PETALING JAYA: Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has filed a defamation suit against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today (July 28) over the latter’s claim that the former government led by PN did not write off RM8.3 billion in Felda settlers’ debt as promised.
Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin, in his statement of claim filed at the High Court yesterday (July 27) claimed that the Prime Minister’s remarks implied that he ‘lied’ about the Felda settlers’ debt waiver.
He further said that Anwar did not seem to show “any remorse and continued to rally support for his false and malicious accusations by repeating the statements”.
“Anwar knew that the publication of the statements would stifle and discredit (Bersatu) to his benefit in view of the state elections on Aug 12,” he added.
To this, the Bersatu President is seeking RM400 million in total for exemplary and aggravated damages, as well as an unspecified sum in general damages and also wants Anwar to remove the statements from all of his social media accounts.
Prior to this, in an effort to have Anwar retract his comments, Muhyiddin’s lawyers had issued letters of demand to the PM.
In a response, Anwar had accused Muhyiddin of ‘twisting’ his remarks and demanded that he apologise for taking his remarks out of context.
Anwar through his lawyers had told Muhyiddin to retract his letter of demand and if he failed, the premier would not hesitate in taking legal action.
Previously, Anwar alleged that the then PN-led government had failed to provide any allocation in the 2021 and 2022 national budgets to resolve the Felda debt issue.
