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Why is Tun Daim defending himself out of court?

THE FORMER FINANCE MINISTER, Tun Daim Zainuddin, is on a rampage after he was implicated in the Metramac scandal, and Mr Justice Sri Ram, about to retire, said some snasty things about him. Metramac's lawyer, Mohamed Shafee Abdullah, is facing a possible contempt of court charges for what he said after the Appeal Court hearings. Tun Daim and his compatriots assume that justice will only be served if judgement go their way. They could be excused if they had said this after the Federal Court had made its judgement, when all avenues of legal proceedings would then be over. But he, and his lawyer, is wrong. People go to court when their versions cannot agree, and the judge decides, as in the Metramac case, on the balance of probabilities. That is if everything is right and proper. Tan Sri Vincent Tan, a friend of the UMNO establishment then but not anymore, took me to court, arranged for a hearing at double-quick time, without my knowledge. I had some lawyer who called me saying he was going to discharge himself if I did not give him any instructions.

That was a Saturday before the Monday of the trial in 1994, and when I first knew I was being sued. I asked the lawyer for proof that I had engaged him. He had none, either from me or the seven other defendants. I went to Mr Karpal Singh, who could only come at the weekend, so I defended myself. In such circumstances where the plaintiff had not given his side of the dispute, there is provision for the plaintiff's defence to be adduced in open court. I was not allowed to. The judge was hostile from the start. He would not give a postponement so that I could a lawyer of my choice of lawyer "because I would then not be the judge." We lost. in the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sri Ram told Mr Karpal, early in the proceedings, to look out of the windows. He looked, and said he could see nothing. "Well, don't you see your appeal floating down the window." We knew then we had lost. But as we were leaving the court building, one of the three judges asked us to look at a certain page of the judgement. We did and gave us the reason to get the permission to appeal to the Federal Court, which we got.

The chief justice, Tun Eusoff Chin, decided he would be part of the three judges, while he was around, who heard permission to appeal. In the Federal Court, Tun Eusoff sat. My lawyer asked that he be recused, but he refused, saying there were not enough judges to go around. This request was made after I had distributed photographs of he and Tan Sri Vincent Tan's lawyer and their families holidaying in New Zealand. But Tun Eusoff took the view that it did not matter as there was no further appeal. So he thought. I lost again, but I appealed to the Federal Court to reverse itself. But I could do it only after Tun Eusoff retired. I filed the appeal, with a different set of lawyers as Mr Karpal Singh felt the Federal Court would not order what I wanted, shortly before Tun Eusoff was due to be sworn in as governor of Penang. Since he was a party of a court action, he was not appointed. The Federal Court in 2003 said it would rehear my appeal. So far it has not.

This is what ordinary people face. Is Tun Daim an ordinary person? He says, in his press statement by was of justification that the then finance minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. But Dato' Seri Anwar could not rock the boat be rejecting Tun Daim's requests, particularly as work had started and he was watching Dato' Seri Anwar like a hawk. Tun Daim's political secretary, now the Jelai MP, and known as the wakil pos' for he won because of the 5,000 votes from the army camp there, had been double promoted to deputy minister of finance, to make sure Dato' Seri Anwar did not act on his own. Tun Daim also says that the cabinet agreed with him on his projects. Did they? The cabinet ministers knew which side their bread was buttered, and voted accordingly. He lost because his group is no longer in power. A different group is. And Tun Daim has the added disadvantage of being aligned to Tun Mahathir Mohamed.

In Malaysian politics, if you are on the wrong side, you stand to lose if you are right, or the other side wants a victory. You can fight in the courts. But it is no use. You are fighting an uphill battle. But if you are on the right side one, you lose all advantages you thought you had when you lost office. Tun Daim thought he was clever in making sure he finance minister was his man. It was the practice of the finance minister to be the UMNO Treasurer; that was so when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Daim were in office. But when Dato' Anwar was finance minister, Tun Daim remained the UMNO Treasurer. Why? Tun Daim will have to explain that in court. it was when the man thought he was a sucker, he broke out of Tun Daim's clutches, that it was thought necessary, mostly in Tun Daim's eyes, that he had to be destroyed at all cost. Now he does not have any advantage. He is on the wrong side, even if he remains in UMNO. Asking the cabinet to declassify its papers so that he could clear his name is just too much. The case is not over. Why is he screaming now?

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com