GLCs upset with Nazri for misleading explanation in Tajuddin Ramli saga
By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider
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.
