Thesun 2009-07-23 Page04 Businessman Sues Cops Govt For Breach Of Contract

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theSun

| THURSDAY JULY 23 2009

news without borders

Businessman sues cops, govt for breach of contract by Tan Yi Liang [email protected]

KUALA LUMPUR: A supplier of tents is suing the Royal Malaysian Police and the Home Ministry for breach of contract that allegedly occurred between 2006 and 2008. In the suit filed at the High Court yesterday, Canvas Sdn Bhd named the logistics department of the Royal Malaysian Police, the Royal Malaysian Police, the secretary-general of the Home Ministry and the government as defendants. Canvas chairman T. Mohd Apandi T. Mat’s lawyer Muhd Azmi Talib Azmi told reporters after the filing at the Duta court complex that the breach of contract occurred when the police introduced new criteria into the original contract signed with Apandi to supply multipurpose tents to the force. He said Apandi had entered into a contract worth RM800,000 with the government to supply multipurpose extendable tents from Oct 1, 2006 until Sept 30, 2008. “In July 2008, the RMP introduced a new procedure which was not part of the original contract, called a pre-delivery inspection.”

Azmi said that his client tried his best to comply with the demands. “My client had to accommodate the new procedure to provide the product for the predelivery inspection, which is not within the contract,” he said. “Due to this, my client has been bounced around like a ball, from the Home Ministry to the police and another government agency, the Science and Technology Research and Development Institute for Defence (Stride), until the contract expired.” Azmi said the government refused to pay for the contract when it expired and that his client had tried to settle the matter out of court. “When the contract expired, they said they couldn’t pay for the deliveries as the contract had expired. We tried to settle the matter out of court, but failed to get any good feedback from them,” the lawyer said. “My client has suffered monetary and business loss as a result of the new procedure and bureaucracy.” Apandi is claiming RM543,333 in unpaid arrears, special damages of RM964,000.87, aggravated damages and punitive damages of about RM4 million.

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DAP, Gerakan criticise Dr M’s blog post by Tim Leonard [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s latest blog post kaki dalam kasut (leg in the shoe), urging non-Malays to put themselves in the shoes of Malays, has drawn severe criticism. The DAP yesterday lodged a police report against Mahathir for stoking racial sentiments and Gerakan Youth has also criticised the posting. DAP’s publicity secretary Tiew Way Keng, who lodged the report at Petaling Jaya police headquarters, said: “Dr Mahathir’s article has made out non-Malays to be ‘robbers’ by stealing what is owned by the Malays. “This kind of statement from the former prime minister is totally against the concept of 1Malaysia which is being promoted (by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak). “He should not be playing the racial card or making racial remarks at this stage.” Mahathir, in his blog chedet.cc, wrote that non-Malays must put themselves in the shoes of Malays to learn of the sacrifices made for the country. He wrote that the non-Malays are better off than the Malays in many ways, especially when it comes to standard of living as many Malays are still poor. He also touched on the distribution of equity and social engineering to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.

Gerakan Youth deputy chairman Oh Tong Keong said Mahathir’s recent statement that non-Malays, particularly the Chinese, are the real masters of the country, is disappointing, unnecessary and uncalled for. “To say that the Chinese are the real masters of the country reflects a simplistic yet distorted understanding of Malaysian society,” Oh said. “This may provoke sentiments among the Malays in that they may feel exploited and oppressed, and the Chinese in that they may feel that they are superior and smarter. These two presumptions are unfounded and baseless, promoting nothing but the primordial tendency to resort to the dangerous communalism. “In a multi-racial society like Malaysia, such observation that the Chinese are the real masters of the country is extremely irresponsible.” Mahathir had defended the country’s affirmative policy and claimed that the non-Malays, particularly the Chinese, are the real masters of the country. Oh also took Mahathir to task for saying that 39 years after the introduction of the NEP, the bumiputra share of the corporate pie remained at just 20% while the Chinese share stood at 50% even though they consisted of just 26% of the population. “Has he (Mahathir) forgotten that out of the 39 years after the NEP was introduced, he oversaw 28 years of its implementation?” he asked.

Prosecution in Anwar’s case gets interim stay of execution by S. Tamarai Chelvi [email protected]

Model: Whip me as soon as possible pg 6

KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in the sodomy case of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was yesterday granted an interim stay of execution on the High Court’s order to furnish certain documents to the defence team pending disposal of its stay application. High Court Judge Datuk Mohammad Zabidin Diah, in granting the stay, fixed July 24 for the hearing of the application. The prosecution had filed an application for a stay of execution order on Tuesday as well as a certificate of urgency for the matter to be heard urgently. Earlier, Anwar’s lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad said the defence wanted to file an affidavit-in-reply on certain paragraphs on a supporting affidavit filed by the prosecution together with the stay application. “We need to put forward our version of what will happen if the stay is granted.” He also requested that Anwar be excused from attending Friday’s hearing of the application, which the judge allowed. Amer later told reporters that the

briefs Indonesian escapes gallows after 11 years in jail PUTRAJAYA: An Indonesian man, who had been on death row for 11 years for a drug trafficking offence, broke down in tears after the Federal Court pronounced him a free man yesterday. Agus Agil, 48, a carpenter from Bali, left his wife and two children in May 1998 for a holiday in Malaysia but was apprehended by police at the then Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah International Airport in Subang when departing for home. He claimed the methamphetamine which was found concealed on both his thighs underneath his trousers was for his own consumption. However, the High Court and Court of Appeal applied the presumption of trafficking under the Dangerous Drugs Act for amounts exceeding 50gm and sentenced him to death. The Federal Court yesterday allowed Agus’s appeal to set aside the death sentence and instead jailed him five years after substituting

defence received the copy of the application only on Tuesday. In the supporting affidavit to its application for a stay of execution, the prosecution stated that: the impact and implication of the order of the High Court on July 16 to provide witness statements will jeopardise investigations and prosecution not only in Anwar’s case but also in other cases in Malaysia. the stay order is needed to avoid the prosecution’s appeal to the Court of Appeal from becoming “academic” as it involves important questions of law. (On Monday, the prosecution filed an appeal against the High Court decision, which will be heard in the Court of Appeal) the witnesses’ statements under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code involve questions of law, which need to be decided by the Court of Appeal before the proceedings are heard in the High Court. Anwar is charged with sodomising his former personal aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at Desa Damansara Condominium on June 26 last year.

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the trafficking charge with one of possession. He walked out a free man as the jail term was to run from the date of his arrest on May 16, 1998.

MD charged with criminal breach of trust KLANG: The managing director of a chemical manufacturing company was charged in the sessions court here yesterday with committing five counts of criminal breach of trust involving a total of RM400,000. Datuk Ng Let Pew pleaded not guilty when the charges were read out to him by a court interpreter before judge Yong Zarida Sazali. Ng is alleged to have committed criminal breach of trust involving RM50,000 belonging to Syarikat Thiam Too (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd located at Lot 15795, Batu 5 1/2, Jalan Kebun, Kampung Jawa here on Jan 8, 2004. He is also alleged to have repeated the offence on Jan 28, 2004 (RM50,000); April 18, 2005 (RM100,000); Nov 8, 2005 (RM100,000) and Aug 1, 2006 (RM100,000). Yong Zarida set bail at RM100,000 with two sureties and fixed Aug 28 for re-mention. – Bernama