KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today was told that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s statements regarding the tax exemption issue involving Yayasan Albukhary defamed Lim Guan Eng by portraying him as someone who had abused his power and position.
Lawyer Guok Ngek Seong, representing Lim contended that any reasonable reader could interpret Muhyiddin’s three statements as implying that Lim was anti-Malay and anti-Muslim by targeting an institution like Yayasan Albukhary, which has been supporting the Malay and Muslim community.
“The statement, read as a whole by any reasonable person, will conclude that the plaintiff (Lim) as being a vindictive person, acted in bad faith and intentionally sabotaging and injuring Yayasan Albukhary,“ he said.
Guok was submitting during the hearing of Lim’s defamation lawsuit against the Pagoh MP over the cancellation of Yayasan Albukhary’s tax exemption before Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain.
He said Muhyiddin’s statement which named Lim as the person who was responsible for revoking the tax exemption status of Yayasan Albukhary was a lie or untruthful and fabricated by Muhyiddin himself.
“I say this because if we look at the evidence of the second defence witness, Hazlan Abdul Aziz. He clearly told the court that there was no letter signed by the plaintiff (Lim) when he was the minister to either revoke or not recognise the tax exemptions given to Yayasan Albukhary,” said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, Muhyiddin’s counsel, Chetan Jethwani submitted that Lim could have issued a demand privately to request his client to retract or amend his statement.
Instead, the plaintiff chose to aggravate the matter and brought the matter to the public attention and made it into a public issue and a matter of public interest,“ he said.
Roz Mawar fixed Nov 8 for the decision.
On March 27, 2023, Lim filed a lawsuit against Muhyiddin for allegedly making three Facebook defamatory statements on March 9, 11, and 12, 2023 involving him in the tax exemption issue.
Reports on the matter were subsequently published in several newspapers and news portals.
The former Penang chief minister also claimed that the defamatory statements implied that he had abused his position and power by authorising or directing the IRB to impose taxes and penalties on the charitable foundation, despite them being exempted.
