Ex-minister Guan Eng sues Azmin Ali for defamation over ‘langsi’ remarks in GE15 speech
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Lim Guan Eng has filed a defamation lawsuit against former Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, over the latter’s alleged defamatory remarks which used “langsi” to describe his alleged past conduct as finance minister.
In the lawsuit filed on April 17 filed at the High Court at Sungai Petani in Kedah, Lim claimed that Azmin had made the alleged defamatory remarks in a November 12, 2022 event at Lunas, Kedah which was organised in conjunction with the campaign for the 15th general election.
Lim claimed that Azmin’s remarks were published on November 13, 2022 by local news outlet The Star, where Azmin reportedly used the word “langsi” — which The Star said was a somewhat vulgar Cantonese word meaning arrogant — when commenting on Lim’s tenure as finance minister from May 2018 to February 2020.
Azmin himself was minister of economic affairs during the same period, and later was minister of international trade and industry from March 2020 to November 2022.
According to Lim’s lawsuit, Azmin’s remarks had defamed him and amounted to lies, and also disparaged him and had injured his reputation by painting him in a negative light as a former finance minister.
In the lawsuit, Lim is seeking for several court orders, including for Azmin to unconditionally withdraw his remarks and to publish an unconditional apology in The Star’s newspaper and its online portal, and to pay compensation — in the form of general damages, aggravated damages and exemplary damages — to Lim.
The case came up for case management today at the High Court in Sungai Petani, and is scheduled for case management next on September 26.
According to news portal Free Malaysia Today, the High Court allowed Lim’s application to substitute the serving of the lawsuit’s court papers on Azmin through a notice at the High Court in Sungai Petani and through a notice via an advertisement in local newspapers The Star and Berita Harian and through a notice at Azmin’s last known address. This was because Lim has been unable to serve the court papers on Azmin.
