Still room for redress at Court of Appeal, Guan Eng 'reminds' MCA veep

 

DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng has "reminded" MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng that there's still room for redress at the Court of Appeal in their defamation suit tussle.

Lim (above, left) was responding to Tan urging him to be "transparent" in the future after the latter's victory at the Penang High Court yesterday.

"Tan is wrong because he forgets that I’m only exercising my right under the Federal Constitution to seek redress and justice over a false allegation against me.

"Tan has refused to withdraw his false allegation that I had set conditions when granting funding for the building of a Chinese primary school in Johor.

“No proof or evidence was shown by Tan in court that I had set such a condition," Lim said in a statement today.

According to Lim, the Penang High Court had agreed with him that Tan had made a false allegation by ruling that the latter had failed in his defence of justification.

Court of Appeal will decide

"However, the Penang High Court dismissed the defamation suit against Tan due to other reasons. Does this allow false allegations to be made readily and that any responsibility can be avoided by merely including a request for an explanation?

"That is why I have instructed my lawyers to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal to decide on whether a false allegation is not necessarily defamatory as decided by the Penang High Court,” said Lim.

Yesterday, the Penang High Court dismissed a defamation suit filed by Lim against Tan and the English daily, The Star.

Judge Quay Chew Soon, in his decision, ruled that the comment made by Tan (above) in the opinion piece was not defamatory and ordered Lim to pay RM20,000 to Tan and RM30,000 to the newspaper in costs.

Lim filed the suit in March last year over Tan's opinion piece published in the “Letter to the Editor” section of The Star.

In the piece, he demanded Lim to explain himself over a claim that RM4 million from the federal treasury was given to a Chinese primary school in Johor, SJK(C) Kuek Ho Yao, came with a condition to change its name.

Following the defamation win, Tan urged Lim to be “transparent” in the future and not resort to the courts to “silence” critics. - Mkini