VK Lingam - now maybe we have a case

BREAKING NEWS :Pakatan Rakyat MPs today presented the alleged key witness that may support their claims that senior lawyer VK Lingam and former chief justice Tun Eusoff Chin had planned their New Zealand trip together.

They hope the alleged key witness, Lingam’s former secretary Jayanthi Naidu, will prove that the government is attempting to cover up the scandal which has raised suspicions about possible collusion.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had said there was no case to answer and that a key witness could not be located. It had also said that Lingam had not broken any laws for fixing judicial appointments as there was no evidence he had a hand in the appointments.

Lingam had claimed he was not the person captured in a video that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim showed in 2007, claiming it was proof that judicial appointments were fixed during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s reign as prime minister.

Appearing in the Parliament lobby today alongside R Sivarasa, Subang MP and PKR vice-president, a smiling Jayanthi reiterated she had been the one who arranged the trip for both Eusoff and Lingam.

“After the Royal Commission proceedings, I gave another statement to the MACC in the presence of my lawyer (which) among the matters... were that Lingam and Eusoff and families’ holiday trip to New Zealand was all paid for by Lingam,” she said.

Jayanthi, who quit working for Lingam in 1995, also made fresh claims of how Lingam had “fixed” a judgement by a judge in the Vincent Tan v MGG Pillai libel case back in 1993.

Lingam had represented Tan Sri Vincent Tan in the case, in which Pillai was ordered to pay compensation in the millions and resulted in the veteran journalist declaring bankruptcy.

“The judgement delivered by Datuk Mokhtar Sidin were written in Lingam’s office. I was among the various staff present in the office assisting in the process.”

“I am also aware of a few incidents in Lingam’s office where he and other lawyers have also written or assisted the writing of draft judgements,” added the former secretary.

Jayanthi also claimed she had been instructed many times by her former boss to withdraw cash in amounts between RM100,000 and RM300,000 to be “hand delivered by others to individual judges.”

All her claims had been made to both the MACC and the Royal Commission set up to probe a video clip of Lingam purportedly brokering the appointment of judges.

Though the commission strongly suggested that action be taken against Lingam, Eusoff and others involved, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz yesterday told parliament that no further action will be taken as they have, technically, not broken the law.

He also said the MACC had cleared both Lingam and Eusoff of any wrongdoing as a “key witness” could not be located.

It is uncertain as to whether Jayanthi is the person MACC is looking for but PR leaders insist that Lingam’s former secretary is the so-called missing key witness.

Sivarasa claimed with the presence of Jayanthi today, Nazri and government had blatantly lied and are trying to sweep the case under the carpet.

“It shows that the government had, from the beginning, never intended or possessed the political will to take any measures to reform the judiciary,” he said.

Sivarasa added that while there are no longer any legal ramifications, the move to present the alleged key witness to prove the purported cover-up attempt will leave the government open to judgment by the electorate.

And this may prove to be a setback for the government who is trying to win support from a sceptical public, said the Subang MP.

[Source: The MalaysianInsider]