“The government cannot behave as crooks. The government is the fountain of law, if the government does not follow its own law, there is lawlessness,” lawyer William Leong told reporters today in front of Loke Hup temple in Segambut, where the protest was being held.
Shareholders of Kuantan-based Seruan Gemilang Makmur Sdn Bhd have been on a relay hunger strike since eight days ago to compel the Pahang government to pay some RM70 million in damages awarded to it in a court ruling.
As of yesterday, two of the ten men on hunger strike have collapsed and had to be sent to the hospital there.
“This hunger strike shows two things: one, the BN government does not respect the law; two, the BN government is bankrupt,” Leong said.
He then claimed that a failure by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intervene would prove that the country was bankrupt.
“Don’t talk about projects costing millions of dollars, like the MRT project and 1Development because you are bankrupt,” Leong said.
“So please stop, and let Pakatan Rakyat take over,” he added, prompting cheers and claps from those present.
In a May 2007 decision by the Kuantan High Court, Seruan Gemilang 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.
The award was retained as the Federal Court denied the state government’s application for leave to appeal against the May 2007 decision.
Seruan Gemilang then obtained a mandamus order from the Kuantan High Court to compel the mentri besar to settle the amount after its attempt to demand for the judgment sum with interest was unsuccessful.
However, on October 9, 2009, the mentri besar succeeded in his appeal at the Court of Appeal to set aside the mandamus order, prompting Seruan Gemilang to file for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
The Court of Appeal, in reversing the High Court’s decision, ruled that Seruan Gemilang 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.
Instead, it ruled that the state financial officer should be named as the party in an application for a mandamus order.