JUDGMENT

Sulaiman Daud J:

This is the defendant's application under O. 18 r. 19 of the Rules of the High Court 1980 (the RHC 1980) to strike out the plaintiff's action for slander and libel herein.

The plaintiff's cause of action against the defendant herein is founded on a speech by the defendant on 28 July 2002, and on publications made on 29 July 2002 in four Chinese newspapers, namely, the See Hua Daily News, the International Times, the Chinese Daily News and the Miri Daily News. In this action the plaintiff claims against the defendant for general, aggravated and exemplary damages in the aggregate sum of RM26,000,000 for libel and slander in respect of such speech and publications, in addition to other injunctionary relief related thereto.

The relevant facts as averred in the statement of claim may be briefly stated. At all material times the plaintiff is a member of parliament and member of the Sarawak National Party (SNAP). The defendant is the Secretary General of the party. It is alleged that on or about 28 July 2002 at a meeting with members of the party and in the presence of all the persons present thereat, the defendant spoke of certain words in English defamatory of