KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): Parti Bersama Malaysia (Bersama) leader Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli has instructed his lawyers to file a defamation suit against Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri R Ramanan over remarks made at a press conference on Thursday.
Rafizi said in a statement on Friday that he had handed over video recordings and transcripts of the press conference to his legal team, which believes there are strong grounds for a lawsuit under Malaysia’s defamation laws.
He said Ramanan had made several allegations against him, including accusing him of corruption.
“If R Ramanan refuses to take legal action against me following his press conference yesterday [Thursday], it would open the way for me to bring him to court over the allegations he made against me,” Rafizi said.
Ramanan at a press conference on Thursday had been responding to Rafizi’s allegation that he received RM9.5 million from businessman Victor Chin Boon Long to resolve a “corporate mafia” dispute. Ramanan said Rafizi had failed to provide evidence to support the allegations after seven months and that he saw no reason to sue over claims he considered unsubstantiated.
Rafizi said Ramanan’s decision not to take legal action contradicted his earlier public challenge to sue anyone linking him to the allegations.
The controversy began in March 2026, when Chin alleged that a PKR MP had solicited RM10 million to resolve problems involving a corporate mafia seeking control of NexG Bhd, now known as Datasonic Group Bhd (KL:DATASONIC). Of that amount, RM9.5 million was purportedly paid. Ramanan has denied receiving the money.
The issue resurfaced when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dismissed the allegation that a minister had solicited RM9.5 million in connection with the controversy as a “political statement unsupported by evidence” during question time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday.
Anwar said the minister implicated had denied the claims and taken legal action, adding that the legal process should be allowed to take its course.
Rafizi, a former economy minister and once a close ally of Anwar, said his lawyers believe there are sufficient grounds to sue Ramanan over the statements made at Thursday’s press conference.