PAS right to settle Sarawak Report suit - Umno sec-gen
PAS made the "right move” in deciding to settle its defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa said today.
Annuar opined that PAS had to take action against the whistleblower site at the time, as the purportedly defamatory article could have affected the party in last year's general election.
He was referring PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang filing suit in London against Rewcastle-Brown for libel in April 2017, over a 2016 article alleging that the party received an RM90 million payoff to support BN and Umno.
PAS initially attempted to seek public funding to meet part of the legal costs, before Hadi agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Rewcastle-Brown.
"But now, it’s 'game over'.
“If you ask me, I don't want to fly from Kuala Lumpur to London, flying up and down attending court cases. It is not a cheap thing spending hundreds of thousands, maybe millions just to settle a small issue which is a non-issue to PAS, maybe," he said in an interview with the Malay Mail.
“I think PAS chose the right strategy. They want to focus on their business and they want to move forward.
"Otherwise, they are being dragged and entangled into an old issue that is not even relevant to their direction now," he added.
Annuar added that Umno being linked to the case would not affect its newfound cooperation with PAS for the coming Semenyih by-election.
"That has nothing to do with Semenyih. Rewcastle-Brown writing about it is one thing, but (former prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak's account has been investigated (in other criminal probes).
“If Najib has given RM90 million, I’m sure all the documents are already in the hands of the government now, but there is nothing."
Najib had recently denied ever paying PAS or its president RM90 million.
Bernama today reported that the MACC has begun investigating the alleged RM90 million payment.
Of course there wont be any evidence of money banked into any of the PAS members accounts. But the money could have been given in cash. As Najib had cash stacked up in various places, RM100 over million was found by the police. But if it is true that certain PAS members had suddenly accumulated wealth, they need to be investigated. Annuar Musa thinks the people are stupid.
Have heard of idiots but thank God for showing one in the form of anuar musa. this cheap creature think Malaysians are as stupid as his umno and pas creatures. An unashamed scoundrel is the sec gen of umno! Please God save the stupefied Malays from these scavengers.
I presume we shall reading / here more stupid reasons than the real reason ie PAS was going look totally bad if the suit had gone ahead .
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