party. However, he and the other 13 were all reinstated two months later with the support of 1,600 MCA members in an extraordinary general meeting. In November 1985, he was voted to be president of the MCA winning 76.9% of the votes cast, the largest majority in the party's history, and the first challenger since 1954 to win national leadership. In a memoir published by Robert Kuok, it was revealed that the MCA leadership approached Kuok to provide a bail payment for Tan in 1986. The amount paid by Kuok was S$20 million. Controversies and issues Pan-El crisis Tan remained a highly prominent member of the corporate sector, controlling numerous companies, including Sigma International, which had a 22.6% stake in Pan-Electric Industries (Pan-El), a Singaporean-based company. Pan-Electric entering receivership forced the closure of the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stock exchanges between 2 to 4 December 1985, to try to contain the fallout on leveraged stockbroking firms. On 12 December 1985, Tan signed an agreement that gave the troubled company S$ 20 million of funds through an interest-free loan and allowed it to resume trading. In 1986, he was charged in Singapore with abetting criminal breach of trust relating to the collapse of Pan-El. He was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment by Singapore High Court Justice Lai Kew Chai. In Lai's judgement, Lai said Tan's offences had "struck at the very heart, integrity, reputation and confidence of Singapore as a commercial city and financial centre". After his sentencing, Tan in 1987 relinquished his position as MCA President and MP for Gopeng, Perak that he just won in 1986 general election earlier. In 1988, Tan was also sentenced and imprisoned in Malaysia, declared a bankrupt, and reportedly owed over RM 400 million, at the time roughly equivalent to more than 100 million US dollars. He was ordered to pay RM1000 a month to the Official Assignee and the New Straits Times estimated it would take him 35,316 years to pay off his outstanding claims. In the mid-1990s, after full repayment, Tan was discharged from bankruptcy. In 2012, a book by the former chief prosecutor Glenn Knight revealed that Chief Justice Yong Pung How stated in a 1996 hearing that Tan Koon Swan had been wrongfully charged in the Pan-El case. However, the book has been heavily criticised as containing factual errors. Awards and recognition The World Chinese Economic Forum awarded