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Could the MCA President Survive The Soh Chee Wen Trial?

For the MCA President, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, the chickens, at last, come home to roost. He is forced to fight for his political and personal life, more so than at any time in the past. He cannot stay in the country on Monday, 18 November 2002, when the trial of Dato' Soh Chee Wen for stock market manipulations begins in Kuala Lumpur. So he is on a fortnight's official visit to China. The Nanyang Siang Pau, the Chinese newspaper the MCA controls, suggested his trip to China, and later, India is his swansong. He uses his untrammelled presidential power to force it insist the next day it is a rumour. The Nanyang did, but curiously it did not apologise nor refer to the "rumours" it floated the previous day; it only referred to Dr Ling telling his supporters not to listen to rumours about him. The huge debt the MCA took to acquire the Nanyang did not give it editorial control.

The Soh trial is one nightmare of many. It could trigger his house of cards to collapse. He assumed it would, and could, not so long as he is MCA president. Which is why he must remain in office. No one talks of it but his debts -- directly, his wife's, and his son's RM1.2 billion for which he must be in the end responsible -- cannot be repaid. It is not known if he has signed any personal guarantees, but he could almost surely have. He is liable for RM600 million to one Malaysian bank and a like sum in Singapore dollars to one Singapore bank. There are others in the two countries and elsewhere. He manages, by the skin of his teeth, to pay the monthly interest, which raises another question of how he he gets RM100 million and more every month to do that.

Even if he did not, he would be, as cabinet minister, untouched. It is infra dig to charge a minister in court unless it is an UMNO minister for murder or for sodomy and corruption. Would he continue to pay the interest, and repay the capital, when he is no more in power and office. After all, one Singapore bank extended the loans to his son because his father was politically connected. As every local bank in Malaysia. Dr Ling's position is worse than his predecessor, Mr Tan Koon Swan's, who went to gaol in Singapore and Malaysia when his empire of cards collapsed.

The Ling-Soh partnership is a curious one. In 1988, Dato' Soh backed the then MCA deputy president, Dato' Lee Kim Sai, against Dr Ling. He made hundreds of millions of ringgit then "playing" the stock market. He made and lost a few fortunes, became a bankrupt, before he was 24, a dato at 28, and rose higher, after his common cause with Dr Ling, only to fall spectacularly a few years later. Dr Ling made Dato' Soh an offer he could refuse -- a seat on the Presidential Council and the Central Executive Committee -- in return for helping his son's sharp rise in the corporate world. By 1997 the partnership made huge profits to the Lings.

A broker bought 140 million shares in one counter at RM8 for Datin Seri Ena Ling, Dr Ling's wife, on, I am told, Dato' Soh's advice, who also promised to buy them off her for a 50 per cent gains in months. But the 1997 share crash intervened, and she lost, it is said, about RM600 million. It is not known if that is paid or if it is part of Dr Ling's liabilities. Meanwhile, their son, Mr Ling Hee Liong, with Dato' Soh's help, acquired an empire on unrepayable debt. It is beyond doubt he must be made a bankrupt. The Bank Negara Malaysia insists all legal procedures must be exhausted before banks and financial institutions could write off its unrepayable debts.

Several questions arise. How could a 27-year-old man, which Mr Ling Hee Liong was when he acquired his now-collapsed empire, get banks and financial institutions to lend money beyond his capacity to pay in ten life times? Unless they gave it with an eye to who his father was. His empire was highly geared. All it needed was a persistent bear market to make it collapse. But what happened was a massive crash triggered ironically by Dato' Soh's own exposure. Public Bank Berhad had lent hundreds of millions to Dato' Soh for his stock market forays.

In 1997, its chairman and chief executive, Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow, decided to force sell the portfolio when he missed a few monthly interest payments. The limit down was reached so often and the portfolio included dozens of shares, the bears routed the bulls from the stock exchange. Dato' Ling, his wife, his son, their mentor crashed with it and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Malaysians. The Soh trial stems from that debacle. Even if the Lings are not called in as witnesses, for the prosecution or defence, Dr Ling' political carres is at a sticky end.

He postponed his day of reckoning until he could no more. It comes to a head when he needs all help he can get and cannot. He is under pressure from all sides. When the deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, challenged Dr Ling, who ran the MCA as his fiefdom, to to resign, it was to save the MCA from its president. But the Prime Minister and UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir backed Dr Ling, who could keep his challengers at bay. But Dr Mahathir, in return for his support, got Dr Ling to send in an undated letter of resignation as MCA president in December. That could not last. Dr Ling blotted his copy book with Dr Mahathir over his initial opposition to teaching science and mathematics in English in Chinese schools. Dr Ling found his position untenable. He was to go on leave in September but postponed it for flimsy reasons, but he had to go this month because of the Soh trial.

Dr Ling is now on of Dr Mahathir's difficulties. The Malay ground point to his refusal to act against non-Malays while he moves harshly against Malays. It is not a valid reason to blame Dr Mahathir, but in the confused politics amongst the Malays, it is as good a reason as any. The petty issues and actions worsen it. Dr Ling's second son, Mr Lim Hee Kiat, controls the Finnegan's Pub in Bangsar, which is also the meeting place of the Ling cronies. Recently, a Malay policeman placed summonses against an array of Mercedes Benzes, BMWs and other luxury cars. Its owners were in the Pub. The next day, the policeman was transferred out of his normal beat. Dr Mahathir cannot survive in UMNO if he would not act against his coalition colleagues as drastically as he does the Malay for his political opposition. So he would have to act. And soon. Which is why it is a safe bet that Dr Ling cannot lead his party into to the next general election; and a safe bet to say he would not be in the cabinet this time next year.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my