KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today threatened to file a defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia for implying that he had lied in his tiff with State Development Officer (SDO) Nik Ali Mat Yunus.
The Malay daily, in an article published today, implied that Lim (picture) had lied when he complained he had not been given a seat during a function by supplying picture evidence proving otherwise.
DAP sources have, however, claimed that in the first place, the chief minister had never once made such a complaint.
Lawyer Karpal Singh confirmed to The Malaysian Insider that a notice of action was sent this evening via fax and registered mail to the publication’s editor and the publisher and printer of Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd.
He said that the letter compelled the Malay daily to apologise or retract its article “Siapakan sebenarnya ‘lidah biawak’?” (Who is the forked tongue now?), which was published today.
“There were some elements of defamation in the article. If they fail to retract the article or issue an apology, we will sue them for defamation,” he told The Malaysian Insider today.
Karpal said the publication must respond to the letter within one week of receipt.
In the article, the daily published a picture it had obtained from an unnamed source supposedly proving that the chief minister had been wrong when he allegedly complained that Nik Ali had failed to provide him with a seat during the launch of the Penang Hill railway last October.
The picture showed Lim seated on a one-seater sofa beside Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.
The article quoted the source as saying that the picture was proof that Lim’s claim was inaccurate and that the chief minister was just making up stories for the sake of painting Nik Ali as a bad person.
The source also claimed that despite arriving 10 minutes late for the function, Lim’s seat had not been given to someone else.
“If before this Guan Eng called the SDO Nik Ali Mat Yunus uncivilised names like ‘lidah biawak’, then this picture tells the true story,” it was said in the article.
The debacle between Lim and Nik Ali began when Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhamad Farid Saad alleged recently that illegal sand excavation was taking place at a plot in Kampung Kenanga, which had been earmarked for a government polytechnic.
Lim had responded to the allegation by saying that the state would not be able to probe the matter as Nik Ali had not been co-operative.
He had accused Nik Ali of refusing to respect the principles of accountability by answering queries on the Penang Botanical Garden, the illegal sand excavation at the Balik Pulau polytechnic and how federal projects were being carried out without approval from the local councils.
The accusation escalated into a verbal war between Nik Ali and Lim with the federal officer retaliating by calling Lim “insolent, uncivilised and a coward” during an Umno function.
Since then, other leaders including DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and even Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan have joined the fray, turning the spat into an all-out battle between the civil service and the DAP.
Mohd Sidek has so far accused Lim of being “excessive” in his remarks and has given his assurance that Nik Ali would not be reprimanded for criticising a chief minister.
Lim yesterday retaliated by accusing Mohd Sidek of preferring to protect “little Napoleans” than to defend the integrity and maintain the professionalism of the civil service.
