(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): About ten days ago, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported investigations by the Securities Commission into the stock market’s "most high-profile deal maker", Datuk Soh Chee Wen, who said the commission had put him through nearly 70 hours of questioning over the previous two weeks.
The probe into Soh, who at one time controlled eight listed Malaysian companies, centres on Omega Holdings Bhd., a debt-laden stockbroking concern that he allegedly acquired through the use of nominees, acting as middleman for the deal.
Soh had told the Asian Wall Street Journal that he was being victimised, saying: "I am getting the feeling that I’m being made to take the rap". The AWSJ reported that Soh had filed a report with the Kuala Lumpur police last week naming several Malaysian businessmen involved in the Omega deal.
Soh has been described as a "walking time bomb", and AWSJ reported the he had threatened to expose "additional corporate corner-cutting beyond the Omega deal" which could prove embarrassing for some prominent Malaysian companies and businessmen.
Yesterday, the contents of a seven-page police report allegedly lodged by Soh Chee Wen at Balai Polis Jalan Travers, Kuala Lumpur was posted on the Internet.
The contents of the alleged Police report by Soh Chee Wen, if true, would seriously compromise the integrity of the Cabinet and strengthen public concerns about corruption, cronyism and nepotism in Malaysia.
Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik should resign as Transport Minister if it is true that Soh Chee Wen had lodged the police report as posted on the Internet, alleging corruption, cronyism and nepotism against Ling Liong Sik to allow for full and independent public investigations.
The police report allegedly lodged by Soh Chee Wen and posted on the Internet made serious, specific and detailed allegations of corruption, cronyism and nepotism against Ling Liong Sik, and named names and companies, implicating many important personalities, including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Ling Hee Leong, Datin Seri Ena Ling, the Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Ong Ka Ting and the Chairman of the Securities Commission, Dr. Munir Majid as well as a number of prominent corporate personalities.
If it is true that Soh Chee Wen had lodged the police report as posted on the Internet, then public interests require that there should be a full and independent inquiry to clear the name of all the political and corporate personalities mentioned, and that of the government itself. What is at stake is not just the reputation of the personalities mentioned but the good name of the government and country as well.
Soh Chee Wen should come forward to confirm or deny he had lodged the police report as posted on the Internet.
Soh Chee Wen is no ordinary person. He is supposed to have stated in the police report, as posted on the Internet: "In the early 1990s I was then a close friend of the Lings and subsequently they decided to entrust me with the task of grooming their eldest son namely LHL who was at one time heading nowhere and languishing in the jungles of Sarawak as a mere project manager for Tan Sri Ting Pek Khing. Dato' Ling promised me that if I were to take LHL under my wings and propel him into the corporate scene, he would appoint me to the MCA Presidential Council and the Central Committee. I agreed and Dato'Ling did his part."
The Internet posting, if true, also provided a special insight into the type of corporate wheelings and dealings running into hundreds of millions of ringgit which is one of the causes for the worst economic crisis being faced by the country, with still no light at the end of the tunnel; the obstruction of justice as well as investigations by the Anti-Corruption Agency, gross abuses of power apart from from shockingly detailed allegations of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.
If Soh Chee Wen confirms that the police report posted on the Internet had been lodged by him, then the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad must explain why he had not asked for the resignation of Liong Sik from the Cabinet pending the outcome of full and independent public investigations to clear the name of all the personalities involved and even more important, to clear the good name of the Cabinet, government and country.
(24/6/98)