PUTRAJAYA, 27 March: The Court of Appeal here today overturned the 2012 decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, ruling that Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua did not defame Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) in his remarks reported in a Chinese daily.
After hearing decisions from both sides, the three-man panel was unanimous in its decision to allow Pua’s appeal with costs. Syabas will return the RM200,000 in damages -plus interest- to Pua together with RM50,000 in costs. The DAP National Publicity chief was represented by Gobind Singh in the case.
Pua expressed his happiness at the Court of Appeal decision to clear him of defamation and said the money would be put to the DAP Election Fund.
He also thanked the public for their participation in the “RM1 for Water Rights: 100,000 Malaysians Support Tony Pua vs Syabas” campaign which raised the money to pay the damages in the earlier High Court case.
The defamation suit by Syabas was filed on 28 January 2011 regarding words published and article by Nanyang Siang Pau’s Metro edition on 16 November, 2010, titled “Tony Pua: Selangor government must have water rights to prevent rate hike”.
In the offending article, Pua was quoted as saying that if the water concessionaires could not settle their debts, the state government should take over water supply management in Selangor.
Malaysians support water rights campaign
To fund the cost of the defamation loss in 2012, the DAP organised an online campaign to fundraise from its supporters. The campaign successfully managed to raise RM150,939 within a week.
These donated sums came from individuals who transferred money to the party’s account, in total over ten thousand Malaysians lent their support to the water right’s campaign. The balance of the required funds were collected from a 100-table fund-raising dinner held in Dewan Sivik MBPJ.
The public attention garnered by the high profile case underscores the urgent attention afforded to the water issue, particularly in Selangor where the problem-plagued water concessionaire has raised public ire over water tariffs, water shortage, and disruption of services.
The Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor state government has highlighted that the water crisis faced in various areas in Selangor is due to Syabas incompetence and the state government has commenced measures to terminate the contract of the beleagured water concessionaire due to its poor performance.
The PR government also opposes the building of the Langat 2 dam project, saying that it cannot solve the problem. The state government believes that terminating Syabas’ contract is the best way to rectify the shortcomings in the state’s water distribution management.-The Rocket
