06/07/2026
This news article is really a masterstoke.
The masterstroke is that it plants the gravest possible explanation without formally adopting it. “Abuse of power”, “malicious enforcement” and “selective enforcement” are not neutral possibilities. Once those concepts are introduced, the reader is invited to reinterpret the entire investigation through that lens. Yet the statement retains a textual escape hatch: “should there be credible evidence…”
Read as a whole and in context, there is a clear implied allegation that the police investigation may be unfair, selective, or otherwise improper, although 1602 stops short of positively alleging as a fact that the authorities have acted unfairly.
It introduces concepts such as “abuse of power”, “malicious enforcement” and “selective enforcement” into the factual narrative, but uses an if / should there be evidence formulation to avoid expressly asserting that those matters have occurred.
The language is quite deliberate. Vincent Lee Ki Lung says that the company “cannot understand” how locally manufactured and fully tax-compliant products could be treated as suspected smuggled goods. He then expressly invokes “fairness, impartiality, due process and transparency”, before reserving the company's right to take legal action if there is evidence of “abuse of power, malicious or selective enforcement”.
https://www.theborneopost.com/2026/07/05/sarawak-brewery-1602-maintains-products-are-legally-brewed-tax-compliant/
Personally, although no express allegation of unfair or selective enforcement was made, such an imputation is arguably conveyed by implication and inference from the words used, read in their entirety and in context.
For example, a person does not have to write:
“A is corrupt.”
Suppose he writes:
“We call for transparency and integrity. Should credible evidence emerge that A received improper benefits in exchange for exercising his position, the relevant authorities must act without fear or favour.”
By implication and inference, the words convey the defamatory imputation that:
A is reasonably suspected of corruption or of receiving improper benefits in the exercise of his position.
That is potentially defamatory even though the literal proposition “A is corrupt” was never stated.
KUCHING (July 5): Sarawak homegrown craft beer brand 1602 has reaffirmed that it operates in full compliance with Malaysian laws and all regulatory requirements following a recent police investigation at its warehouse in Kuching. Its founder Dato Sri Vincent Lee Ki Lung said the company has cooperat...
