BOOK REVIEW | Joy and satisfaction in doing national service
BOOK REVIEW | It could be described as an odd coincidence -- over the past three months, three personalities from the legal fraternity have written and published books on differing subjects.
In February, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas published his memoir of sorts in My Story: Justice in the Wilderness. Last month, former Court of Appeal judge V C George published his collection of anecdotes and narratives in Stories I have told and some I haven’t.
On Thursday, senior lawyer Sitpah Selvaratnam will release her book titled Arrest of The Superyacht Equanimity: How Malaysia Reclaimed What Was Hers.
The book traces in detail the process from the time Sitpah was given the brief until the yacht entered Malaysian waters, seized on behalf of the government until it was sold and money in the hands of the government nine months later.
There was no dearth of critics when she was first appointed to lead...
BOOK REVIEW | It could be described as an odd coincidence – over the past three months, three personalities from the legal fraternity have written and published books on differing subjects.
In February, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas published his memoir of sorts in My Story: Justice in the Wilderness. Last month, former Court of Appeal judge V C George published his collection of anecdotes and narratives in Stories I have told and some I haven’t.
On Thursday, senior lawyer Sitpah Selvaratnam will release her book titled Arrest of The Superyacht Equanimity: How Malaysia Reclaimed What Was Hers.
The book traces in detail the process from the time Sitpah was given the brief until the yacht entered Malaysian waters, seized on behalf of the government until it was sold and money in the hands of the government nine months later.
There was no dearth of critics when she was first appointed to lead the recovery and sale and the long-overdue riposte appears in the book: “Clients choose lawyers they can trust. This case was no different. The AG was the legal face of the client – the new government of Malaysia. He chose me as the lawyer he trusted for this brief; given my peer-acknowledged experience, training and skills in maritime law.
“With the adrenaline rush and heightened enthusiasm of serving my country in the biggest shipping brief ever to hit Malaysia, I prepared the arrest papers, wholly unsuspecting that criticism that was to be mounted by quarters opposing my appointment on the grounds of conflict of interest as the (then) AG was my former partner.”
Seizing an aircraft or a seacraft is not as simple as it has been perceived. It comes nowhere near seizing a speedboat or a small yacht on behalf of a bank from a delinquent borrower. Furthermore, unlike cars which could be seized and parked in backyards awaiting a buyer or be sold online, the sale of seafaring vessels involves humongous paperwork – from applications to the court, a writ of seizure to a writ of sale and others.
(Just to digress: When police said it seized a Learjet 60 registered with Wijaya Baru, the parent company of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the PKFZ contractor in 2009, former AG Abdul Gani Patail scoffed at the move and in jest quipped if they had put the aircraft in chains!)
The Equanimity was fugitive businessperson Jho Low’s personal yacht built for US$250 million (RM1.03 billion), using stolen 1MDB funds. It was seized by Indonesian authorities in February 2018, and handed over to Malaysia in August that year, three months after the Pakatan Harapan government was formed.
Eleven chapters chronicle the process and at the end of each, the author has notations in the form of “maritime time lessons”.
We are always advised to read the fine print to make ourselves aware of the specific terms, conditions, restrictions, limitations, etc, of any agreement, contract, or other documents. And the seizure and sale of the Equanimity is no exception.
Hence to trace the process, the author has added 17 court documents – applications, affidavits, orders, etc, in the form of appendices – many of which attest to the complexity of the process. One document provides information on how the money used to buy the Equanimity was stolen from 1MDB funds, then layered using several bank transactions.
The process from arresting the ship until it was sold took nine months and Sitpah describes the anxiety, unease and apprehension of the entire team in every move related to the arrest and sale of the ship.
The ship was eventually sold to the Genting Group for US$126 million – about half the price and giving critics and detractors more ammunition to attack the government and the AG.
Unknown to them, an entirely transparent process had taken place. Sitpah and her team spent time, effort and money seeking out the best for the government. They appointed brokers and met potential buyers. Knowing the notorious past of Equanimity’s previous owner and the prevailing market conditions and rates, many were looking at a quickfire sale at a rock-bottom price.
The yacht had to be sold fast. Despite not being on the high seas, the maintenance for the short stays at Port Klang and Langkawi cost money. Salaries of the captain and the crew had to be made; they had to be fed; the yacht had to be maintained and other ancillary costs.
Upon the sale of the Equanimity, Thomas in a media release in May 2019 broke down the operational costs incurred over nine months as RM12.7 million and payment of RM1.6 to a firm of solicitors and RM360,000 to a counsel.
While the legal process is the core contents of the book, there are many salient takeaways in simple language – transparency and accountability to keep the costs to the minimum.
A four-tiered system was set. “The captain and chief engineer of the Equanimity, together with the managers, would identify what was required, and provide the legal team with options available on maintenance, repairs and parts.”
Sitpah writes: “The legal team would recommend the most effective and cost-efficient option to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which was managing the finances for the new board of the 1MDB companies.
“Upon PWC’s clearance, the AG would review the options recommended and the cost impacted, at the next level. Once approved by the AG, the court-appointed sheriff would provide the final vetting, before the item was remitted to the 1MDB board for payment.”
Sitpah never collected a sen in fees for her work and provides an implicit explanation.
“So why did I agree to do the work pro bono? My fees based on time spent would have exceeded RM1 million in time costs, apart from my expenses incurred in Hong Kong and London, all personally borne. But some experiences in life are priceless.
“Putting a price tag to it can diminish its meaning. The entire experience of working on Equanimity added a new dimension to my purpose in life. I was but a tiny jigsaw puzzle in the 1MDB saga, but I derived tremendous satisfaction in playing my role as that little piece. Being part of that jigsaw, itself was a gift. No further remuneration was required.”
Perhaps this would silence detractors who would be lining up in police stations to make one report or another.
While Thomas and George wrote at length about their childhood and ancestry, Sitpah says little about herself except that she has over 30 years of experience in the legal profession. In passing, she says that the multi-racial team involved in the seizure and scale of the superyacht was led by a Ceylon Tamil.
It is not exactly academic work but it will be a useful book for those interested in laws and processes that cover how a vessel of that magnitude that had sailed the seven seas was brought under the hammer.
The book can be pre-ordered at RM88 here or here. All proceeds will go to charitable causes.
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who has followed the 1MDB saga and related events and the antics of its players and protagonists. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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