news feature

If there is one lesson that businessman John Soh Chee Wen has learnt by now, it is probably that quid pro quo is not always a happy formula, but rather a double-edged sword which could cut deep wounds in partnerships, especially one which mixes politics with business.

This would not have made sense to him during 'the days of power, glory, and exhilaration', when Soh the 'corporate wolf' was making millions of ringgit in stock market and was riding high as a young Turk in the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the second largest component party in the ruling coalition.

His success reached great heights with the help of the MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik, who is also the transport minister.

Who could have foreseen then that the duo's relationship will fall apart along with the country's bubble economy during the 1997 regional financial crisis?

Soh was soon pushed to a corner and took the first step in spilling the beans in a police report that his lawyers drafted in early 1998.

It was never filed but was widely circulated among the local media and posted only on the Internet.

Soh told malaysiakini , "I did not lodge the report because I was hoping for all this unnecessary madness to end and that [our] close relationship could be rebuilt.

"But it was not to be because Ling chose a stand to cut off [links] with me."

The document contains Soh's full account of how his symbiotic relationship with Ling's family — including the latter's wife Ena and their eldest son Hee Leong — ended, leaving nothing but bitterness among all parties involved.

Close friend

According to Soh's 'report', he became a close friend of the Ling couple since the early 1990s when they entrusted him with the task of grooming Hee Leong, who was at that time "heading nowhere and languishing in the jungles of Sarawak as a mere project manager of (timber tycoon) Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing".

It was a business deal for Soh, nothing more, nothing less. In return for propelling Hee Leong into the corporate scene, "Ling promised that he would appoint me into the MCA presidential council and central committee. I agreed and Ling did his part.

"In keeping my promise to Ling, I took Hee Leong along in many of my business dealings in order to show him the ropes and had also introduced him to many corporate and financial figures," he said.

Hee Leong was also appointed as a director in two companies controlled by Soh's nominees. One company provided free memorabilia for various MCA functions and paid the bills Hee Leong incurred at two clubs.

The company, said Soh, even reimbursed the expenses, including first-class hotel accommodations, and a full-time driver who was carrying out political and personal duties for Ena Ling.

Later, the Lings expressed interest to acquire, and eventually got, a 15 percent stake in United Traders Securities Sdn Bhd from business mogul Vincent Tan of the Berjaya Group.

Their appetite then grew bigger. The Lings wanted Berjaya Industrial Bhd, a subsidiary under the group which was later renamed Rekapacific Bhd.

"I believe Ling paved the way by speaking to Tan.... Meetings were held in Ling's office at the Transport Ministry and at his house. There were also faxes of various drafts of agreements sent from Ling's office.

"The Lings looked to me for funding. The vehicle which the Lings chose for the acquisition of Rekapacific was Linksun Avenue Sdn Bhd, a name which thrilled them very much as it signified who Hee Leong was," said Soh who claimed to have provided an initial sum of RM6 million for the downpayment and raised another RM14 million subsequently.

'Whiz kid'

When the deal was wrapped up in 1997, it turned out to be a historic one. Overnight, Hee Leong became the "whiz kid" in local business circle at the age of 27.

And so Soh's tie with the Ling family grew much closer. "We came to the understanding that in any deal I shall cut the Lings in. In return for their assistance, we would share whatever profits arising therefrom.

"The relationship was of some sort of joint venture or partnership in a loose sense."

Another example of such 'joint ventures' was the purchase of shares in Uniphoenix Corporation Bhd (UCB), an engineering and construction firm.

"Ling had approached the late Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad of the Hicom group to facilitate the deal. Hee Leong had informed us that Tan Sri owes Ling a lot of favours as Ling had helped him with the Intrakota issue."

Intrakota is a major inter-city public bus operating consortium in Klang Valley and in the early days of its inception in Sept 1994 faced numerous complaints from the public over its inept services. Ling, as the transport minister, had the responsibility to oversee the proper functioning of the service providers.

In order to launch Hee Leong into the super echelon of the corporate world, Ling was prepared to use his influence as the transport minister to add value to his son's companies by awarding them suitable projects such as ports, said Soh.

Another company, Promet, where Soh was the chief executive officer was meanwhile awarded MCA construction projects.

Soh went on to allege that on one occasion, Ena had demanded that he "sell to her some UCB shares at a cheap price of RM5 each" and that he must later "repurchase the shares at a higher price" so that she could get a handsome profit of some RM3.8 million.

However, due to the bad market conditions, Soh said he could only afford to buy back some of Ena's UCB shares at RM16 each and this, he added, "could have contributed to the eventual fallout between the Lings and me".

ACA probe

It was around that time that opposition party DAP lodged a report against Ling with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).

And what was Ling's reaction?

"He asked me to assist him in not implicating him in the ACA investigations and to omit stating both Ling and his wife's roles and the benefits derived by them from the previous deals," recalled Soh.

He said he abided by that request out of "fear of losing my posts in MCA".

But, "in hindsight, I regret my doing so and I intend to put things right by disclosing the true picture to the ACA in due course", he said.

Soh later stepped down from all his party posts in June 1998 when Ling asked for his resignation without explanation.

Tomorrow: Part 2