MUHYIDDIN Yassin has issued Anwar Ibrahim a letter of demand, giving the prime minister 24 hours to retract his statement that Perikatan Nasional (PN) had failed to dispose of Felda settlers’ debts amounting to RM8.3 billion.

The Bersatu president told Anwar to apologise or legal action would be taken against him. 

Muhyiddin also wants the prime minister to remove all social media postings on the matter and to pay damages.

Lawyer Rosli Dahlan Saravana, who is representing Muhyiddin, said in the letter that action will be taken if the prime minister fails to comply. 

“If you fail to comply with these demands within the stated period, we have been asked to initiate legal action against you,” he said. 

Last week, the former prime minister demanded that Anwar step down for “lying” about PN’s disposal of Felda settlers’ debts.

He said his administration had agreed to dispose of part of the settlers’ loans, amounting to RM8.3 billion, to relaunch Felda.

“Anwar accused me of not carrying out the disposal of Felda settlers’ debts. This is a big lie,” the PN chairman said in a Facebook post.

“The disposal of Felda settlers’ debts was already implemented when I was prime minister.

“This was confirmed by a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in a reply in parliament on February 23, 2023, affirming the settlement of Felda settlers’ debts was done in 2021.”

Anwar denied lying about the disposal of the debts. 

He said as the finance minister, he had just signed the approval for the disposal of the debts at the end of last month. 

“The former prime minister (Muhyiddin) issued a statement that I was lying, that the debt settlement had been completed in 2021.  

“How can you say you have completed it, (when) I just signed it at the end of June. So, when you said it was completed, which part did you complete?” 

Muhyiddin also said former Felda chairman Idris Jusoh had made a statement on February 24 that the payment of the settlers’ debts amounting to RM8.3 billion had been fulfilled in 2021.

Earlier this year, in a parliamentary written reply, Law and Institutional Reform Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said the government was unable to continue writing off Felda settlers’ loans, which was promised by Muhyiddin during his tenure.

She said the sum of RM8 million waived in 2021 has had a significant impact on Felda’s cash flow. – July 19, 2023.