Produce author first, judge rules in Kit Siang’s defamation suit

Lim Kit Siang and his lawyer, Gobind Singh Deo, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today. Kit Siang is suing a Malay for defamation. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, August 21, 2014.

The High Court today ruled that unless "Father Augustus Chen" is produced in Lim Kit Siang's defamation suit against a Malay daily to confirm the authenticity of his booklet, it will not be accepted as evidence.

Judge Datuk Yeo Wee Siam made the interim decision as the defamation suit by the DAP parliamentary leader against Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd went to trial today.

The dispute over the booklet titled “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” occurred when lawyers for both sides argued over its authenticity, as its content was used in the alleged defamatory article on Lim published in the Malay daily on August 18 last year.

Utusan lawyer Mohd Izral Khairy submitted that since Lim, who was on the witness stand, confirmed that the booklet shown to him in court was similar to the one he had with him, it should be marked as an exhibit.

Izral also said that the booklet in his possession was the one used by the Utusan reporter to write the article.

Lim’s counsel Gobind Singh Deo, however, said that while it was not disputed that Lim had a copy of the booklet and could confirm it was similar to the one shown to him by Izral, there was no way of confirming its authenticity or whether it was the original produced by the so-called Father Augustus Chen.

The judge then ruled that since the authenticity and content of the booklet was in dispute, the document would remain as a reference document in court.

"The document will remain as an ID (identification document) until such time the maker is produced to confirm its authenticity," Yeo said.

‎Lim filed the suit last September against the newspaper for alleging that he had manipulated the vote tabulation during the party’s elections in December the previous year, where the report had quoted "Father Augustus Chen".

Lim had claimed that the article implied that Father Augustus Chen existed and that the content in the latter's "The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)" on the alleged irregularities and internal politics in the DAP polls was true.

Lim testified today that he did not know a Father Augustus Chen and that to his knowledge, the person did not exist.

He also said that it was a fictitious character created to tarnish his image and that of DAP.

When asked by Gobind why he said this, Lim said when news of the booklet first broke, he publicly said it contained a series of lies.

He then challenged Father Augustus  to come forward and substantiate the allegations.

Lim said Father Augustus did not come forward and up until now, no one had ever heard of or seen him.

Lim further testified that Utusan was an Umno mouthpiece which was opposed to him and his party.

"As such, it is clear that the defendant has an axe to grind against me and DAP and would publish lies like these to destroy me and the DAP publicly," Lim said.

He disagreed with Izral that the content of the Utusan article was of public interest and that there was no malice intended in the article.

He also disagreed with Izral that he had not given his version of the truth in his blog postings.

The hearing continues tomorrow.

- TMI