SHAH ALAM: Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali disagreed that he had uttered racist remarks against the Indian and Chinese communities after a video showing him making a racist speech was played in court.

“It looks like me, it sounds like me... but the movement of the mouth wasn’t consistent with what the image was saying... so it might not be me.

“I disagree that it’s me,” Ibrahim told the Shah Alam High Court yesterday.

He was testifying during cross examination in his defamation suit against the Sun, its former managing editor Chong Cheng Hai and deputy editor, special reports and investigations Terence Fernandez.

Ibrahim is suing the paper and its then senior editors for an article written by Fernandez on the Sultan of Selangor’s refusal to launch Perkasa’s first general assembly.

Ibrahim claims that the article, which was published on March 17, 2010, was the first to label him a racist and chauvinist.

Earlier, Ibrahim told the court that the article had caused him to lose the opportunity to stand as a Barisan Nasional candidate in the 13th general election.

During the cross examination, the defence presented a number of articles in various publications that showed Ibrahim’s strong leanings towards promoting Malay rights and Islam.

One article published by Mingguan mStar dated March 28, 2010 touched on an allegedly defamatory article titled, “Perkasa President Cannot Be Prime Minister”.

In reference to the article, Ibrahim alleged that the writer Nurul Ain Mohd Hussain had her facts wrong regarding his audience with the Sultan of Selangor, but he did not pursue the mistake as he “did not have enough time”.

“When the reporter brought up that question, it was like the reporter put words [in] my mouth. It ended up looking as if the Sultan brought up the topic (concerning the alleged chauvinism shown by him and Perkasa) and I discussed the issue with the Sultan,” said Ibrahim.

He claimed that many publications and articles featuring him had “got it wrong” and were not entirely accurate. However, he decided to brush aside the other reports because of time constraints and the errors were “not serious enough”.

He is demanding an apology as well as exemplary and general damages from the defendants.

Ibrahim is represented by Harmy Yusoff, while Datuk Nitin Nadkarni, Himahlini Ramalingam and G Meerasree are appearing for the defendants. Hearing continues today.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 22, 2015.