GEORGE TOWN, July 25 — Gerakan filed a defamation lawsuit against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today over his claim that the party's leaders previously sold 396.6ha of reclaimed land in Tanjung Pinang for RM42.7 million, or at RM1 per sq ft.
The party filed the suit at the Penang High Court, and is seeking for Lim to publish a public apology over his statements that Gerakan claimed were defamatory, among others.
“Today we are formally filing a defamation suit against the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for repeatedly issuing defamatory statements and articles on the party and its former president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon,” Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Liang Teck Meng told reporters outside the Penang High Court registrar office today.
“He had repeated the statement so many times that it became a very serious defamation against the party and people are starting to believe his allegations,” he said.
Datuk Baljit Singh, who represented Gerakan, said the suit was filed by Liang on behalf of the party.
In its statement of claim, the party alleged that Lim repeatedly issued remarks on the topic that were then published in various websites, social media, news portals since 2013 until this year.
Liang claimed that Lim's statements painted Gerakan as apathetic about the rights of Penang residents, and as having sold state land for below market value when it had governed the state via Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
They further accused Lim of portraying the party as untrustworthy, unprincipled, and insincere in serving the people.
“As such, the defendant has issued false and defamatory statements against the plaintiff with malicious intent to ruin the reputation and good name of the plaintiff,” Gerakan pleaded in its statement of claim.
Gerakan is demanding both aggravated and exemplary damages from Lim, along with other costs and relief deemed suitable by the court.
