Dato Sri JC Fong
KUCHING: State legal counsel Dato Sri JC Fong has denied an accusation by state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen that he had in August submitted in the Keruntum case that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report had no legal force in Malaysia.
“This is utterly untrue and calculated to discredit me. Tomorrow, I am going to send to Chong my written submission and request him to point out which part of that submission contains the words ‘the MA63 and IGC Report has no force of law in Malaysia’.
“If he fails to do so within seven days, then he must issue a public correction and apology; failing which I will sue for defamation,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Fong explained that his submission for the Keruntum case concerned the meaning of the words ‘Borneo judicial experience’ in the IGC report.
“Keruntum argued there was a quorum failure because no Federal Court judges who heard the case had ‘Borneo judicial experience’. The government disagreed because Tan Sri Hasan Lah, who delivered the judgment of the Court, served as a judicial commissioner in the High Court in Miri for two years and delivered judgments in many cases related to Sarawak laws.
“As Tan Sri Hasan has Borneo judicial experience, there was no issue of non-compliance with the IGC Report recommendation which was never implemented under Article VIII of MA63. Since Federal Court will deliver judgement on this issue on Dec 7, I reserve further comments after judgment is delivered.”