Keng Yaik should not threaten action, but should just institute action for the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters

By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Friday, June 8, 1990:

Keng Yaik should not threaten action, but should just institute action for the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters

I have just been informed by my lawyer, Karpal Singh, that the lawyers of the Gerakan President and Primary Industry Minister, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, have written to threaten action by eng Yaik if the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters are not taken down in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

I want to advise Keng Yaik not to threaten action, but to institute immediate action to sue me for defamation if he now thinks that the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters have brought him into public ridicule and contempt.

I am very surprised that Keng Yaik has taken more than a month for him to come to feel that his character was being damaged by the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters.

I first gave notice to Keng Yaik about the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters, giving him ample time to apply for a court injunction to restrain the publication and putting up of these posters, but he felt very pleased and even ‘flattered’ by these posters, even publicly thanking the DAP for such a ‘handsome’ picture of him in the poster!

In the past one month, however, Keng Yaik must have realized that his entire moral reputation not only in the country, but inside the Gerakan, has collapsed as a result of the lies he told about the DAP-PAS secret meeting in Jakarta.

This may be the reason why, one month after I had given him first notice about the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters, he is threatening action.

Let Keng Yaik explain why he needs to take more than a month to threaten action about the poster, when all this while, he was enjoying the poster’ attention?

Finally, let me tell Keng Yaik again, don’t threaten action on the ‘Keng Yaik – You Are A Liar’ posters. Just sue me for defamation, for this has been my intention right from the beginning, for then the Court would have an opportunity to declare a Cabinet Minister a liar for his lies about the DAP-PAS secret meeting in Jakarta.