Wong (third left) with Lo (left) and other defence counsels outside High Court during lunch break.
SIBU (July 29): A witness in the defamation suit brought against Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh by the state government told the hearing today that as an elected representative, the Parti Sarawak Bersatu president had a duty to question the government on issues affecting the people.
Wee Kok Poh, a retired translator and interpreter for the Sibu Court Library, was called to the stand as witness for the plaintiff on the fourth day of the trial in the Sibu High Court.
Asked during cross-examination by defence counsel, George Lo, if he as a Sarawakian and a voter expected Wong to question the government on any issue affecting the people or that is of public interest, Wee replied: “To me, I look at it this way, whoever wishes to stand and represent the people, it is their duty to do what you have said.”
He said he was also of the view that the settlement between Petronas and the state government is a public interest issue and involved quite a large sum of money.
Wee told the court that after reading articles on the issue, he felt that the state government was hiding and concealing money from the people of Sarawak.
“This is after I have read the articles, not just one article, and this is the impression I got because the State Sales Tax (SST) is supposed to be RM3.8 billion something, RM2 billion paid, where is the remaining,” he said.
He agreed with the defence counsel who said after reading the news regarding the settlement, Petronas was only going to pay RM2 billion to the state government.
Wee also told the court that there was nothing in the news article that would make him think that Petronas was going to pay more than RM2 billion because the word ‘resolved’ means ‘it is finished’.
Thus, he believed that the state government owed the people an explanation on why Petronas was allowed to pay only RM2 billion when it actually owed about RM3.8 billion.
JC Fong (second left) and other state legal officers outside the court.
Earlier, State Legal Counsel Dato Sri JC Fong, who was appearing for the plaintiff, asked Wee to confirm his witness statement before Lo proceeded with the examination.
Taking the witness stand after Wee was Sarawak State Accountant General and the Controller of the State Sales Tax (SST), Elean Masa’at, who was also a witness for the plaintiff.
She agreed with defence counsel Clement Wong that the sum of RM3.897 billion for revenue stated as estimated revenue in the State Budget 2019 was computed by her.
Elean told the court that based on the Estimate book, the amount of SST, was indeed RM3.897 billion, but she was informed that there were some amendments to the estimated amount because a large portion of the taxable goods from the estimate were dropped, which was natural gas.
She said natural gas was about one-third of the total amount of SST taxable goods.
After the amendment, the new figure was RM2.878 billion.
When asked to explain why the figure in the State Budget 2020 was still RM3.897 billion, she said she was unable to give a clear and accurate answer.
“But based on instructions given to us, there were decisions to drop natural gas from the calculation. We are not to tax natural gas under SST. Thus, we were to collect RM2.878 billion for the year 2019,” she said.
She also told the court that she was not sure whether the state government checked with the State Financial Office for information before preparing a joint statement with Petronas on May 8, 2020.
In the suit, the state government is claiming that Wong had defamed it in a statement issued on May 9 which questioned the settlement with Petronas on the state sales tax, particularly on the sum paid. It is suing Wong, who is also Bawang Assan assemblyman and a former state minister, for RM5 million.
The plaintiff was represented by Fong, legal officers Adzrul Adzlan, Oliver Chua and Anisa Fadhillah Mohamed Jamel; while the defence team was also represented by Jonathan Tay, Thien Siaw Lien and Yvonne Sia.
The trial continues tomorrow.