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By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Aug 9: It was all about the translation of specific paragraphs and phrases of the Facebook posting in today’s High Court hearing on the defamation case which Public Health, Housing and Local Government Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian has brought against Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chief Chong Chieng Jen.
During today’s cross examination on the 10th witness — Padawan Municipal Council chairman Tan Kai, the focus was on the accuracy of the translation of the Chinese phrases found in the Facebook posting of Chong.
At an instance, Chong’s counsel Michael Kong tried to establish that the term “收到” (shou dao) was absent in the posting while Tan disagreed, insisting that another phrase of that meaning did exist in the posting.
Another phrase of contention between the defend counsel and the 10th witness was “不理睬” (bu li cai), which Kong translated as “ignoring or ignore” but Tan understood it as “ignorant” which he believed held specific connotations that might not be fully captured in a direct translation if the context were to be taken into consideration.
The interaction between Kong and Tan then somehow turned to the term “茅厕” (mao ce) which Tan interpreted as “toilet” or “washroom” but Kong, in reference to a dictionary, said the translation was “latrine” or “outhouse”, in an attempt to prompt the witness to admit the discrepancies in translation.
Throughout the cross-examination, Tan’s understanding of Chong’s Facebook posting and his interpretation of specific phrases were placed under scrutiny.
There were further disagreement over translation and interpretation of other terms in other official documents, press releases and Facebook postings which touched on the management and distribution of the Covid-19 food aid funds.
Both parties managed to finish their examination on Tan Kai, resulting in the Court releasing Tan Kai as witness.
On April 21, 2020, Dr Sim started legal action against Chong who has alleged defamed Dr Sim over Covid-19 food aid allocations amounting to RM800,000 for four constituencies and also allocations for the constituencies of Padungan, Batu Lintang, Pending and Kota Sentosa with the total allocation of RM1 million for five constituencies.
Counsels Shankar Ram Asnani, Russell Lim and Yu Ying Ying, represented Dr Sim who is also Batu Kawa lawmaker and Sarawak United Peoples’ Party president while Chong Siew Chiang, Michael Kong, and Brenda Chong represented Chong who is also Pandungan lawmaker as well as Stampin MP. — DayakDaily
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