GEORGE TOWN, Oct 30 — A Chinese national believed that he need only “invest” RM400,000 to apply for a legal Malaysian passport, a Penang High Court heard today during the hearing of the sale of MyKad case.
Wang De Qun, 58, said a middle person in Thailand, named Liu Ge, had initially told him to “invest” RM600,000 to apply for a Malaysian passport.
“I sent my finance manager to negotiate with Liu and after some negotiations, it was agreed that I pay RM400,000,” he said during examination in full by Deputy Public Prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim.
Wang, who is a businessman from Shandong, China, said he was travelling between Malaysia and China frequently as he had planned to set up a business in Malaysia.
“I wanted to apply for legal documentations to allow me to travel easily into and out of Malaysia so I asked around about how to get such documents, like how I obtained a Vanuatu passport as a business investor in that country,” he told the court.
Wang was testifying during trial of a Penang National Registration Department (NRD) assistant director and five others charged with a total of 32 separate charges of falsifying Malaysian birth certificates and identity cards (MyKad) and selling these documents to foreigners.
Wang said a friend had connected him to Liu in June last year and Liu had reassured him that he will help him apply for a legal Malaysian passport to enable him to enter and leave the country easily.
Liu later connected Wang with Datuk Lai Chin Wah, one of the six suspects in the dock.
“My finance manager paid a deposit of about RM200,000 to Liu in Hong Kong dollars and renminbi and I believed about RM100,000 was paid to Lai,” he said.
Wang claimed Lai had made subsequent arrangements with him for him to obtain legal documentations to travel in and out of Malaysia.
He told the court that he came in December last year and was brought to a “government building” where he was told to sign some documents as part of the process in his application for a Malaysian passport.
“I was told to sign some documents but I can’t read English or Malay so I don’t know what it is but I am sure it is a government office as there were officers in uniform there,” he said.
He added that after signing the documents, he was brought back to his hotel and a few hours later, someone brought documents to Lai, one of which was a card with Wang’s picture on it.
Wang denied knowing what the card was except that it had his picture on it and claimed that he assumed it was “proof” that he had applied for the Malaysian passport.
He said Lai then told him that he could not get the passport just yet so he went back to China.
“Liu told me to come back in March to collect my passport so I made an appointment with Lai then,” he said.
He said Lai had given him the card with his picture on it but he did not know what it was except that he needed the card to apply for the passport.
Wang then went on to describe the whole process he went through in applying for the passport until he was issued one under the name “Ewe Chor Beng”.
He claimed that he did not know the passport was not in his name until he was arrested at the Penang International Airport.
Wang was arrested in early August this year at the PIA for possession of forged documents and is serving a three-month jail term currently.
In the dock are Penang NRD assistant director Mohd Faizul Arifin, 34; Mohd Faizal Tan Abdullah, 66, Yap Cheng Wah, 43, Loh Chan Cheong, 34, Chien Guan Chai, 36 and Lai, 56.
They were separately charged under Section 26E of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Act 670) for allegedly selling birth certificates and identity cards and fraudulently issuing birth certificates and identity cards to several foreigners including the one issued to Wang under the name “Ewe Chor Beng”.
Wang has also positively identified five of the suspects, except for Chien, whom he claimed to have dealt and met with especially when he was brought to apply for documentation.
