KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan is mulling legal action against DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng for making defamatory statements against Barisan Nasional component party’s former president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon in the 1990s.
Party secretary-general Datuk Liang Teck Meng said, Gerakan had sent a notice of action to Lim and a demand latter to make a formal unconditional apology.
"Datuk Baljit Singh, the chairman of Gerakan Central Bureau of Law and Human Rights who is also a prominent lawyer will be representing Gerakan in our effort to sue Lim for defamation.
"A notice of action has been delivered to Lim today. We demand him to apologise formally and without condition to Gerakan through a press conference, within three days or 72 hours starting today.
"I am very confident that we have a strong position and solid evidence in this case and we will wait for Lim's reply," he said at a press conference Gerakan headquarters here today.
Asked if Gerakan would still proceed with the legal action even if Lim had made a formal apology, Liang said "yes", adding that it was a serious claim and Gerakan had to save its good name.
Lim had previously claimed that the Gerakan-led state government of Penang in the 1990s under the then chief minister Koh, had sold the reclaimed land in Tanjung Tokong (now called Sri Tanjung Pinang) to developer with the price of RM1 per square feet with a area of 980 acres valued at RM42.7 million.
However Liang stressed that there was no sale of land in Tanjung Pinang and that it was actually a concession agreement of land reclamation that was awarded in 1992.
He added, Gerakan had compiled sufficient concrete and comprehensive evidences which would prove that Lim had repeatedly defamed Gerakan and Koh since 2012.
"Henceforth, we have strong and valid reasons to believe that Lim made such statement in bad faith and calculated.
"Lim has clearly crossed the red line and made such statements with ill intention to damage our reputation and image," Liang said.