The acquittal of Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chang Kong Choy from 3 charges of cheating former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the RM12.85 Billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal is a sad fact that no senior leader is responsible and punished for such collosal losses of public funds. Chan was charged on February 28, 2011 with cheating Abdullah over the RM1.9 billion trans-shipment project between 2004 and 2006. He faced up to five years’ jail on each count.
Chan’s predecessor as Transport Minister, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, had being acquitted on October 25 last year on charges of cheating the Cabinet on the same scandal In acquitting Dr Ling, High Court judge Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi ruled that the former minister could not be held accountable for any mistake, misleading information, or inaccuracy in the preparation of the ministry’s documents regarding the land acquisition, although Ling signed the documents.”If any, the blame should be apportioned wholly and squarely upon the officers of the Transport Ministry who drafted and prepared the documents,” the judge said.
Have these officers of the Transport Ministry under Tun Dr Ling been charged? Instead Deputy Public Prosecutor(DPP) Datuk Nordin Hassan said that the charges were dropped after considering the representation by lawyers of Chan over the acquittal in Dr Ling’s case, which the DPP did not appeal. No wonder Malaysia has been crowned the world champion of corruption by Wall Street Journal and Transparency International.
Malaysia’s exceptional performance as the world champion of corruption is justified with of RM173.84 billion (US$54.18 billion) of illicit funds outflow or dirty money siphoned out of Malaysia in 2011, ranked fourth worst in the world. For 2011, Malaysia is behind giants Russia (US$191.14 billion), China (US$151.35 billion) and India (US$84.93 billion). In per capita terms, Malaysia is the world champion because our population is tens of times smaller than the China, India and Russia.
The Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) Report estimated a total of RM1.2 trillion or USD 370.38 billion lost from dirty money between 2002-11 or nearly RM4,300 per Malaysian over the last 10 years. At the same time, no action is taken to curb the waste and inefficiency highlighted in the latest 2012 Auditor-General Report involving a shocking RM6.5 billion. Until now, no one has been punished for these wrongdoings.
The dropping of charges by the prosecution against Chan shows there is selective prosecution and that justice easily falls victim to power. A legal system is only effective when it is permitted to protect citizen rights and not only the leaders. Our legal system will cease to function if we allow misuse of public funds to go unpunished instead of respecting the rule of law.