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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright June 2023
My fellow thoughtful retirees at Mubeen of Bukit Damansara are amazed that after years of making allegations against Tun Mahathir, PMX is still unprepared to file his statement. Or perhaps he has so much to say that it needs two additional weeks to produce documents that he has in storage all these years. Anyway, his lawyers are asking for more time to prepare a suitable reply to Tun Mahathir's defamation suit.
By the way, "thoughtful retirees" are those who express themselves aloud, at dawn after morning prayers on a daily basis that they feel cannot be safely shared elsewhere.
They are quite similar to a gathering of thought criminals that meets once a month in New York City organised by a psychologist, as featured recently (May 17) in the New Yorker magazine that I happened to read.
It is a place for ex university professors and controversial TikTokers to hold discussions they are unable to have elsewhere.
On the other hand, our Damansara thoughtful retirees meet at Mubeen Restaurant at Plaza Damansara, around the corner from the Saidina Umar Al Khatab mosque are not exactly socially ostracised.
Members are former cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, doctors and lawyers, and university adjuncts who have made their living from business, politics, government, and academia.
These last few days, these thoughtful retirees are preoccupied with speculations on the inability of PMX to file his case, asking for more time from the court.
Anyway, Anwar Ibrahim has been granted two additional weeks to submit his statement of defence in the RM150 million lawsuit filed by Tun Dr Mahathir against him. Anwar's lawyer confirmed that the court fixed July 7 for case management. Previously, Anwar had filed his appearance in the lawsuit on May 17 after requesting for a delay from Tun Mahathir.
Dr Mahathir, in the defamation suit, alleged PMX defamed him, accusing him of being racist and enriching himself as well as his family members during his 22-year tenure as PM.
During the PKR congress, Anwar had referred to someone "who in the past had been in power for 22 years and an additional 22 months" as taking advantage of his position to enrich himself and his family.
Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying he had never been accused or convicted of any wrongdoing involving power abuse or misuse of funds either during or after serving as PM, claiming PMX made "impugned" statements that were unfounded and based on hearsay.
Tun Mahathir is seeking RM100 million in exemplary damages and RM50 million in general damages and is demanding that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman and PKR president issue a written apology to apologise for making such a statement.
Meanwhile, PMX has repeatedly said he has evidence that he would share in the courts of law to prove that Tun Mahathir is as he claims the latter to be.
This is what seems to bother thoughtful retirees who are perplexed by the slow response from PMX and his legal team.
Are they purposely delaying the process? They ask.
Are they having real problems in trying to find adequate evidence to support PMX's allegations? They wonder.
My fellow thoughtful retirees seem to go with the notion that PMX may actually have difficulty trying to support allegations Anwar has been insinuating about Tun Mahathir's wrongdoing for the past two decades says the latter and now finally has a legal platform to prove himself. Yet he and his team are dragging their feet.
Knowing the shrewdness of Tun Mahathir, my fellow thoughtful retirees are of the opinion that it would be an uphill task for PMX and his team to mount a convincing defence.
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