Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Azura Abas and Anis Ibrahim

• Dr M: Anwar out to discredit Lingam

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak has echoed the prime minister's statement on whether to make public the Royal Commission report on the V.K. Lingam video clip.

He said the decision would only be made after both he and Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi finished reading it.

When asked if the report would be released to the public, Najib said: "I don't know. I haven't seen the report yet. Let me have a look at it first, the prime minister (Abdullah) wants to study it first as well," he said at the Putra World Trade Centre after Umno's 62nd anniversary celebrations yesterday.

A four-volume report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the 'Lingam' video clip, which allegedly featured Lingam brokering judicial appointments, was submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Friday.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth exco member Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said the report should be made public because it was the people's right to read it.

The son of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he had no reservations about the report being made available to ordinary citizens.

On judicial reforms which Abdullah proposed in April, Mukhriz said: "Reforms are good but I also need to be convinced that the judicial reforms will make us win the next election, because I don't see how reforms will bring back confidence to Barisan Nasional."

"If we don't solve issues like rising oil and consumer goods prices, I don't think we'll win the elections."

Dr M: Anwar out to discredit Lingam

SHAH ALAM: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has alleged that the Lingam video recording was exposed in order to undermine the lawyer who is representing the former prime minister in a defamation suit.

He said his former deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim "purposely got this tape and exposed it because he wanted to undermine Lingam's credibility, and he happens to be my lawyer".

Datuk V.K. Lingam is defending Dr Mahathir in a RM100 million defamation suit brought by Anwar.

Dr Mahathir said the royal commission of inquiry into the video clip failed to bring up what he claimed was Anwar's "tampering with evidence".

"He did not give the full tape at one go. He released the tape in two parts. We don't know what he kept behind and how many other small tapes he has."

Admitting that he had read an extract of the royal commission's report, Dr Mahathir said there seemed to be every attempt to implicate him.

"Although there is no direct connection with me, in between the lines, it is suggested that the prime minister is biased and things like that.

"This kind of thing will keep going on. This is done by Anwar," he said.

The former prime minister was called as a witness during the commission's hearings.

He was asked to comment on the submission of the commission's report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Friday after participating in a forum organised by the Alumni Look East Society here yesterday.

Dr Mahathir said his latest remarks could bring on another defamation suit by Anwar.

"If I'm found guilty, I'll go to jail if I have to. If I go bankrupt, then I'll go bankrupt. It's all right," he said.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed