Court contempt aplenty after ex-IGP exhausted appeal in Hannah Yeoh’s “Christian Nation” case

 

SUCH was the undesirable reality as Madani haters or DAP bashers fumed at the Federal Court’s decision yesterday (July 14) to disallow former top cop Tan Sri Musa Hassan from appealing the appellant court’s decision in the defamation case filed by Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh against him over evangelism claims.

It started soon after three Federal Court judges led by Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang dismissed the 74-year-old ex- inspector-general of police’s (IGP) leave application after finding the basis of the application failed to meet the threshold required.

The presiding judges who also included Datuk Che Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azmi Ariffin also unanimously held that the case is fact-sensitive and of no public importance. They also ordered Musa to pay Yeoh RM50,000 in costs.

All in all, Musa must now pay the DAP deputy secretary-general RM250,000 in court-ordered damages.

Recall that Yeoh filed the defamation suit against Musa on July 3, 2020 following the latter’s speech at a forum entitled “Current Discourse on the Hat Yai Peace Accords: Did the Communist Party of Malaya surrender?” organised by the Universiti Teknologi MARA’s (UiTM) Institute of Malay Rulers.

Disrespecting the judiciary

This follows his comments that the now Federal Territories Minister had written her book Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey to turn Malaysia into a “negara Kristian” (Christian nation), had links with evangelists and Jews to damage Islam and Malaysia and put her personal interests above the nation’s.

Yeoh, in her claims, alleged that Musa’s speech contained defamatory statements that were wholly untrue, disparaging, vexatious, spurious, fallacious and without basis.

A browse at the comment section of the Malaysiakini BM’s Facebook post of the above report found profound disgruntlement among the opposition-slant faction over the Federal Court’s decision.

One commenter lamented at how “not an ordinary former cop but an ex-IGP could even lose out to DAP” in a court battle. “DAP should be buried alive in the next GE (general election)” was his call for action.

Another contended that although the court’s decision was in Yeoh’s favour, “outside the court, the society at large viewed DAP very negatively”.

This was when elements of contempt of court started to creep in as one commenter claimed that the so-called SB (Special Branch) “had already begun to investigate this creature when Musa was still in the police force”.

“SB’s reports are rarely wrong but just that she holds a position of power in the government,” he rued despite being told by fellow netizens that “the court arrived at a decision based on the facts as opposed to listening to the voices of the majority who supported the plaintiff or dependent”.

Another dispelled the notion that there was “a factual error on the part of the ex-IGP given reliability of the feedback from his professional intelligence but the case was lost on technicality”.

Sadly, many ordinary folks have the impression that “the former IGP has done a lot of service to the country as compared to the minister who suddenly showed up to create chaos in the country”.

“Wait for the GE to send her to the wormhole,” he mocked.

Another wanted “BN (Barisan Nasional) to win so we can ‘wash’ the existing judges” – an insinuation that the judiciary is not independent and impartial.

Some openly accused judges as “Madani lap*ogs” for lopsided verdicts such as drunk drivers who caused crashes found innocent by the court of law (thankfully, some netizens tried to correct the commenter).

One claimed that “there’re many unfair judges around” whom he likened to football referees who are not honest and biased in their judgment. “Often there are disputes between players, etc. Apparently, he was bribed,” he jibed.

Worse still, one commenter pointed to the likelihood of judges having been hand-poicked by DAP.

Well, that is seemingly the price one has to pay for allowing one’s political affiliation to cloud one ‘s mind from determining the right from the wrong.

The bottom-line is as one Malaysiakini subscriber put it with a tinge of sarcasm, “he (Musa) would have been very happy enjoying his retirement and his new-found love instead of having to cough out 250K!”. –  Focus Malaysia