The 55-year-old man went on the hunger strike in Padang Kota Damansara here and threatened to burn himself to death if the Pahang government failed to pay the RM70 million in damages awarded to his company by the courts.
Gan is an investor in Kuantan-based logging firm Seruan Gemilang Makmur Sdn Bhd which won the court damages.
As he was taken away, Gan said he would return upon being discharged from Sungai Buloh Hospital.
This was his second hunger strike.
In September last year, shareholders of Seruan Gemilang Makmur went on a relay hunger strike for about 10 days, resulting in two people collapsing and having to be sent to hospital for treatment.
Former company manager and director Lee Sin, who is still a shareholder, told The Malaysian Insider that Gan recently undergone angioplasty, and has hypertension and diabetes as well.
Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, who is also a PKR vice-president, told reporters today that the Selangor state government has no power to do anything in relation to the Pahang state government.
“At this point we can only give him moral support. Legally they have done everything possible. They can’t do more,” he said.
In a May 2007 decision by the Kuantan High Court, Seruan Gemilang Makmur was awarded RM37,127,471.60 in damages with eight per cent interest per annum backdated to December 31, 2000 after it won a breach of contract suit against the Pahang government and the state forestry director.
The court ruled that state government and the state Forestry Department were in breach a of logging concession contract concerning the extraction of timber logs from a 10,000-acre plot of Umno-owned land in Mukim Bebar, Pekan district.
Seruan Gemilang Makmur obtained a mandamus order from the Kuantan High Court to compel Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob to settle the amount after its attempt to demand for the judgment sum with interest was unsuccessful.
The Court of Appeal, in reversing the Kuantan High Court’s decision, ruled that Seruan Gemilang Makmur had wrongly named the mentri besar as the respondent in the judicial review proceeding in the High Court to demand for the judgment sum from the state government.
Lee Sin told reporters yesterday that they are in the process of naming the state financial officer in a new application for a mandamus order.
“Today we repeat our call to the Pahang Mentri Besar Adnan Yaakob to immediately take action and settle it quickly.
“Stop prolonging the agony of the company and the shareholders, especially Mr. Gan,” Sivarasa said.
Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, who is also a DAP national vice-chairman, said this issue was a mockery to the judiciary system.
“The state government of Pahang has failed to live up to expectations. The minimal expectation of honouring and respecting a court decision.
“I hope his (Gan) action of extreme desperation … will gain the attention of the government.”
The DAP’s Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said he did not encourage protests that were harmful including to the protestors themselves.
