KUALA LUMPUR – Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor admitted to mentioning the word ‘MB’ in his speech, but neither the word ‘Selangor’ nor Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari’s name are clearly mentioned in his speech.
These are among the assertions found in the statement of defence filed on behalf of Sanusi in the ongoing suit, which Amirudin has filed against him.
The Selangor Menteri Besar and Gombak MP filed a defamation suit at the Shah Alam High Court in August, after Sanusi accused him of having been involved in a scandal linked to the Sungai Klang river cleaning project, while speaking at one of Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) “Mega PN Best Sayangi Kedah Sejahtera” gatherings.
Sanusi, in the same speech, also alleged that Amirudin gave 600ha of land to Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who allegedly intended to develop a RM10 billion project.
In his statement of defence cited by Scoop, which was filed on October 10, Sanusi stated that his role as PN’s election director makes him responsible for disclosing any issues of governance and leaks that occur among Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) politicians.
“The defendant (Sanusi) is a politician who has been getting accusations and slander from PH-BN politicians.
“The defendant has been accused of abusing his power in the theft of rare earth elements (REE) and also money allocated to Malaysian Road Records Information (MARRIS) by PH-BN politicians, especially the Home Affairs Minister.
“Considering the defendant’s position as a politician, who is always accused and slandered by PH-BN politicians, the defendant has also taken steps to also make disclosure after disclosure about the issues of governance and leakages that occur.
“(Besides) it is well known that the war of words between the plaintiff (Amirudin) as the Selangor MB from PH and the defendant as the Kedah MB from PN has been ongoing for a long time, and peaked when the state elections were approaching and various series of speeches have been published that show the war of words.”
In fact, Sanusi also said that Amirudin himself in many instances has issued statements that condemned and slandered him with baseless defamatory accusations, and malicious comments such as during one of his speeches in ‘Jelajah Madani Program’ in Bukit Melawati on July 13 or at the press conference after the Madani Afiat program launch, Gotong Royong Mega Fight Aedes 1.0 and the one-hour Malaysia Clean Up National Level 2023 on July 9.
“Since the plaintiff himself has uttered defamatory words and accusations against the defendant, the defendant had to defend himself by raising issues of governance that became a conversation and a question mark among the community related to the plaintiff’s administration.
“The issue raised is an issue of public interest (which was) based on true facts.
“Therefore, the plaintiff’s action to file a defamation action against the defendant is an attempt to cover up the behavior of the plaintiff himself who also made defamatory statements against the defendant.
“The political war of words is normal among politicians, as long as it is based on true issues and facts.”
Sanusi also claimed that he had never accused Amirudin as someone who would abuse his power or be involved in corruption practices.
He emphasised that he had never alleged Amirudin to have directly caused Selangor or its state government to lose or suffer a loss of at least RM180 million.
“What was stated by the defendant was (regarding) a project about Sungai Kelang that had the potential to record a loss of at least RM180 million, and did not link it directly to the plaintiff.
“The defendant has never made an accusation that the plaintiff is an unqualified, incompetent, corrupt Menteri Besar who practices cronyism and favouritism and certainly there was never any accusation that the plaintiff is in collusion with traders, defenders of protectors of Chinese businessmen, favoring and enriching Chinese businessmen.”
However, Sanusi agreed that comments he made regarding a police report which led him to be arrested by the police at 3am, in connection with the accusation of him insulting the Sultan of Selangor, is a true fact.
“(However) since the plaintiff also accused the defendant that he was ‘insolent’ before any court charge was made, the defendant (therefore) criticised the plaintiff as a coward on the issue.” – October 13, 2023
