New Straits Times news editor Sharanjit Singh told the High Court yesterday that he did not intend to vent his anger against Guan Eng when he used words such as “blatant lie” and “hypocrite.”
“The strong words were used to describe the Chief Minister’s answers in court that he was not aware of the promises made regarding Kampung Buah Pala.
“I did not use the strong words with bad intention. Neither was it malicious,” Sharanjit told Judicial Commissioner Nordin Hassan.
Sharanjit said this during cross-examination by Guan Eng’s counsel, N Murali, during the last day of hearing of a defamation suit filed by the Chief Minister against prominent heritage advocate Jimmy Lim Cheok Siang, MToday News Sdn Bhd and its journalist Athi Shankar.
Guan Eng is suing Lim, the Penang Citizen Awareness Chant Group (Chant) advisor, over an article titled ‘Guan Eng has failed, says NGO’ which was published by online portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) on December 6, 2013.
Lim was represented by Baljit Singh, V Amareson and Rowena Yam, while Clement Lopez represented FMT and Athi Shankar.
In his testimony in February, Sharanjit had suggested that Guan Eng must either be an “incompetent leader” or someone who has suffered “selective memory loss” for not knowing the pledges made by Pakatan leaders, including PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim and DAP’s elected representative RSN Rayer, to residents of Kampung Buah Pala.
Pledges were even acknowledged by his then political secretary
Sharanjit said he was fully aware of the pledges, which were even acknowledged by Guan Eng’s then political secretary, Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik.
“If Lim says he did not know about it, it’s a blatant lie. If Lim, as the DAP secretary-general, has no knowledge of these promises, then he must either have a selective memory loss or be an incompetent leader,” said Sharanjit, who was NST’s Penang bureau chief at the height of the Kampung Buah Pala controversy.
Sharanjit, 47, told the court that Guan Eng could have saved the village with his powers if he had wanted to.
Murali had suggested that Sharanjit was venting his anger because Guan Eng had stopped inviting Sharanjit and NST to press conferences due to differences which arose back in March 2009.
Sharanjit disagreed, adding that Guan Eng did not only have differences with NST but with everybody, including other media groups, journalists, non-government organisations and politicians.
Meanwhile, Athi Shankar, during his testimony denied that the article was defamatory of the Chief Minister and that it was written and published maliciously.
He said the article only reported a general statement from Jimmy Lim, who as a responsible citizen had raised concerns about the lack of preservation and conservation of heritage in the state.
He, however, denied that Jimmy Lim had said at the press conference that Guan Eng was a failure as a chief minister. He also denied that his article had attributed any such statement to Jimmy Lim.
At the end of trial, Nordin directed parties to submit their written submissions to the court by May 22.
He has fixed June 12 for oral submissions - FMT
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