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Guan Eng: Rahman so desperate he now wants me to sue
Published:  Apr 25, 2016 1:54 PM
Updated: 6:25 AM

Federal minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan has been described as "desperate" for urging Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to sue him for defamation over allegations linked to the sale of Taman Manggis land in Penang.

"Rahman is so desperate to chicken out of his own debate challenge that he is now issuing a new challenge me, to sue him in court for defamation," Lim said in a statement today.

"Rahman knows that if I sue him for defamation, he can easily use the excuse of sub judice as the reason for not debating me," Lim added.

Lim said this referring to a series of tweets by the urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister yesterday, which among others, urged the Penang CM to sue him for defamation.

Lim recalled the example of the RM2.6 billion donation scandal of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, which was declared sub judice when the Bar Counci filed a judicial review in court.

Following this, Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia declared matters related to the 1MDB issue to be sub judice and that no questions on the issue would be allowed to be raised in Parliament.

The Taman Manggis controversy cropped up after Umno alleged that the sale of the land had links to Lim's purchase of a RM2.5 million bungalow on Jalan Pinhorn.

At the height of the controversy, Rahman on April 6 issued a debate challenge to Lim on the matter. Lim accepted the dare without hesitation the next day.

'I will not fall into the same trap'

The minister then left for overseas for a week, promising to debate with Lim on his return.

However, the debate, which was supposed to be aired on TV3, was called off on the advice of inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.

Lim added in his statement: "I will not fall into the same trap. Let us debate first to clarify the truth and prove who is lying, before talking about defamation suits in court.

"We have more than sufficient time to decide whether to sue after the open public debate that Rahman is so desperate to chicken out from."

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