No apology, Wong tells ex-Pujut rep over letter of demand
BN-friendly UPP president Wong Soon Koh says Ting Tiong Choon must first prove he is not a bankrupt in Australia.
Yesterday, Ting’s legal representative issued a letter of demand to Wong, giving the latter seven days to issue an apology for calling him a bankrupt.
Ting demanded a public retraction of alleged defamatory statements made against him on May 15, and for Wong to tender an “unqualified public apology” by May 29.
Wong, who is also the state minister of international trade and e-commerce as well as president of the BN-friendly United People’s Party (UPP), said he obtained his information from official government records in Australia and that it was Ting’s prerogative to prove such records wrong.
“The statement which I made that Ting is a bankrupt is based on an official search and subsequent official documentation from the Australian government.
“Should Ting be able to prove that the Australian government records are wrong, only then am I willing to respond to the letter of demand from King Wei & Co,” Wong said.
Ting, whose legal counsel is DAP Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei, sent the letter of demand to Wong’s international trade office here yesterday morning.
Wong told The Borneo Post yesterday that his office had received it but he remained defiant over the demand for an apology from Ting.
“I believe it is Ting and Sarawak DAP who should first apologise to the voters in the Pujut constituency for misleading them on Ting’s citizenship status and for nominating an unqualified candidate for the seat in the last Sarawak state election,” he said.
On May 15, Wong told reporters that Ting was a bankrupt based on a search which he said he conducted last July.
The search was made on July 1, 2016, on the Bankruptcy Register Search, of the Australian Financial Security Authority, Wong told a press conference in the assembly’s media room.
Ting had told FMT that Wong’s comments outside the chamber made him liable to a suit.
“I am not a bankrupt nor have I ever been one,” he told FMT at the time.
“I’ve told him in the Dewan that no one becomes bankrupt twice within three months. And yet he continued to make the assertion without checking the truth.”
“It was ignorant on his part not to find out the real truth and had instead relied on hearsay from his party supporters. Now we will see him in court,” Ting had said.
Ting was dismissed on May 12, which was the first day of the recently concluded sitting, after Wong tabled a motion saying the former had violated the state constitution, which forbids a state assemblyman from holding dual citizenship.
The motion was carried through after 70 BN assemblymen voted in favour of it.
DAP will sue to challenge the decision, saying Ting’s dismissal was a matter for the Federal Court alone to decide.
Dr Ting welcome to sue me, says Wong
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