KUALA LUMPUR (May 11): Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has maintained that statements he made about Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi asking for his intervention in the latter's ongoing court cases are true and hence cannot be considered defamatory.
Muhyiddin in his defence filed on Monday (May 9) sighted by theedgemarkets.com maintained that the comments he made in Mersing last February were based on substantially true facts.
“There cannot be damage to Ahmad Zahid's reputation, as his (Ahmad Zahid's) public reputation was already questionable and or damaged prior to the statements being made.
“The statements made were true and therefore cannot be defamatory in nature,” said Muhyiddin, who is also Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia's president.
He observed that Ahmad Zahid had been ordered to enter his defence in his first court case in Kuala Lumpur and that he was allegedly caught lying to the court when he sought an adjournment to his ongoing trial as he claimed that Muhyiddin had called for a meeting when the Bersatu president became the new PM in late February 2020.
This showed that the Umno president could not be trusted, he said, noting the Prime Minister's Office had issued a statement denying the alleged meeting, after which Ahmad Zahid changed his story.
"As a result, Ahmad Zahid was branded by the prosecution as “a liar”; the prosecution had threatened to bring contempt proceedings,” Muhyiddin said.
However, the contempt proceedings did not materialise.
Ahmad Zahid triggered Johor state elections
Muhyiddin said that when Umno joined the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government in February 2020, Ahmad Zahid, who led the party and the Barisan Nasional coalition, had made a personal commitment to him to support PN.
“However, on or about Oct 11, 2020, Ahmad Zahid had issued a letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that he and a group of MPs are supporting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the new PM. Ahmad Zahid, despite his promises to support me, led the charge to withdraw the support from me,” he added.
Muhyiddin further alleged that Ahmad Zahid had triggered the fall of the Bersatu-led government in Perak and Johor.
He claimed that Ahmad Zahid was bent on dissolving the Johor state assembly even though it was a stable government as in January this year, the Johor state legislature had successfully amended the state constitution to lower the minimum voting age and to lower the qualification age to be elected as an assemblyman to 18.
He said that he met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who reiterated he did not agree to the dissolution of the Johor state assembly.
“Given that the PM was not agreeable to the dissolution, the Menteri Besar of Johor, who is an UMNO member, would not have initiated the dissolution of the Johor state assembly without any direction or approval of Ahmad Zahid, as the Umno president,” the Pagoh MP added.
“There was no good reason to suggest that the Johor state assembly was unstable when it was dissolved. The Johor assembly was dissolved at Ahmad Zahid's behest,” he said.
Ahmad Zahid is seeking an injunction against Muhyiddin from repeating his allegation that he had sought his intervention in his ongoing court case.
Muhyiddin, in his affidavit in reply to Ahmad Zahid's injunction application, said Ahmad Zahid had brought with him a stack of files of his criminal case to the former's house, and sought his intervention.
As in the affidavit in reply, Muhyiddin reiterated that he could not and would not carry out any interference with the ongoing court proceedings and that Ahmad Zahid should defend himself if he was truly innocent.
For these reasons, Muhyiddin pleads that he was justified in making the comments as being a politician, he has a duty to inform the public, who have a legitimate and corresponding interest to receive the right information.
“As politicians, Ahmad Zahid and I are accountable to the public. The voters in Johor then and party members were free to decide on the veracity of the information and that the matters spoken of (the purported defamatory statement) are of public interest as the Umno president is also a public figure,” he added.
As the events are true, Muhyiddin said the statement should be considered as fair comment.
A case management of the matter was held before High Court deputy registrar Nor Afidah Idris on Wednesday, where a case management and an inter-partes injunction hearing were fixed for May 25 before Justice Datuk Rozana Ali Yusoff.