KUCHING: State legal counsel Datuk Seri JC Fong (pic) will be consulting his team of lawyers to explore legal options against Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong.
“(These legal options) include, but are not limited to, calling on Members of the Dewan to submit a petition under Standing Order 16 for the Dewan to take appropriate action against the Member for Pending for breach of privilege and suffer such penalties as the Dewan may impose on her,” he said at a press conference held at State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex cafeteria here yesterday.
Yong had failed to show up despite Fong confirming that he had sent a letter to her by e-mail and WhatsApp the day before (November 14) to invite her to the meeting.
“For some reason, my letter was viralled and this challenge by me has been reported in several media outlets. So, she must be aware of this afternoon’s event in this DUN cafeteria,” Fong stated.
Explaining the background of the situation, he said that Yong had made ‘false and defamatory allegations’ against him in the DUN Chambers on November 6.
“I had expected her to be brave enough to turn up and agree to waive her immunity on her own accord but not with my consent, repeat in full the allegations she had made against me inside the Dewan’s Chambers on November 6.
“(This is) so that I would not be denied justice by taking her to court and let an independent arbiter decide whether she was wrong in saying what she said in the Dewan and that I should have legal remedies.
“It is very regrettable that she chose not to come, to face me and look me in the eyes and answer to what she has said about me, although I assured her that she would not be ambushed or harassed,” Fong added.
This comment was in relation to Yong’s earlier allegation that Fong’s wife Datin Seri Annie Fong had ‘ambushed’ her at the DUN Chamber on November 11.
Fong expressed surprise over Yong’s complaint of being allegedly ‘ambushed’ by Annie.
He said they knew Yong and her parents and that her mother used to work in his law firm for close to 20 years.
He recalled that he even acted as a ‘referee’ to support the application for a Yayasan Sarawak student loan by either Yong or her sister at their mother’s request.
“Therefore, my wife is not someone who is a total stranger to Violet. She must have immediately recognised my wife who wanted to have a conversation with her outside the Dewan’s Chamber,” he stated.
Fong said that in any event, what his wife had done in trying to have a conversation with Yong was in defence of her family members who had been “wronged and insulted”.
“That is expected of any good mother. I am sure Violet’s own mother would have done likewise in similar circumstances.”
Fong lamented what had happened saying, “(It) is a sad day for our system of parliamentary democracy when an assemblywoman can, under the protection of parliamentary immunity, make false and defamatory allegations against other persons and yet deny them the right to seek justice by waiving her immunity.
“If this is the political culture promoted by Democratic Action Party (DAP) in our ‘New Malaysia’, then God help and save this country!” Fong said.
Meanwhile, State Reform Party (STAR) president Lina Soo, who attended the press conference, expressed her disappointment when Yong did not show up.
She later offered to accompany Yong for a follow-up action in lodging a report with the relevant authorities.
