THREE DAP heavyweights have filed separate defamation suits against PAS lawmaker Siti Mastura Muhammad for alleging that they have blood ties with former Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng and late Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng, his father Kit Siang and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok filed the civil actions at the Georgetown High Court two days ago and are seeking damages for both libel and slander against Siti Mastura for damaging their reputations.
The trio also want the High Court to issue an injunction preventing Mastura from uttering, writing, publishing or distributing the same or similar statements.
The three lawsuits are over Siti Mastura’s speech at a Kemaman by-election campaign event at Dewan Berlian, Majlis Perbandaran Kemaman on Nov 4.
According to the statements of claim filed, snippets of her speech were subsequently posted on TikTok two days later.
The PAS women’s wing deputy chief is also alleged to have said that DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook, vice president Nga Kor Ming and Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham had blood relations with the family of Kit Siang and Guan Eng.
The trio claimed that Siti Mastura’s public statement was not only untrue but made with malice to imply that they sought to undermine Malaysia’s democratic process and national security.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant’s words implied that they posed a threat to Islam and the future of the country.
They also claimed that Siti Mastura’s statement implied that there existed an ethnic Chinese conspiracy between Singapore and Malaysia, which is detrimental to the security and democracy of Malaysia.
On Nov 10, Kit Siang, Guan Eng and Kok demanded that Mastura retract and apologise for her remarks. However, they claimed that the defendant has, of today, refused to apologise, pointing out that a media report on Nov 14 had quoted her as saying that she is standing by her speech.
The plaintiffs alleged that Siti Mastura had even claimed to have handed over reference materials to the police, who are investigating her over the speech. – Nov 29, 2023
