DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng today lost his defamation suit at the Penang High Court against MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng and The Star, Free Malaysia Today reports.

Justice Quay Chew Soon said an opinion piece Tan wrote on funding for a Chinese school that was published by the English-language daily last year was fair comment and not defamatory.

Lim was ordered to pay Tan RM20,000 and The Star RM30,000 in costs.

Last year, Lim ordered his lawyers to file a defamation suit against Tan and The Star, alleging the two had spread lies about him on the Johor campaign trail. 

Lim said both had made false claims about funds allocated to a Chinese school in Johor when Lim was the Pakatan Harapan finance minister.

Lim’s lawyer, K. Simon Murali, said his client will be appealing the decision.

Lim said during his 22 months as finance minister, he had allocated RM43 million for new construction purposes to 26 Chinese primary schools. 

He said MCA could never have achieved it while it was in charge. 

Lim said such allocations were made unconditionally by the Finance Ministry at the request of the former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching.

He added that MCA has been spreading lies in their desperation to regain seats that they had lost in the 2018 general election, particularly Yong Peng. 

“I have no choice but to sue in court when these lies are repeatedly serially and slowly believed by the public because no defamation suit was filed,” he said. – June 21, 2023.