Court rejects Malaysian minister’s plea against daily

KUALA LUMPUR - The High Court here Thursday rejected Human Resource Minister S. Subramaniam’s plea to stop a Tamil daily from continuing to publish articles which he claimed were defamatory.

Justice Zabariah Mohammed Yusof dismissed Subramaniam’s petition after hearing submissions from lawyers representing both parties.

On June 7, Subramaniam sued Makkal Osai, claiming the newspaper had defamed him in three articles published May 24, 25 and 29 this year.

He named the publisher, printer, journalist K. Devandran and former Petaling Jaya Selatan MIC chairman V. Subramaniam as defendants, The Star newspaper said.

Both politicians belong to the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the country’s largest Indian-based party that is part of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional.

K. Saraswathy, counsel for Devandran, told the media that there was no ground given by the judge in dismissing Subramaniam’s application.

In his statement of claim, Subramaniam said that the articles portrayed him as a dishonest politician and a fraud.

He applied for an injunction to stop the defendants from further publishing the alleged defamatory words against him.

He had also sought general damages, costs and further relief deemed fit by the court, Bernama, the official news agency reported.

A bulk of the ethnic Indians, who are estimated at 1.7 million, are Tamils who settled here during the British era.