KUCHING: An amicable settlement was reached by defamation suit plaintiff Santubong MP Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and defendant Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen today over the latter branding him a “hypocrite”.
This prompted the presiding High Court Judicial Commissioner Dr Lim Hock Leng to pass an order to strike out their respective claim and counter-claim of both litigating parties, subject to the terms of the settlement.
According to the terms of the settlement, Chong shall not only withdraw his statement against Wan Junaidi, but also acknowledge that the plaintiff is a man of honour and integrity.
On top of that Chong shall also pay Wan Junaidi a cost of RM25,000 and that Wan Junaidi is to withdraw his present claim with no liberty to file it afresh.
When met after the proceedings, Chong told the media that in the first place he has no intention to character assassinate Wan Junaidi when he uttered an alleged offending remark during a press conference at the State DAP headquarters here on March 31, 2019.
“I have retracted the statement – that particular statement from the whole article stated: ‘a fair comment to such an act from a person of his standing is hypocrisy of the highest degree’. All along when I made the statement, it was not used to attack on his personal character but I was just referring to a certain act. As he meant it to be an attack on his personal character, he took the action (to sue for defamation),” said the Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman.
Chong said since the matter was just a miscommunication and a misunderstanding between him and the plaintiff, he was required to clear the air over it.
Chong said the drama unfolded when he was commenting on the federal government’s special grant to Sarawak which has not been reviewed by the then Barisan Nasional (BN) since 1969 even though such a review is required under the Federal Constitution.
“When making the statement I had added more statement and produced an ‘overstatement’ resulting in the court action. But all along I did not intend to attack his personal character. Because of ‘one sentence too much’, it has caused a misunderstanding.”
Chong said there was no point for him and Wan Junaidi to continue the legal battle as they had to move on.
Wan Junaidi said Chong had gone overboard with his comment last year but if he had retracted the offending remarks within the grace period given to him, there would not be any legal action.
“The moral of this episode is, a politician is not given the right and freedom to use profanities and inappropriate language against any opposing person or parties,” he said.
His lawyer Wilfred Yap said the civil suit is all about restoring his client’s reputation and not intended to pick a quarrel with anybody.
The claim for damages was not his objective, he added.
The trial hearing was cut short following the amicable settlement today.
On April 3 last year, Wan Junaidi demanded Chong to withdraw the offending remarks and to publish an apology in newspapers of different languages.
Chong was given until 5pm on April 8 to respond to Wan Junaidi. As Chong failed to do so, Wan Junaidi filed the defamation suit, claiming almost RM1 million in damages from the former.
Chong was represented by lawyer and father Chong Siew Chiang and counsels Michael Kong and Tan Kee Heng.
Wan Junaidi is also a lawyer, a former federal minister and former deputy speaker of Parliament.