 18 months in Singapore jail. I believe he accepts certain responsibilities for the incident and his lawyers did a good job for only 18 months. As for why he was jailed in Malaysia I cannot comment.
My point here is, this is a good book to reflect upon. Glenn Knight’s experiences, his ups and downs are most beneficial while I can’t say that for our AG and his prosecution or persecution team.
The story did not clear him of wrong doing but mere error on technicality. He misused the trust given by the Chinese villagers and the co-operative he founded turned out to be greatest scam where thousands of villagers money being cheated. How do he account for that? He is no savior of the Chinese community but only a business who loves wealth more than anything else.
Tan Koon Swan has to explain his role in the collapse of Pan El and the Mulpha Co-operatives where thousands of poor Chinese lost their life savings. Was he innocent and framed? I doubt it. It is easy to blame Dr. M and UMNO but where is the proof. All I know is that MCA and its Presidents have let down the Chinese people in Malaysia.
Koon Swan is guilty by his own admission. To blame anyone else is an indulgence of the perverted kind.
It is time for Mr Tan Koon Swan to tell all, to clear his good name & to honor God