PRIME Minister Anwar Ibrahim has sent a letter of demand to Muhyiddin Yassin to retract his legal action against him and to issue an apology within 24 hours on all statements on the Felda settlers’ debt waiver issue.

The Pakatan Harapan chairman’s legal notice today follows the former prime minister’s announcement that he was pursuing his defamation suit against Anwar yesterday. 

Lawyer Sankara Nair, who is representing Anwar, said Muhyiddin’s lawyers have 24 hours to comply with their legal action. 

“Our client is seeking an unconditional and unequivocal apology in a manner and form to be approved by our client, to be published in newspapers and media of our client’s choice.

“The withdrawal of your (Muhyiddin) letter of demand and all defamatory statements that have been published on this matter in general,” he said in the letter. 

Anwar is also demanding that Muhyiddin immediately and unequivocally delete or withdraw all offensive and defamatory comments and pay damages of RM200 million or substantive compensation.

This, Sankara said, was for serious damages caused by Muhyiddin to Anwar’s reputation.

Anwar also wants Muhyiddin to pay all legal costs that have arisen from this matter.

“Therefore, we have been instructed by our client that if he does not receive any satisfactory response within 24 hours from the date of this letter, our instructions are to initiate legal action against Muhyiddin.”

Late yesterday Muhyiddin said he had instructed his lawyers to proceed with his suit against Anwar for defaming him in the Felda debts matter.

Muhyiddin said this was after documents released by Anwar yesterday vindicated him from claims he did not approve the waiver of Felda settlers’ debts.

He said the documents released were related to the issuance of sukuk linked to a cabinet decision in 2020 to write off the debts of Felda settlers, not the debt waiver itself.

“I have also explained many times before that the document Anwar signed was about sukuk and not about writing off Felda settlers’ debts. The disclosure proved I was telling the truth. The one who lied and slandered me was Anwar,” the Bersatu president said in a statement.

On July 18, Muhyiddin gave Anwar 24 hours to retract claims he had not fulfilled his promise to waive the settlers’ debts.

Following that Anwar yesterday revealed documents, which he said was proof he had approved the debt waiver plan.

This was immediately disputed by Muhyiddin’s former aide Marzuki Mohamad, who said the released documents were from an agreement on government-guaranteed sukuk issued in stages. –  July 21, 2023.