Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin praised former MCA leader Dr Ling Liong Sik for scoring a “victory” in the court of public opinion in his legal battle with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

"Bravo, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik!" Kadir said in his blog post today, giving kudos to the former transport minister.

"You have won the first round of the battle (in the court of public opinion) with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sanrobone),” wrote Kadir, using the convoluted form of address for the self-professed “Bugis warrior”, as is his wont.

He was referring to the mediation that the High Court in Kuala Lumpur prescribed for the defamation suit brought by Najib against Ling.

This was over Ling's s tatement in a Malay Mail Online report on Oct 3 titled 'MCA's Liong Sik joins call for Najib's ouster for allegedly putting people's money in his own pocket'.

Kadir said that there must have been "a strong reason" to prompt High Court judge John Louis O’Hara to advise the parties to go for mediation.

"The court must have seen and studied the arguments put forward by Najib and Ling, and might have some ideas of which direction the verdict would go.

"Could the court be trying to avoid a severe embarrassment to one of the parties should a full-blown trial be allowed to proceed and verdict delivered?

"Whose embarrassment – Najib's or Ling's?" he asked.

Kadir pointed out that Najib had already suffered embarrassment when Ling claimed trial and refused to apologise, retract, or pay compensation for allegedly defaming the Umno president.

He also praised Ling for driving a hard bargain in demanding that Najib himself be present at any mediation.

He said this is a far cry from Najib himself who has avoided directly confronting critics, and even members of his own party at last month’s Umno general assembly, as well as in Parliament itself.

He added that Najib is only paying lip service and making empty promises, instead of giving proper answers to accusations in The Wall Street Journal of financial improprieties and abuse of office against him.

"So would he dare to face-off with Ling?" Kadir asked.