Bukit Cerakah: Groups strike back at Amirudin's threat to sue critic

Civil society groups have criticised Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari after he threatened to take legal action against a critic over the degazettement of Bukit Cerakah.

Taking to Twitter, the Centre for Independent Journalism Malaysia (CIJ) condemned the menteri besar over his remarks.

“Threatening regular citizens with a defamation suit is a form of intimidation.

“As a government official, it is dangerous to set such (a) precedent as this could discourage and silence public participation, and it could create a chilling effect on freedom of expression,” the group said.

Environmental group Klima Action Malaysia (Kamy) echoed the sentiment, calling on Amirudin (above) to “stop the intimidation”.

“Stop the intimidation and abusive Slapps (strategic lawsuit against public participation),” it tweeted while tagging activist Shaq Koyok in their response.

Kamy stated that they were disappointed with the state government’s decision to carry out the degazettement of the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve to avoid the risk of legal action by companies with interests in the property.

It pointed out that the climate symposium yesterday at Parliament indicated stronger political will for climate action and good governance from Pakatan Harapan.

“Stop shifting loss and damage burden to future generations,” it further tweeted, using the #SaveBukitCherakah hashtag.

Yesterday, Amirudin threatened to take legal action against a critic over the degazettement of 406ha of the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve.

This was after a Twitter user asked if the degazettement happened because the MB is looking for political funding in the lead-up to the general election.

"Brother, pass me your address because I want to sue you for accusing me of taking money from developers," Amirudin tweeted.

The PKR lawmaker also doubled down on his earlier explanation that the state decided to proceed with the degazettement process, approved in 2000, to avoid legal action.

On Aug 11, the Shah Alam High Court ruled that the 406ha in contention will remain gazetted pending a hearing of a legal challenge against its degazettement.

The order issued by judge Shahnaz Sulaiman was granted pending the hearing of a judicial review leave application on Sept 28.

The Shah Alam Community Forest Society and Khazanah Alam Malaysia are seeking leave to commence the judicial review to overturn the degazettement.

The applicants claimed that the degazettement decision was obsolete as it was made 22 years ago.

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