FORMER Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng claimed he was the target of personal attacks from former Gerakan Youth leader Jason Loo over the Lebuhraya Peel land sale two years ago, dismissing Loo’s lawyer’s assertions that the allegations of corruption were related to Lim’s official government position. 

Lim, who is suing Loo, China Press and Guang Ming Daily for defamation, said the latter had attacked him both on his official and personal capacities.

He told the Penang High Court this morning that Loo in his press conference on May 29, 2017, which was reported in the China Press article “Jason Loo: One Man Decides, Pakatan Harapan DAP-led State Government Run by Rule of Man” and Guang Ming Daily’s “Jason Loo Urges Lim Guan Eng to Explain Why Sell Lebuhraya Peel Land Prior to Gazette”, had named him and mentioned the chief minister post.

“They were not questions raised out of concern, but direct claims,” Lim said during re-examination by his lawyer N. Mureli.

The Lebuhraya Peel land was sold to Island Hospital for its RM2 billion expansion project that would make Penang a medical city. The opposition attacked the state over the sale, which was through a direct negotiation, in 2017.

Loo had questioned the land sale, why and when it was transferred to the Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI), how many parcels of land had been transferred to CMI, where the land sale proceeds were deposited and how the profit was used.

Lim maintained that the implications of corruption and the claim that Penang was under a one-man rule was “completely out of line and defamatory”.

Earlier during cross-examination, counsel Yiew Voon Lee, who represented the two Chinese newspapers, suggested that when Loo raised questions about the land sale, he did not attack Lim on his personal capacity but as the chief minister, and his decision-making, conduct and policies.

When Lim disagreed, Yiew asked how he understood the distinction between personal attacks and attacks on one’s official capacity.

“When there are lies and allegations of corruption. Those are not just attacks on one’s official capacity,” Lim said.

He also disagreed when Yiew said the two articles that quoted Loo did not attack him over corruption claims.

During examination, Lim also said the two newspapers did not report his reply to Loo’s allegations in full.

When Yiew said Lim had declined to respond to another Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily, when it tried to get his comment, Lim said he was approached but disagreed that it was in reference to the matter.

When Yiew asked if it was correct to say that it was his “normal practice” to decline to respond when the media ask for his comments until he had read reports, Lim replied: “I disagree. Not all the time.”

He also disagreed when Yiew suggested that his lawsuits against the newspapers had a chilling effect on the dailies to deter them from reporting further on the issue.

The hearing is ongoing this afternoon. – May 13, 2019.