The Federal Court has maintained a Court of Appeal ruling that Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and two others are liable to Terengganu’s Sultanah Nur Zahirah for defamation…. The unanimous decision of the appeals court, said the trial judge had erred in dismissing the suit in 2022.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah initiated the RM300 million defamation suit in 2018, claiming that Rewcastle Brown had disparaged her in the book, which tells the story of Sarawak Report’s investigation into the 1MDB scandal.
She claimed the statement suggested that she was involved in corrupt practices, had interfered in Terengganu’s administration and had used her status to influence the establishment of the Terengganu Investment Authority, as 1MDB was earlier known.
She further claimed that the statement could be construed to mean that she had helped Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, secure his position as adviser to TIA.
In her defence, Rewcastle Brown claimed that she had made an honest mistake in identifying the key player in the impugned statement as the wife of the sultan. She claimed that she should have referred to the sultan’s sister instead.
This writer wishes to make clear they have never suggested impropriety or wrongdoing on the part of those figures of the royal family previously on the board of the now defunct Terengannu Investment Authority (TIA), who were at the time praised in her book for exiting the fund from what later became 1MDB.
This is particularly since the courts of Malaysia have now ultimately decided it was defamatory to inadvertently ascribe the introduction to the TIA of the financier Jho Low to the Sultan’s wife rather than the Sultan’s sister.
Sarawak Report feels it is necessary to stress, as was already clear from the book, that there was nothing inappropriate or illegal in making such an introduction.
The book merely sought to relay the anecdote, long since publicised by Jho Low and never contested, to explain how he managed to gain the introduction that secured him the position of an advisor.
The misidentification of wife for sister (names were never used) was immediately corrected when pointed out and an apology was given at the time.
Indeed, no derogatory view as to the nature of the introduction was expressed from any quarter until heavily publicised claims were made by the lawyers prosecuting this case of misidentification.
They issued press statements and proceedings articulating extended interpretations of the meaning of the sentence that referred to the royal connection, which have continued to be widely reported, as today’s report by FMT.
In consequence, many in Malaysia were sadly led to believe (after all fewer than 5,000 copies of the book had actually been sold) that the allegations broadcast in those press statements formed the content of what had been written in the book.
It was at that point only that some third parties made comments in response to media articles reporting on those claims.
A local distributor and printer were caught up in this action where the plaintiffs originally demanded RM300 million in damages. The author and publisher therefore accepted to engage in the case that ought have been brought in a British court against her, given the jurisdiction of the publication.
With the help of so many supporters we will seek to cover the fine of some RM460 thousand, including costs, that the Malaysian courts have exacted after some six years of legal action which has now spilled into a revived criminal libel action against this foreign author.
However, given this outcome, it remains a renewed priority to stress once more that absolutely no imputation should be cast against the members of the royal family who did for a period accept Jho Low as an advisor to the TIA board in good faith.
As the book narrates, the financier was regarded as a successful dealmaker at the time. However, after he, together with the fund’s chief executive started to raise large sums of borrowing against the wishes of the state executives of Terengganu, the Sultan and the board of the TIA (which included the Sultan’s same sister) promptly took the action of exiting the state from the fund completely.
Far from uttering disparaging remarks, that action is lauded in the book for being right minded.
The remaining 45o pages of The Sarawak Report, which concern the subsequent 1MDB fund and connected antics of Jho Low, relate how the author subsequently exposed the corruption of the project Jho Low later developed in the wake of the TIA. No further reference was made to the earlier connections with Terengganu.
It is important to make these points because, whatever conclusions might be drawn from the judicial decision that it was defamatory to say the wife of the Sultan introduced Jho Low, there remains no allegation or insinuation whatsoever ever made by this author that these actions taken by the sister, which have never been disputed, were anything but appropriate and legal.
Throughout this litigation that royal lady has remained dignified and aloof, having conducted her duties on the board of the TIA in a visibly correct manner, exiting a once promising project when it became hijacked by politically connected actors.
Sarawak Report wishes to make clear that it has nothing but plaudits for the conduct of the royal sister who had put her professional qualifications to the service of the proposed state fund.
It was not the fault of Terengganu that it was thus targeted. However it is impossible to narrate the history of 1MDB without explaining how Jho Low originally got himself involved.