By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Several government-linked
companies (GLCs) are perturbed by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s attempts to justify
Putrajaya’s intervention into ongoing lawsuits against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli
and claimed the de facto law minister was giving out misleading information.
A source close to several parties named in the
lengthy series of suits and counter-suits involving Tajuddin pointed out that
the former poster boy for Bumiputera entrepreneurship had lost his RM13 billion
countersuit against national debt restructuring company Danaharta in 2009.
Among several documents obtained by The Malaysian
Insider, a High Court judgment on December 7, 2009 showed trial judge
Anatham Kasinather had awarded a total sum of RMRM589,143,205.57 to Danaharta,
its two subsidiaries and its four managing directors named as Datuk Azman
Yahya, Datuk Abdul Hamidy Hafiz, Datuk Zukri Samat and Datuk Kris Azman
Abdullah.
The same trial judge had also dismissed Tajuddin’s
RM13 billion countersuit against Danaharta and its agencies a month earlier on
November 12, 2009.
The source related that the GLCs and their directors
were stunned with disbelief at Nazri’s reasoning that an out-of-court
settlement was the best solution to save the federal government billions of
ringgit in legal claims.
“Nazri misled the public when he said ‘Our
total claims by the companies against Tajuddin are only half a billion ringgit.
That is why we said we should sit down and talk’. His claim that Tajuddin has
the bargaining power and that the GLCs were disadvantaged is nonsense. The RM13
billion against Danaharta was also plucked from thin air,” the source told The
Malaysian Insider yesterday on condition of anonymity.
“Tajuddin was the only one who owed money and
Danaharta did not owe him anything,” the source said and quizzed: “So what is
there to negotiate?”
Federal Court judge Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif has been
put in charge of managing the ongoing slew suits involving a total 38 parties
including Danaharta and Malaysia Airlines MAS due to Tajuddin’s appeal after
losing his counter-claim.
The cases have been dragging on for the past 1½
years and have yet to be fixed for hearing at the Court of Appeal.
Nazri had told The Malaysian Insider yesterday that
he had written to GLCs earlier this month seeking for them to withdraw their
suits worth at least RM2 billion to buy time for all concerned parties to reach
a “win-win” agreement and put an end to the prolonged financial saga involving
Tajuddin.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department had
said that to defend himself Tajuddin who is facing millions in legal claims for
allegedly causing MAS to suffer losses in excess of RM8 billion during his
tenure had made a whopping RM13 billion counter-claim.
“Our total claims by the companies against Tajuddin
are only half a billion ringgit That is why we said we should sit down and talk
” he said.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak directly stepped into the
fray yesterday to defend his administration’s intervention saying the move
should be seen as an “off-site” solution and not be misconstrued as an
out-of-court settlement.
The Najib government’s move to settle all
outstanding claims against Tajuddin appears to be an attempt to wipe the slate
clean in a financial saga that goes back decades to the height of Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad’s administration.
MAS had first lodged a police report against
Tajuddin in 2002 for allegedly causing the flag carrier to suffer losses in
excess of RM8 billion Tajuddin was the executive chairman of the airline from
1994 to 2001.
Source : MI
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