KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang, the party's national chairman Lim Guan Eng, and Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok have filed separate defamation suits against Kepala Batas MP Dr Siti Mastura Muhammad in the Georgetown High Court.
The suits were filed by the firm of Messrs SN Nair and Partners on Monday.
Counsel Datuk Sankara Nair has confirmed the filing of the suits, where his clients claimed that Siti Mastura's statement, among others, that Kit Siang was related to the late Communist Party leader Chin Peng and the late former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was an abomination, scurrilous and false.
Siti Mastura also alleged that Guan Eng, who is Kit Siang’s son, is also related to Chin Peng and Kuan Yew, while Kok was claimed to be a cousin to Guan Eng’s wife, Betty Chew.
In their suits, the DAP leaders claimed that Siti Mastura made those claims on Nov 4, at a ceramah held at Dewan Berlian, Kemaman, in the run-up to the Kemaman by election scheduled for later this week.
They claimed that the words uttered were defamatory, slanderous and libellous against them, as it was made in reference to them, and painted a picture that they are affiliated or espoused with the defunct Communist ideologies, that they are enemies of the state and disloyal to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and that due to the purported relations, they are seen as threatening Islam.
The words referred to them also meant that they are out to undermine the democratic process of the country, and that DAP is out to propagate the Communist ideologies, the DAP leaders added.
Kit Siang, Guan Eng and Kok further claimed that the words are untrue, fallacious, malicious and disparaging to them, and may result in diplomatic spats with Singapore, due to Siti Mastura's reference to Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore.
Following the purported slander and defamation, the trio are seeking general, aggravated, exemplary and compensatory damages from Siti Mastura, and an injunction on her or her agents to bar them from repeating or making the allegations again.
As a result of Siti Mastura’s claims, the Perikatan Nasional MP also has been subjected to a police probe.
Sankara, meanwhile, added that the Georgetown High Court had fixed case management on Dec 12 for Guan Eng’s suit, and Dec 19 for the suits by Kit Siang and Kok.