____________________________________________________________
Malaysian Insider
World Chinese Economic Forum honours convicted ex-MCA president
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 — Former MCA president Tan Koon Swan was honoured today with a lifetime achievement award for business and political leadership at the Fourth World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF), which made no mention of his conviction for his role in the 1985 Pan-El scandal that led to a three-day trading halt in Singapore and Malaysia.
……………..
At the ceremony in Melbourne today, Tan was cited as having a rags-to-riches success story, who started out working as a clerk before being invited by the founder of the Genting Group, to be a general manager of its Genting Highlands Resort.
The 72-year-old was also described in the awards citation as having led corporate giant Multi Purpose Holdings Group in Malaysia, which aimed to be an economic catalyst to modernise, corporatise and internationalise traditional Chinese family business besides having spearheaded the “democratic reform movement in the MCA” in the 1980s.
Tan was among nine people the WCEF said it was honouring for their substantially contribution “to their communities, countries and society as well as to the betterment of relations with China”.
World Chinese Economic Forum honours convicted ex-MCA president
———–
WHAT IS THE WORLD CHINESE ECONOMIC FORUM (WCEF)?
EXCERPTS FROM THE WCEF’S OWN WRITE-UP.
About WCEF
The World Chinese Economic Forum focuses on the emergence of the Global Chinese economic power, which is not only from China but also from the Chinese Diaspora worldwide. And as we learn from past events, the work of the World Chinese Economic Forum takes on new urgency and significance.
The World Chinese Economic Forum is an idea whose time has come as China gears up to become the world’s 2nd largest economy which continues to move robustly ahead. At the same time the Global Chinese Diaspora spreads over South East Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas continues to be a vital force for economic prosperity and growth in their respective countries.
Consolidating cultural, economic and social values from the East and the West, the World Chinese Economic Forum offers considerations from a number of perspectives of the principal forces that will further integrate the Chinese Diaspora, and beyond. This is the ultimate platform to forge partnerships and alliances with everyone as this will be a key strategy forward in tapping into the global purchasing power.
This forum will focus discussions on China’s increasing importance to Asia and to the global economy, as well as the integral role that it continues to play in driving regional and global economic recovery. This forum also aims at promoting closer business linkages among the Chinese Diaspora, tapping into the economic resources of Chinese entrepreneurs around the world and providing a platform for global collaboration.
————————————————————————————–
Malaysia Chronicle
Saturday, 03 November 2012 10:48
Instead of absolving Koon Swan, better for Soi Lek to APOLOGIZE TO VICTIMS of co-op scandal
Written by Liew Chin Tong
While the 1986 deposit-taking cooperative scandal which happened twenty six years ago has faded in the memories of most people, recent attempts by MCA to rewrite and whitewash history have come to light.
Former MCA president Tan Koon Swan will be conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the fourth World Chinese Economic Forum “as a recognition of his continuous contributions to politics and business.” The Forum will be organised by Asia Strategic and Leadership Institute (ASLI) in Melbourne, Australia from 12th to 13th November.
………………..
540,000 people were adversely affected by the get-rich-quick deposit-taking cooperative scandal.
26 years later, MCA has still not apologised to the victims for their sufferings as a result of MCA’s foray into businesses through the funds from the cooperatives.
While Chua Soi Lek thought Tan Koon Swan had redeemed himself, there is certainly no redemption for MCA. MCA still owes Malaysians an apology.
Liew Chin Tong is the DAP MP for Bukit Bendera
Instead of absolving Koon Swan, better for Soi Lek to APOLOGIZE TO VICTIMS of co-op scandal
—————————————————————————————
News from 3 years ago: 1 August 2009
Star
Saturday August 1, 2009
Duo show it’s possible to overcome failure
By CHEONG SUK-WAI
Ex-CAD director Glenn Knight and ex-MCA president share stage at leadership conference.
THERE is usually nothing too exciting about two speakers sharing a stage to talk about bouncing back from failure, especially not at a dime-a-dozen leadership seminar.
But on July 23, former Malaysian magnate and Cabinet minister Tan Koon Swan galvanised the audience at the Suntec International Convention Centre in Singapore when he spoke alongside Singaporean lawyer Glenn Knight.
For about an hour, both took turns to speak of their past and how their Christian faith had sustained them through life’s setbacks.
In 1986, Knight, the first director of the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), charged and prosecuted Tan for abetting a criminal breach of trust in the high-profile Pan-Electric Industries (Pan-El) case. Listed Pan-El and two other listed companies related to it went under after being some S$480mil in debt.
Their collapse caused the unprecedented closure of the Singapore and Malaysian stock exchanges for three days and triggered an overhaul of the share-trading system in Singapore.
Tan, then the MCA president, was jailed for 18 months and fined S$500,000.
By then, Knight was known as a crack crusader against white-collar crime. But in 1991, he was arrested and found guilty of trying to cheat three businessmen of S$3mil and faking an invoice to get a government loan.
He was jailed for a day after the court reduced his three-month jail sentence. He was also fined S$17,000 and disbarred.
Then in 1998, Knight was jailed for a day and fined S$10,000 for misappropriating government funds.
Today, Tan, 68, advises his family business while Knight, 64, is a litigation partner at Colin Ng & Partners.
The two men were speaking to more than 1,300 mostly-Christian delegates at the biennial Eagles Leadership Conference. It was organised by the Singapore Christian-based non-profit organisation Eagles Communications, which develops leaders.
The crowd erupted in applause when the two called the other “a good friend”. They said they were appearing together publicly for the first time since Pan-El to show that anyone could survive even abject failure.
Speaking to The Sunday Times later, Tan revealed that he never felt bitter about Knight. As he put it sanguinely: “I’ve nothing to forgive him because he had not done anything wrong against me. He was just doing his job.”
In 1985, before Pan-El went bust, Tan had paid Knight a visit at his office or, as the latter put it, “a courtesy call”. Knight returned that courtesy in 1986 when he visited Tan in the latter’s jail cell shortly after a rather rough interrogation. He told Tan that he bore no personal malice against the latter, and also told him to prepare to be made a bankrupt.
Indeed, throughout this interview, each egged the other on to tell his side of the story and sometimes even finished the other’s sentences. When Tan said he feared repercussions from this chat, Knight reassured him: “Never mind. It all sounds good.”
Asked what they could possibly have in common besides their faith and Pan-El, Knight said: “Because he was flying high. He was MCA chief. He was the top dog. So was I.”
Of his own tumbles, Knight told the audience earlier that God was “disciplining’ him for something else he had done in the past.
As he put it: “I had to … come down to earth and accept that everyone is a normal human being. I suppose I had to be brought down.”
…………..
In 1988, the Malaysian High Court declared Tan a bankrupt and some estimated it would take him 36,000 years to discharge himself. But two of his friends bought a piece of land on his behalf and then sold it so handsomely that, by 1995, he erased his entire debt.
Tan was coy about his exact dealings these days, but allowed that he was “in the background” as a corporate adviser to a Malaysian-based property development business run by his children. He would not say more.
More than two decades on, both men took pains to stress that they were at peace with themselves and others now.
As Knight put it: “It’s just a hiccup in your life. It may be five years or 15 years; get on with it.” — Singapore ST
Duo show it’s possible to overcome failure
biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/1/… – Cached
___________________________________________________________
Free Malaysia Today
Koon Swan saga: Will the truth emerge?
Was the former MCA president’s political career cut short due to a hideous plan?
………..
Yet many of Koon Swan’s political supporters even today still harbour the belief and perception that their leader was “politically” persecuted over the commercial CBT charges.
………….
What was more revealing is the extracted recorded minutes of an emergency MCA central committee meeting held in May 1987 chaired by Liong Sik, who had briefed those present on his meeting with Umno leaders on resolving the cooperative issue.
The meeting between Liong Sik and certain Umno top leaders was apparently over the cooperative’s debacle on repayments to some almost 600,000 mainly Chinese depositors involving more than RM 1.5 billion.
The minutes stated: “The president briefed the central committee on the meetings held with Umno leaders on the cooperative issue. Dr Ling briefed them (Umno leaders) about the RM1.4 billion scheme and told them that he wanted dollar to dollar refund to be completed before March 1989. He further said it would need a soft loan of RM4.4 billion from Bank Negara.”
According to the minutes, Umno leaders had turned down the proposal and further warned the MCA president not to take a hard stand on resolving the cooperative issue.
The Umno leadership conveyed to Liong Sik that he and the party would have to face the possible consequences.
“Dr Ling also told the meeting (MCA central committee) that he was threatened that if he did not agree to compromise, Umno would support Yee Pan to challenge him (Liong Sik) in the coming party elections or N.O.C. would be imposed or Gerakan would take over MCA’s position in government,” read the minutes.
Hypothetically, the pertinent question would be – was Koon Swan’s political career cut short due to a hideous plan?
Do the minutes reveal that the powers-that-be then was extremely upset with Koon Swan for challenging Yee Pan in the presidential elections?
Stanley Koh is a former head of MCA’s research unit. He is now a FMT columnist.
Koon Swan saga: Will the truth emerge?
————————————————————————————————————
Malaysia Chronicle
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 09:16
Will Koon Swan make a political comeback: TROUBLE FOR SOI LEK!
Written by Victor Lim
………….
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.
It was the beginning of an end to Tan’s political career.
………..
For more, read
Will Koon Swan make a political comeback: TROUBLE FOR SOI LEK!
————————————————————————————————————
Malaysia Chronicle
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 11:45
The memories are still fresh in my mind, says Koon Swan: I TRY TO FORGIVE
Written by Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
Chopped down at the height of his power by what many say was conspiracy of 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 Chew reported 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.
…………..
Mixed feelings: A black conspiracy to split the Chinese
Despite quitting as the MCA president and serving out his Singapore sentence, the Malaysian authorities were not appeased. Koon Swan was jailed again when he returned and made a bankrupt as well.
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 triggered by former premier Mahathir Mohamad in a bid to split the Chinese and keep them disunited.
……………
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!”
The memories are still fresh in my mind, says Koon Swan: I TRY TO FORGIVE
———————————————————————————————————–
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.” (Chua Jui Meng)
Malaysia Chronicle
Tuesday, 11 September 2012 14:53
27 YEARS IN THE SHADOWS: Koon Swan was a victim of Umno’s “black hand” – Jui Meng
Written 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.
“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.”
…………..
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.
…………..
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.
Rated Stories:
Will Koon Swan make a political comeback: TROUBLE FOR SOI LEK!
MCA says to give full support to ex-president Tan Koon Swan
Koon Swan’s case was a ‘mistake’
———————————————————————————————————–
Sundaily
Tan Koon Swan ‘wrongly prosecuted’
Last updated on 11 September 2012 – 08:56am
Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11, 2012): The admission by former top Singapore public prosecutor that he wrongly prosecuted businessman and former MCA president Tan Koon Swan in the Pan El Industries case in 1985 made top news in all the major Chinese papers yesterday.
Glenn Knight said he felt extremely pained for putting Tan behind bars on discovering his mistake years later, and he had since apologised to Tan.
Tan 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.
The case and its outcome not only changed the fate of Tan and MCA but also greatly impacted on the Malaysian Chinese community and political scene. Tan quit as MCA president following his conviction.
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 Knight being awarded the Public Administration Gold Medal.
In his just-released book, “Glenn Knight The Prosecutor”, Knight, 63, talked of the many high-profile cases he handled, as well as his admission of the wrongful prosecution of Tan.
In the book, he said, in 1996, a case similar to Tan’s came up for hearing and Chief Justice Yong Pung How “concluded that I was wrong to charge Tan for the offence”.
The judge was of the opinion that the section Knight had charged Tan with was wrong, for they 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.
………….
Tan Koon Swan ‘wrongly prosecuted’
———————————————————————————————————-
weehingthong 