JUDGMENT

Quay Chew Soon J:

Introduction

[1] The Plaintiff ("P") is the Chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). The 1st Defendant ("D1") is the Vice President of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). The 2nd Defendant ("D2") is in the business of media publication, better known as The Star, with an online version known as The Star Online. The instant suit is a defamation action brought by P against the Defendants. After a full trial, I dismissed P's claim. Here are the grounds of my judgment.

The Trial

[2] The trial took place over the course of 3 consecutive days on 20 February 2023, 21 February 2023 and 22 February 2023. The witnesses who testified at the trial were:

Background Facts

[3] The dispute herein emanates from the change of name of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Kuek Ho Yao ("School"). The public controversy and uncertainty on whether the name of the School was going to be changed had started in March 2019, due to the need to replace the developer of the School after the 2018 General Election. The media reported on several occasions that the issue on the naming of the School was to be left to the new developer.

[4] At a meeting on 10 November 2019, the name of the School was agreed to be changed to 'SJKC Kuek Ho Yao @ Eco Spring'. After that, on 29 November 2019, PW-1 (who was then the Deputy Minister for Education) issued a letter requesting P (in his capacity as the Finance Minister), to approve a 'sumbangan' of RM4 million to the School. PW-1 was involved in the change of name of the School.

[5] There is no media report in evidence on the agreement to change the name of the School reached during the meeting on 10 November 2019. It could be inferred that the public was not aware. This continued until the campaigning period for the Johor State Election at the end of February 2022 until 11 March 2022. The issue of the change of name of the School surfaced again during the Johor State Election where a challenge for a debate on that issue was made on 25 February 2022 by the President of MCA against PW-1. PW-1 was a senior DAP leader from Johor and DAP's Campaign Director for the Johor State Election. She was also the former Deputy Minister for Education who had been involved in the events surrounding the School.

[6] D1 then issued a Facebook post questioning whether the allocation of RM4 million to the School by P had been made with a request by PW-1 that the School changes its name. Two Chinese newspapers reported on the Facebook post. The controversy attracted a lot of attention amongst members of the Chinese community and the voters in Johor. There was no explanation by P on the issue before 7 March 2022.

[7] On 7 March 2022, D1 sent an Article (labelled 'press statement') to D2 to be published in The Star. D2 published the Article in the Letters section of The Star Online, behind a paywall. In this action, P has sued for defamation over the final two paragraphs of the Article ("Impugned Statement").

Findings In Relation To The 2nd Defendant

[8] Here are my findings. I will deal first with D2, although my reasons with regard to D2 will substantially apply to D1 as well. I find that the Impugned Statement is not defamatory of P for the following reasons:

(a) The facts show that P did politicise the School by making political speeches during the Johor State Election on the allocation of the RM4 million in particular, and on Chinese primary schools in general. Further, as a politician, it was to be expected by the public that P would politicise the issue and therefore there was nothing defamatory about it;

(b) There is no allegation in the Impugned Statement that it was P who had imposed the condition on the change of name of the School;

(c) P had not denied the allegations on the same issue made earlier through various other media outlets; and

(d) The Impugned Statement, when read as a whole, is merely a call for P to explain the allegations which had arisen in the course of the Johor State Election and which he had n