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Explainer | What are the China links in Malaysia’s graft charges against Lim Guan Eng?
- The former finance chief has been accused of soliciting bribes related to the US$1.5 billion Beijing-backed Penang Tunnel
- His supporters say those charges, along with another relating to a construction project allegedly linked to his wife, were trumped up by the government
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Malaysia’s former finance minister Lim Guan Eng was on Tuesday hit with a third corruption charge, for abuse of power in relation to a workers’ dormitory project, a day after he was charged for soliciting bribes regarding a China-linked US$1.5 billion undersea tunnel project.
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The politician was charged along with his wife Betty Chew and businesswoman Phang Li Koon, who have respectively been accused of money laundering and abetting Lim.
Members of his Democratic Action Party (DAP) as well as leaders from the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition, of which the DAP is a key component, turned up in force at the courthouse in Penang to show support.
Opposition politicians maintained that the charges have been trumped up by the ruling Perikatan Nasional government as reprisal for Pakatan Harapan’s own anti-corruption crackdown after it came to power via the ballot box in 2018.
Analysts and observers suggest legal moves against Pakatan Harapan, which lost power in February following an internal coup, may increase amid the looming possibility that the administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will look to shore up its position by calling snap polls, three years ahead of schedule.
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Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign by the DAP – which asked for donations of 10 ringgit (US$2.40) to help Lim pay his 1 million ringgit bail – brought in 2.9 million ringgit from the party’s supporters in just three days.
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