KUALA LUMPUR (June 1): Newly elected PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli had on Wednesday (June 1) confirmed receiving a writ of summons from Sapura Energy Bhd's former chief executive officer and managing director Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin.
The former Pandan member of Parliament (MP) said he received the summons at about 11.30pm at an event held in Kuantan last May 11.
"The writ confirmed that Messrs Zul Rafique & Partners, the solicitors for Shahril, had filed the suit in court following my statements in reaction to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak wanting the government to inject more funds to SEB (Sapura Energy).
"I have taken a stand to defend what I have stated in court as they are a matter of public interests," he added in a statement.
Since 2010, Rafizi said he had gone through 14 court cases from the Sessions Court to the Federal Court to defend the use of public funds.
He added a lot of the cases involve financial scandals like the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFC), 1Malaysia Development Bhd, Majlis Amanah Rakyat, Tabung Haji and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT).
"So far, I won all the suits that were brought against me in court. In the court process, the people can evaluate in detail the background of the financial scandal," the former Pandan MP said.
He added that he would be represented by a team of lawyers led by Ranjit Singh from Messrs Ranjit Singh & Yeoh who had been representing him for the past 11 years, in the NFC case up to the recent Federal Court decision.
Rafizi expects Shahril's suit is a start to determine the effort to ensure public investments through public investment institutions like Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP), Tabung Haji and others follow the required governance for public investments.
He added that in the economic structure where large amounts of public funds are invested in public listed companies, the governance in the usage of such funds must be tight to ensure that the public savings are not lost and these companies do not suffer huge losses.
Lately, Rafizi said the public investment institutions had suffered huge losses as a result of the problematic financial situations faced by companies like Sapura Energy and Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd.
"Although these are private companies where the majority are individual shareholders, the sudden losses faced had resulted in huge losses for the public.
"My return in the political arena is greeted by the first case brought by Shahril against me. Insya'allah (God willing) I would continue to voice out to protect the usage of public funds even if I have to face more court proceedings," he said in the statement.
Rafizi had opposed Najib's view of further bailing out Sapura Energy, claiming that public funds should not be used to protect the elite.