KOTA KINABALU – After resolving his native court summons, the lawyer who had controversially likened the annual Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant to a cattle show has filed a civil counter suit against 19 NGOs who had sued him in the local native court.
Lawyer Marcel Jude filed the writ of summons yesterday in the Sabah and Sarawak High Court, naming, among others, the leader of United Sabah Dusun Association (USDA) Datuk Ewon Ebin and 22 others.
On August 17, Ebin had said in a statement representing 20 KadazanDusun Murut and Rungus (KDMR) associations that they had decided to bring Jude’s “cattle show” remark to the native court. They filed the summons on August 25.
They claimed that the remark was a “grave breach of native customary law” in Sabah.
The group is the second party other than the KadazanDusun Cultural Association (KDCA) to file a summons at the native court against Jude.
This culminated in Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan announcing on Monday that Jude had agreed to pay the customary fine set by the native court – in the form of seven buffaloes – and there will be no further native court suits against him.
The payment of seven buffaloes serves as his penance to give sogit (meaning compensation in the local language) to seven ethnic groups for his offence.
On whether the settlement will also involve USDA and the other 19 NGOS, Kitingan had said: “The suit is no longer relevant as there cannot be overlapping charges.”
Both Ebin and Jude did not respond to comments when contacted by The Vibes.
The whole issue started on June 12 when a court submission calling the Unduk Ngadau pageant an “exotic cattle show” and “auction show” went viral in Sabah.
The court submission had been made for Sabah politician Phillip Among, who was accused in June of using criminal force in outraging the modesty of two women on several occasions throughout the pageant. – The Vibes, September 1, 2021
