KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The Federal Land Development Authority’s (Felda) debts were only paid this year, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.

Fahmi said that although former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration had promised to waive Felda’s debts in 2021, the federal government had only last month arranged for the necessary funds to carry out the debt waiver.

"In conclusion, Felda’s debts were not paid for by the federal government until June 26, 2023,” he said in a statement.

Earlier today, Muhyiddin had insisted that it was him and not Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who had waived the Felda settlers’ debt, saying that he will proceed with his defamation lawsuit against Anwar.

The Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman and Anwar have been locked in arguments on which of them should be the one taking credit for the scheme to cancel the Felda settlers’ debt.

Muhyiddin claimed that the documents produced by Anwar do not prove that the latter was telling the truth but the reverse, adding that the said documents were actually regarding an agreement issuing government-guaranteed sukuk.

Yesterday, Malay Mail sighted documents that showed Anwar had signed off RM990 million on June 27 this year as part of the agreement to waive the Felda settlers’ debt.

Anwar urged Muhyiddin to apologise over the latter’s prior claim that he was the one that executed the decision to waive Felda settlers’ debt.

The day before, Muhyiddin sent a letter of demand to Anwar seeking an apology and retraction for claiming the former did not implement a debt waiver scheme for Felda settlers, which had to be done within 24 hours.

Failure to comply would see Muhyiddin’s lawyers begin a defamation lawsuit against Anwar.

The next day, Muhyiddin insisted he had been responsible for executing this decision in 2021, accusing Anwar of lying to claim credit.

Anwar responded by saying Muhyiddin’s administration had only agreed to the debt waiver, but never followed through with it, which was why he could still do it now in 2023.

Among other things, Anwar said the funds for the programme were only allocated in the Budget 2023 that he tabled in February, and were nowhere to be seen in either Budget 2021 or 2022.