By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, April 19: The lawyer who did the merger exercise involving Supreme Consolidated Resources Sdn Bhd and the acquisition by Hubline Berhad of Layang-Layang Aerospace Sdn Bhd testified that the transactions were legitimate and proper business dealings.
The lawyer, Chew Pok Oi, is the 13th witness called by the plaintiff in the defamation suit filed by Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations president Dato Richard Wee against Democratic Action Party’s Michael Kong over an allegedly defamatory Facebook post dated July 21, 2020.
The hearing took place before High Court Judge Dr Alwi Abdul Wahab.
During the examination-in-chief by the plaintiff’s counsel Shankar Ram Asnani, Chew confirmed that there was nothing out of ordinary or any hanky-panky during the merger exercise and proper business dealings was done at arms’ length between willing parties in those transactions.
“To best of my knowledge, I can say that there are absolutely no improper dealings in so far as the two transactions were concerned.”
During cross-examination, when asked if merely mentioning the name of Party Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) leader Dato Ibrahim Baki with a businessman will imply a meaning of cronyism, he said when read in the context of the said Facebook post as a whole, it does give that implied meaning of cronyism.
When Chong Chieng Jen, the counsel for the defendant asked Chew whether the latter agreed that in respect of Layang-Layang Aerospace Sdn Bhd which was mentioned in the defendant’s Facebook post, it maked no mention whatsoever about the acquisition process of Layang-Layang but mainly touched only on the business of Layang-Layang, Chew said if confine to the acquisition process, he agreed it was not mentioned.
The counsel also asked in respect of Supreme Consolidated Resource Berhad as mentioned in the defendant’s Facebook post, there was no mention whatsoever about the acquisition process of Supreme Consolidated Resource Berhad by Hubline, Chew agreed but he said guilt by association with the allegation of connection with the Gabungan Part Sarawak (GPS) government and PBB politicians was still there.
Wee was represented by counsels Shankar Ram, Yu Ying Ying and Russel Lim whereas Kong was represented by counsels Chieng Jen, Sim Kiat Leng and Brenda Chong. — DayakDaily
