THE Federal Court has allowed Lim Guan Eng’s appeal against Malay rights group Perkasa and its chief Ibrahim Ali for labelling the former Penang chief minister a traitor in allegedly revealing national secrets to the Singapore government.

The apex court ordered the Malay right-wing group to pay RM150,000 in damages over its defamatory statements published in October 2011.

The decision today set aside the Court of Appeal’s verdict and restored the high court findings, which had awarded the DAP secretary-general RM150,000 in damages.

Judges Nallini Pathmanathan and Harminder Singh Dhaliwal found in favour of Lim while Abdul Rahman Sebli was the dissenting judge.

In reading out the summary of the majority judgment, Nallini, who chaired the panel, said the high court was more than justified in awarding compensation of RM150,000 to be paid by Perkasa and its officials, which is not excessive.

“In conclusion and for the reasons mentioned, a public officer when suing as an individual, whether suing in personal or official capacity is not prohibited from bringing a defamation action,” the judge said in an online proceeding via Zoom.

In his dissenting judgment, Abdul Rahman said Lim had brought the suit in his official capacity.

He said Lim’s suit was flawed from the start as the former Penang chief Minister was not represented by a government legal officer as required under the Government Proceedings Act.

He also said the private lawyer who appeared for him had not obtained a licence from the state legal adviser.

On December 21, 2016, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals by Perkasa and two mainstream media to overturn the decision by the high court, which ordered them to pay damages to Lim for defaming him.

The appellate court had ruled Lim could not sue the media for defamation in his official capacity. 

The then Court of Appeal judge Rohana Yusuf (now a Federal Court judge) had said the court was bound by its earlier decision in the case of Utusan Melayu against the former Pahang menteri besar Adnan Yaakob, that a public official could not sue anyone, including the media, for defamation. 

Rohana said the court had accepted the principles decided in an English law case, Derbyshire County Council vs The Times Newspapers Ltd and Others (1993). 

Lim withdrew the leave to appeal against The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) and Utusan Melayu (M) Sdn Bhd on March 5, this year after both publications conceded to reinstate the high court decision and agreed to pay RM200,000 each in damages to him (Lim).

But Lim pursued his leave to appeal against Perkasa, its president Ibrahim Ali and former Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim.

Lim, who was then Penang chief minister, had filed the defamation suit in 2012 against the seven respondents, claiming that Ruslan had published a statement on Perkasa’s website on October 1, 2011, which implied he was endangering national security by exposing the country’s secrets to Singapore.

On March 26, 2015, the high court found NSTP, its former group editor Syed Nazri Syed Harun, Utusan Melayu, its group editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak, Perkasa, Ibrahim and Ruslan liable for defamation.

The high court had ordered Perkasa to pay RM150,000, while NSTP and Utusan were to pay RM200,000 each in damages. – February 26, 2021.