KUCHING, July 31 — Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen has decided to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision against him in the ‘black hole’ case.

The Stampin MP said this decision was made in light of not just the Court of Appeal’s decision to impose an award of RM300,000 in damages and RM200,000 costs against him but more importantly his view that the court’s decision was contrary to the public interest.

“The Court of Appeal has, inter alia, decided that, in Malaysia, a government can sue its citizen for defamation. In most, if not all the Commonwealth countries, which practise the common law system (Malaysia is one), the courts have held that government has no rights to sue for defamation against its citizens.

“Courts in England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa have all adhered to this position,” he said in a statement.

According to Chong, the reason that a government has no right to sue a person for defamation is based on the fundamental principle that government is elected by the people and should be open to uninhibited criticisms by the people.

To allow a government to sue a citizen for defamation, he said, will create an inhibiting effect on freedom of speech.

“This widely accepted common law position was totally overturned in my ‘black hole’ case where the Sarawak government sued me for defamation and the courts allowed such action to be maintained by the government.

“So far to the best of my knowledge, in all Commonwealth jurisdictions my ‘black hole’ case is the only case that the court holds that a government can sue its citizen for defamation.

“In effect, with the precedent set in the ‘black hole’ case, if a citizen criticises a government to be ‘unfit to govern’ or ‘a hopeless government’, he will be liable to be sued for defamation by the government of the day,” he said.

As a citizen who believes in the fundamental principles of democracy, Chong said he has decided to appeal to the highest court in the country.

“My lawyers will be filing the necessary papers to the Federal Court later today, seeking leave to appeal to the Federal Court,” he added.

On July 3, the Court of Appeal here dismissed Chong’s appeal against the High Court’s ruling in the 2013 ‘black hole’ defamation suit and doubled the damages awarded.

The damages awarded by the High Court were increased from RM150,000 to RM300,000. The Court also awarded RM150,000 in costs for the appeal, while the High Court costs of RM50,000 remained unchanged, bringing the total amount payable by Chong to RM500,000.

In 2013, Chong, who was then Kota Sentosa assemblyman, alleged in Sarawak DAP pamphlets that RM11 billion from the state’s coffers had disappeared into a ‘black hole’, implying financial mismanagement by the Sarawak government and the Sarawak Financial Authority (SFA).

The Sarawak government and SFA subsequently filed a defamation suit against Chong. The trial was heard from Jan 7 to July 5, 2021.

On Aug 30, 2022, then Judicial Commissioner Datuk Alexander Siew How Wai ruled in favour of the plaintiffs but did not provide written grounds for the judgment.

Chong filed his appeal on Nov 27, 2022. However, the appeal could not proceed as the grounds of judgment had yet to be issued.

On Aug 12 last year, the Court of Appeal directed Siew to deliver the grounds of judgment within one month.

Chong received the written grounds of judgment from the High Court Registry on Sept 19 last year, paving the way for his appeal to be heard. — The Borneo Post pic