MUSLIM convert preacher Firdaus Wong Wai Hung has apparently sent a RM5 mil defamation suit noticer to DAP adviser Lim Guan Eng for defaming him with the “extremist” label in a video.
Except for the timing of his civil suit which is somehow close to the Aug 1 Negeri Sembilan state election in which DAP has lots to do to redeem its so-called ‘scarred pride’, the Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM) founder provided little information on the background of his legal action.
“Lim Guan Eng is given seven days to apologise and pay RM5 mil in damages,” Firdaus who is also the founder of Malay language news portal The Merdeka Times revealed on his Facebook page on Friday afternoon (July 24). “It’s fine to have different opinions but not by means of slander.”
A quick browse at the post which has since garnered 10K likes, 1.6K comments and 960 shares depicts that fanbase of the Gerakan Anti Rumah Anutan Haram (GARAH) chairman reckoned that the sum as “being too generous” to the defendant, thus rallied him to “double or even triple the price tag to RM10 mil and beyond”.
One commenter even took a swipe at DAP by claiming that “when they’re unable to argue with facts, then slander is often their weapon … no matter what the issue is”.
‘More luck in civil cases’
A check at Guan Eng’s court cases revealed that the former finance minister currently faces two main on-going legal proceedings: the Penang Undersea Tunnel Corruption Trial in Kuala Lumpur and the upcoming RM11.6 mil workers’ hostel graft trial involving his wife, Betty Chew.
The latter case which also involved businesswoman Phang Li Koon will proceed to trial at the Penang High Court after a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Datuk Azman Abdullah dismissed the trio’s application to strike out the charges on June 24.
According to the charges, Guan Eng who was then the Penang chief minister and the Penang Development Corp tender board chairman was alleged to have used his position to receive a bribe of RM372,009 for his wife through Excel Property Management & Consultancy Sdn Bhd.
The Bagan MP had allegedly committed the offence between August 19, 2013 and March 3, 2016 at the Chief Minister’s Office, Level 28, Komtar in George Town, Penang.
However, Guan Eng who was the DAP secretary-general from 2004 to 2018 has seemingly more fortune in the realm of cavil suits by having in recent times won an RM280,000 defamation judgment against blogger Wan Muhammad Azri a.k.a Papagomo) over false claims of cash smuggling.
Elsewhere, he also won a high-profile defamation suit pertaining to tax exemption revocations for Yayasan Albukhary against eight premier Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin with damages finalised at RM450,000 (slashed from RM1.05 mil) by the Court of Appeal.
Moreover, Guan Eng was awarded RM50,000 in global damages in a defamation suit against former Cabinet colleague Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, news portal MalaysiaNow’s publisher MNow Media Sdn Bhd and editor Abdar Rahman Koya for alleging that he had twice rejected a housing project for former plantation workers in Bestari Jaya.
But the case which enjoyed the biggest limelight is perhaps that involving PAS lawmaker Siti Mastura Muhammad who was slapped with legal damages totalling RM825,000 after losing a defamation suit to DAP’s trio of Guan Eng, father Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.
According to the DAP leaders’ counsel Sankara Nair, judge Datuk Quay Chew Soon ordered Siti Mastura to pay a total of RM750,000 in damages with a breakdown of RM300,000 to Kit Siang, Guan Eng (RM250,000) and Kok (RM200,000).
The judge further imposed a 5% annual interest if the deputy head of the Penang State PAS Muslim Council failed to pay her dues in addition to ordering her to pay costs of RM25,000 each to the three DAP leaders.
To recap, the first-term Kepala Batas MP had claimed that Kit Siang and Guan Eng had blood ties with the late communist leader Chin Peng and former Singapore premier the late Lee Kuan Yew while Kok was a cousin of Guan Eng’s wife, Betty Chew. – July 26, 2026
