As LRT3 debate rages, critic recalls 'sudden death' of prosecution witness in Guan Eng graft case

The death of a prominent Penang property developer five years ago has added to a social media debate between supporters of DAP and former prime minister Najib Razak, with a loyalist of the jailed leader questioning Pakatan Harapan’s silence over the incident.

Ewe Swee Kheng was to appear as a prosecution witness in the Penang undersea tunnel graft case linked to DAP leader Lim Guan Eng, but fell from the 17th floor of a luxury apartment into a swimming pool in the early hours of Oct 5,2021.

Police ruled out foul play and classified the incident as “sudden death”.

But Eric See-To, one of Najib’s most prominent spokesmen on social media, said the incident has left many questions unanswered.

“The Johor state election campaign period is the best opportunity to demand an explanation from any PH [leader] who comes to visit to ask for votes. Take this opportunity to demand that PH open its mouth regarding this case if you want to find the truth, believe in justice, want to feel safer in this country and reject corruption,” Eric said.

The call comes amid a fierce online debate over the recently launched Shah Alam LRT3 line, one of Najib’s past projects which was subjected to a review by Lim as finance minister during PH’s short-lived first term in power.

The exchanges escalated after the Sultan of Selangor hit out at Lim and his former special officer Tony Pua for impeding the project despite its benefits to people in the state.

Referring to a budget revision by Lim in 2018 which affected the scale of the project, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah said the DAP duo “do not understand the purpose of constructing the LRT3 project, which is to meet the wants and needs of the people”.

Lim and Pua have since defended their decision, saying it saved RM9.7 billion in costs and denying that the project had been halted.

“We would like to reiterate the fact that these savings to the Malaysian government were not at the expense of the LRT passenger volume and functionality. These savings in turn allowed the current and future governments to reallocate funds to other welfare benefits for the rakyat and development expenditure,” they said.

DAP supporters and cybertroopers have hailed the duo for the cost-cutting decision, saying it was part of measures to weed out corruption during Najib’s era and was in the interest of transparency.

This led Eric to revisit Ewe’s death. He questioned why no PH or DAP leader has spoken about it.

“Why? Because the more they talk, the more uncomfortable questions will be raised,” he said.

Eric said Ewe was not an ordinary witness in the Penang undersea tunnel corruption trial, where Lim faces charges of soliciting bribes tied to the project when he was chief minister.

He cited the quick approval for the sale of several parcels of land to Ewe’s company by Consortium Zenith BUCG, the special-purpose vehicle created in 2012 to build the RM6.3 billion Penang Mega Infrastructure Project.

In March 2022, Mohd Nazri Mansor, an officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), read out Ewe’s final statement prepared just two months before his death.

In it, Ewe detailed how he had promised Lim to reward him with cash and property units in the “City of Dreams” project in return for securing state land.

Ewe also said Lim helped to ensure speedy approval for everything connected to the land, and that he wanted to come clean by exposing the truth.

Nazri told the court that Ewe had said he feared for his safety for speaking to MACC.

Meanwhile, Eric listed other circumstances surrounding Ewe’s death.

“The initial police report said that no alcohol or drugs were found in the autopsy. There was no suicide note. There was no history of depression or mental illness reported. The family also said that he behaved normally before the incident.

“I also did not see any open police report that said he was under debt pressure or facing financial problems. In fact, as one of the major property developers in Penang during the real estate boom, he was not poor.”

Earlier cost-cutting controversy

The LRT3 and Ewe’s death are not the only issues in which Lim's 22-month stint as finance minister has come under scrutiny.

It is also not the only time that the DAP adviser has faced allegations of blocking critical allocations in the name of cost-cutting.

Two months after Maszlee Malik resigned as education minister in 2020, his former aide accused the finance ministry led by Lim of blocking funds for school security services.

ZF Damir also claimed that during a meeting at the finance ministry attended by Maszlee, Lim and top ministry officials, someone he did not identify made a derogatory remark about requests for allocations to pay for security guard services hired by schools.

“There’s no need for a lot of people for school security. Rural schools should just find volunteers, the unemployed parents can volunteer,” Zamir quoted the person as saying.

However, the claim was denied by two DAP officers, who accused Zamir of stoking racial tensions.