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PETALING JAYA: A libel lawsuit against the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), either in his personal or official capacity, is unlikely to be successful, a lawyer said.
SN Nair said the PAC president is “clothed with immunity” to carry out his public duty.
“Anyone can file a lawsuit against another for downgrading, but ask about the prospects for successful litigation,” said the lawyer, who was once a member of the Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) advisory board.
Nair said this in response to a statement made yesterday by Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) that he wants to take legal action against PAC Chairman Wong Kah Woh in a personal capacity for allegedly damaging his reputation.
In the statement issued by the CEO of YWP, the foundation said that the Ipoh Timur deputy had abused his position as PAC chairman by making false accusations against them.
“Based on the provisions of the constitution and the law, YWP has the right to defend itself against the three statements by Wong that were deemed to undermine the credibility of YWP,” the statement said.
YWP refuted Wong’s statement that the minister for federal territories and the mayor of Kuala Lumpur were automatically appointed as the foundation’s president and a member of the board of directors, respectively.
He also dismissed the statement by the PAC president that the foundation was involved in the sale of 97 plots of land from DBKL, including those from Taman Rimba Kiara.
YWP also did not agree with Wong’s statement that the foundation is a company registered under the Companies Act and is not supervised by the authorities.
He had threatened to sue Wong on Thursday for his statement after DBKL completed PAC’s investigation into 97 land deals since 2011.
The PAC then warned the relevant parties not to make threats to its members who were only fulfilling their duties, stating that they were unjustified and were an attempt to challenge and desecrate the institution of Parliament.
Nair said immunity was granted to the president and members of the PAC for public policy reasons.
“The courts cannot be used as a weapon to silence them and stop fulfilling their duties and function in their official capacity,” he said.
Attorney T Gunaseelan said that Wong had every defense available to thwart any defamation action against him.
He said the president can rely on the defense of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege.
“A fair comment defense will only be available if YWP can show that Wong made the statement with malicious intent, which is the unlikely case here,” he said.
