KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has filed a defamation suit against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over the latter’s comments on the issue regarding the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) settlers’ debt.

According to Malaysiakini, the writ of summons was filed at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday by Muhyiddin’s legal team from Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership.

In the claim, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman is reportedly seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages, among others, commensurate with the RM200 million compensation which Anwar had demanded of him.

In his statement of claim, the Pagoh MP asserted that during his time as the prime minister in 2020 to 2021, both during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and afterwards, he worked with his Cabinet towards economic recovery and to ease the peoples’ hardship.

The initiatives taken at the time included writing off 80 per cent of the Felda settlers’ debt, which would see it reduced by RM8.3 billion from RM12.1 billion, he said.

He said he had made the decisions during a Cabinet meeting on October 14, 2020 to write off RM8.3 billion from the Felda settlers’ debt, to approve issuance of RM9.9 billion of government-guaranteed sukuk to increase Felda’s FGV Holdings Berhad and reduce its debts, and to approve an injection of RM990 million in an annual government grant to Felda for the next 10 years for sukuk repayment.

The debt write-off was proven to have been executed by a parliamentary written reply on December 16, 2021 by then minister in the prime minister’s department (economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed regarding Felda settlers, the plaintiff reportedly contended.

Besides that, he reportedly cited a parliamentary written reply by Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said on February 23 this year that showed the debt waiver was done in 2021.

Further, statements by Felda chairman Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh also showed that the debt waiver had been done in 2021, he reportedly added.

Muhyiddin reportedly claimed that Anwar's allegations implied that the former had lied about the Felda settlers’ debt write-off, was a person who did not fulfil his responsibilities and abused his power.

Aside from damages, Muhyiddin is reportedly seeking an injunction to restrain Anwar from further defaming him and a court order for the latter to take down content containing the allegedly defamatory statements on his social media platforms and YouTube.

The plaintiff is also reportedly seeking a public apology from Anwar which would be published in all news portals, mass media, and social media platforms.

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.

On July 18, Muhyiddin, who is Perikatan Nasional chairman, 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.

Anwar then responded by demanding compensation of RM200 million and an apology from Muhyiddin for alleging that the former had lied about the matter.