KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The retired soldier claiming soldiers here have been cheated out of their rightful salaries since 1963 has yet to appoint a lawyer in his civil suit against former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and all six Malaysian prime ministers since independence.
“I have yet to serve summonses on the respondents. I will be appointing a lawyer this week,” said Tengku Zainal Abidin Tengku Yusoff, whose case was up for mention in the High Court here today.
Tengku Zainal Abidin, who claims to be filing the suit on behalf of 403 other retired soldiers, has claimed the armed forces were discriminated against because they were the only service excluded when a royal commission was set up in February 1964 to review civil service pay.
The commission was set up following the formation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963 to unify the public service of all states by way of pay and conditions of service review, including the Singapore Civil Service.
He is asking for RM3 million per plaintiff, as well as any other relief the court deems suitable.
Judge Datuk V.T. Singham set March 21 for case management and told the former logistics staff officer he must apply for leave to summon parties outside Malaysia’s jurisdiction.
“If the plaintiff wants to serve a writ of summons to the former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and the Republic of Singapore, he must file an application within three weeks from today to serve the writ outside of this jurisdiction,” he said.
Tengku Zainal Abidin also claimed that Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, the prime minister and defence minister in 1971, had “fraudulently” presented the armed forces pay scheme as a British expatriate pay scheme, resulting in a drastic cut in the salaries of officers.
This is the 58-year-old’s third attempt to get his case heard after it was withdrawn for lack of evidence in 1995 and in 2001, when it was struck out because the case was time-barred.
This is the first time he is naming Lee, who was Singapore chief minister from 1963 until 1965, as a defendant.
Other than Lee, every Malaysian prime minister, every chief secretary to the government, every defence minister, every secretary-general of the Defence Ministry since 1963 as well as the Malaysian and the Singaporean governments were named as defendants in this case.
