KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim finally revealed part of the government’s documents which showed that he had signed the Felda settlers’ debt waiver agreement on June 27 this year.
The documents, sighted by Malay Mail, showed that Anwar, who is also the finance minister, had signed off RM990 million this year and demanded former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin apologise for his remarks.
“I submit part of the Assignment for Financial Service Reserve Account (FSRA) agreement document related to the Government Guarantee to the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) which I have signed.
“Therefore, I urge Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to apologise for the slander thrown at me,” he said in a statement today.
During a ceramah last night, Anwar had warned the Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman to “get ready to apologise” over the latter’s prior claim that he was the one that executed the decision to waive Felda settlers’ debt.
Prior to that, Muhyiddin had 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.
The letter of demand dated yesterday gave Anwar 24 hours from time of receipt to comply, failing which Muhyiddin’s lawyers would begin a defamation lawsuit against the prime minister.
On July 7, Anwar announced a restructuring programme that would wipe off most of the RM8.3 billion in debt amassed by Felda settlers, saying Muhyiddin had failed to execute this when he had still been the PM.
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.
