KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was acquitted today of cheating charges in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal because the case was “framed to fail”, DAP MP Tony Pua alleged today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP joined his DAP senior Lim Kit Siang in saying the acquittal was no surprise, pointing out that it would have been impossible to make the charges stick when four Cabinet ministers and even former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had readily attested to Dr Ling’s innocence during the trial.

Pua pinned the blame on the Attorney-General and asked the country’s top lawyer how his office could attempt to charge Dr Ling of “deceiving the Cabinet” when Dr Mahathir himself, as the case’s prime witness, claimed he was never cheated or lied to.

“That single testimony by the former premier would have single-handedly destroy the prosecution’s case,” the DAP lawmaker said in a statement here.

“The acquittal,” he added, “...came as no surprise to all Malaysians as the charges brought by the Attorney-General were framed to fail.”

“Of course the fact that four other cabinet ministers Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz and Datuk Seri Mohd Effendi Norwawi, witnesses for the defence and the prosecution supported Tun Dr Mahathir’s position completely wiped out any chance of a conviction,” he added.

“Did the Attorney General office not know of Tun Dr Mahathir’s and his cabinet members’ position?

“The Attorney General must either be incompetent, or especially clever in framing a charge knowing that it would never stand up to scrutiny,” Pua declared.

Dr Ling, who was transport minister from 1986 to 2003, was acquitted by the High Court here this morning of cheating charges over a land purchase for the PKFZ project, ending a trial that had spanned over two years.

He was charged in 2010 with deceiving the Cabinet into approving the land purchase for the PKFZ project, despite knowing that the approval would result in wrongful losses for the government.

Dr Ling also faced two alternative charges of deceiving the Cabinet into believing that the land purchase’s terms — at RM25 psf plus 7.5 per cent interest — had the acknowledgment and agreement of the Land Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) despite knowing that there was no such agreement.

The criminal offences were allegedly committed between September 25 and November 6 in 2002, a few months before the former MCA president stopped serving as a transport minister.

If convicted on the first charge, he would have been liable to a punishment under section 418 of the Penal Code of a maximum jail term of seven years, or a fine, or both.

The alternative charges carry a lighter sentence under section 417 of the Penal Code with a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or both.

Responding to the acquittal, DAP veteran Lim, like Pua, said the decision should not “come as a surprise” as it merely reflects the failure of Putrajaya’s system of accountability.

The DAP veteran also said that the former transport minister’s acquittal showed that Malaysia was no closer to identifying the culprit behind the losses resulting from the mega project, the cost of which had ballooned from RM1.1 billion to RM4.6 billion in 2007.

“It shows the whole system - not talking about any particular person - the failure of the whole system of integrity and accountability,” Lim told The Malay Mail Online today.

“The story has not been probed. The tale has been not been probed. We are as far away as finding the culprit, as far as ever,” added the DAP adviser.

Lim, who is also the Gelang Patah MP, called for an inquiry into the PKFZ scandal, saying that it “cannot just be left like that without any accountability whatsoever”.

Adding to Lim’s opinion, Pua said Dr Ling’s acquittal was the second failure to secure conviction of a major criminal case by the Attorney General this year.

Earlier this year, elite Special Action Unit officers, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, or the then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bodyguards were also controversially acquitted of murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. 

“The criticism then was similarly placed on the incompetence of the prosecutor, intentionally or otherwise in failing to summon key material witnesses,” Pua pointed out.

“Malaysians today cannot be blamed for their distrust of the government and becoming even more cynical that the ‘big fishes’ with strong ties with the ruling Barisan Nasional elite will never receive the justice they deserve. 

“And until such big fishes are caught and punished by the Najib administration, all the bells and whistles attached to the ‘reform’ programmes such as the ‘war against corruption’ will just be mere rhetoric without action,” he said.