The George Town High Court today answered a pertinent question: is it okay to call out a politician for switching parties by calling him a “katak” (“frog”)?
Yes. Yes it is.
In a decision on the defamation case of Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik brought forward by PKR Bukit Gelugor division chief Lim Boo Chang, Judicial Commissioner S Nantha Balan said the term “katak” is not defamatory, and is instead just a label describing a politician who hops from one party to another.
“It is my contention that the impugned words ― frog or political frog ― used are not capable of being defamatory and the plaintiff had failed to prove the words are capable of having defamatory meaning,” Nantha said in his judgment, as reported by Opalyn Mok of The Malay Mail Online.
“Therefore, to call a politician a frog is a benign label as it referred to a politician who hops from party to party so it is clear and plain logic that the defendant (Ng) did not call the plaintiff (Lim) an animal with no human characteristics as claimed by Lim,” he added.
Nantha also noted no evidence of a vendetta against Lim by Ng, and no indication of malice on Ng’s part in his actions.
He then awarded RM30,000 in costs to Ng.
Lim filed the suit against Ng in January 2012 after several statements by NG were published in Malaysiakini, Nanyang Siang Pau, and Kwong Wah Yit Poh in December 2011.
Lim claimed Ng called him a “frog” without any “human character” in the articles, and demanded Ng apologise to him and withdraw his remarks.
Lim was a member of Gerakan from 1984 to 1999, at which point he joined the MCA.
In 2008, Lim left the MCA to join PKR in the federal opposition. He left PKR in 2011.
