Copies of a statutory declaration (SD) implicating former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in adultery and abuse of power, were distributed at an event today that was purportedly set up to allow him to speak.
The organiser, Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) president Azwanddin Hamzah, claimed that he meant to keep the document and other matters to himself because he had promised Muhyiddin he would do so.
However, he said he was now compelled to break some of his promises with Muhyiddin since Muhyiddin supposedly broke his promise to attend the event held in Kelab Darul Ehsan, Ampang, Selangor, today.
“I have been played a fool by Tan Sri (Muhyiddin), and it was only at the last minute that he issued a statement. Even that didn’t come from him himself, but merely his special officer who didn’t know about the meeting between me and Tan Sri.
“After what happened today, for me, since he has broken his promise to me, it becomes compulsory for me to break my promise to him, one of which was to give space for him to explain whatever issues involving him,” he told reporters after the event dubbed ‘Nothing to Hide 2.0’ today.
Muhyiddin had previously dismissed the SD as slander. His aide, Mohd Nardin Awang, had said yesterday that Muhyiddin never agreed to attend the function, nor did he receive any invitation.
Despite this, at the scheduled start of the event at 3pm, the event’s emcee claimed that Muhyiddin was still on this way and would be arriving in 30 minutes.
The event saw the attendance of some 200 people. However, some two-thirds of them including members of the press, walked out the event in the middle of Azwanddin’s speech where he claimed to have been set up by Muhyiddin and wanted to distribute the SDs.
As the exodus gathered pace, one member of the audience shouted, “We are here to listen to Muhyiddin’s explanations, not Azwanddin’s.”
Secret meeting
In his speech and during the press conference afterwards, Azwanddin claimed that he received a copy of the SD via courier, and proceed to meet Muhyiddin about the allegations in the SD.
He claimed that it was a secret one-to-one meeting, in which Muhyiddin denied the allegations, and agreed to explain himself at a JMM-organised function and the date of the function.
“He said he was slander, so JMM felt the need to give him justice and space to explain any outstanding issues. He agreed.
“After he agreed, JMM worked hard to organise this programme and planned to go nationwide to conduct this programme,” he told reporters.
Asked on the particulars of the meeting that supposedly took place between him and Muhyiddin, Azwanddin declined to reveal them apart from that the meeting took place before Ramadan.
Instead, he challenged Muhyiddin to reveal the time and place of the meeting.
“(If he doesn’t apologise to JMM) after Raya, we will come out and reveal what discussions and planning took place for me to put forward his agenda. I will reveal all the (Umno Supreme Council members) involved, and also the members of Parliament,” he added.
He claimed that these supreme council members and MPs had acted as go-betweens between him and Muhyiddin for some time, nearly a year.
Pressed for evidence that the meeting between him and Muhyiddin had actually taken place however, Azwanddin conceded that it would be difficult for him to produce such evidence.
To a question pointing out that the allegations against Muhyiddin seemed minor compared to scandals such as 1MDB, Azwanddin replied, “If he is confident with whatever explanation, this is his stage.
“We have given him space. We have given him a stage to explain himself,” he said, while stressing that JMM had delivered its promise to prepare the platform, while Muhyiddin purportedly failed to hold up his end of the bargain.
Muhyiddin and other Umno dissidents were sacked from the party on June 24, after being removed from the cabinet a year earlier, when he openly questioned Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on the 1MDB issue.
Following his sacking, Muhyiddin said he was mulling setting up a new political platform, but needed time to consider his options.- Mkini
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