By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Dec 10: The Sarawak government has appealed the decision of the High Court that ruled in favour of Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh over the defamatory suit brought by the Sarawak government.
High Court Judicial Commissioner (JC) Christopher Chin Soo Yin today found that the plaintiff was wrongly named as plaintiff and should have been limited to or included the Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri (MMKN) and hence the locus standi of the plaintiff was not established.
In addition, JC Christopher also said that the impugned words do not defame the plantiff and therefore dismissed the plantiff’s writ and statement of claim with a cost of RM30,000 to the defendant subject to allocatur.
The case ended after a 10-day trial with 7 witnesses from the plantiff and 3 from the defendant.
On June 10, 2020 the plaintiff filed a Statement of Claim at the Sibu High Court Registry, suing the defendant for defamation arising from the content of the defendant’s reply statement. The words complained of the Plaintiff’s Statement of Claim are:
“On or about the 9th May 2020, the Defendant in his capacity as president of PSB issued or caused to be issued and published a Press Statement, a copy whereof is hereto annexed as “Appendix A”, to the media or newspapers circulating in the State of Sarawak and posted on Facebook containing, inter alia, the following defamatory words about and/or concerning the Plaintiff, namely _
(a) “…the Sarawak Government owes an explanation to the DUN and the people of Sarawak why Petronas was allowed to pay only RM2 billion when it owed RM3.8 billion. Why the massive discount?”.
(b) “More importantly, what deal was struck behind closed doors between the GPS Government and Petronas for Sarawak to give up its petroleum rights in exchange for a meagre payment of RM2 billion which Petronas was already obligated to pay under the Court Order? Sarawak received nothing in exchange for the waiver of our petroleum rights.”
(c) “I have posed this question which must have been in the minds of all Sarawakians; Is this GPS government now silent because its MPs are in the Cabinet of the Federal Government”.
On July 2020, the Sarawak government had commenced libel action against Wong for alleging in a press statement that it had given national oil corporation Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) a massive discount on State Sales Tax (SST) on petroleum products and given up the State’s rights on petroleum for a meagre sum of RM2billion as Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) MPs are now members of the Federal Cabinet.
The Sarawak government was represented by the Sarawak Legal Advisor Dato Sri JC Fong, state legal officers Mohamad Adzrul Adzlan and Oliver Chua and Anisa Jamil. The defendant was represented by counsels George Lo, Jonathan Tay, Clement Wong, Thien Siaw Lien, and Yvonne Sia. — DayakDaily
