'Main belakang' remark merely a metaphor, High Court told

KUALA LUMPUR: The "main ... ikut belakang" remark can be a metaphor referring to "playing out", "betrayal" and "backstabbing" political parties, the High Court heard today.
Testifying in a defamation suit against him, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin repeatedly denied that his remarks had any sexual connotation but were merely a "metaphorical political statement".
"No, I deny that they are capable of bearing any defamatory meaning, natural or innuendo meaning whatsoever," he said.
Explaining that he was referring to the political relationship of PAS, DAP and PKR in the Opposition coalition, Khairy said the parties only worked together temporarily without a long term commitment, similar to the temporary marriage arrangements practised by the Syiah Muslims called "kahwin muta'ah".
"Political parties cannot have sex, it is a metaphor. It could also mean playing people out or backstabbing," he said.
Khairy is facing a RM100 million defamation suit by jailed PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for saying "parti pembangkang ini dia kahwin muta'ah ... dia kahwin PAS main DAP ikut kiri, DAP main PAS ikut kanan, Anwar main dua-dua ikut belakang ... ".
He had said this when delivering a speech during a Barisan Nasional election campaign in the 12th General Election in February 2008.
A short clip from a video recording of his speech, published by an online news portal, was played in the High Court before Judicial Commissioner Azizul Azmi Adnan on the first day of the trial today.
Khairy said Anwar's reputation in the country was "questionable" even before the impugned words were published, referring to Anwar's conviction in the corruption trial and acquittal in the Sodomy 1 case.
"Hence, my statement could not do any harm or do less harm to the already cognisable damage to the plaintiff's reputation," he said.
Khairy added that the news portal had "editorialised the speech" and it was taken out of context.
He was represented by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while Anwar was represented by J. Leela and Latheefa Koya.
Trial continues tomorrow.
On March 7, 2008, Anwar filed a suit against Khairy and demanded RM100 million in damages, alleging that the then Umno Youth vice-chief had uttered defamatory words against him in a ceramah in Lembah Pantai on Feb 20, 2008.