PUTRAJAYA: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang agreeing to an out-of-court settlement in his defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown shows the collaboration between Umno and the Islamist party is true, claims Parti Amanah Negara.
The defamation suit was over an article titled "As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let’s Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections" published on Aug 6, 2016.
The Marang MP had finalised the settlement through a consent order dated Feb 1 at the London High Court of Justice.
Amanah communications director Khalid Abdul Samad (pic) claimed the collaboration between the political parties was not only agreed upon, but also looked up to, and praised.
“If the case is retracted, it means the case was not strong.
“I was made to understand that the article in question will be allowed to continue being published. We shall wait for the next action.
“PAS also did not deny the audio recording of its central committee member Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Aziz talking about Umno money,” he said at the Putrajaya Car Free Day event on Sunday (Feb 3).
Khalid, who is also Federal Territories Minister, said PAS had denied the collaboration when former PAS members raised the issue before leaving the party to form Amanah.
PAS had sued Rewcastle Brown for libel over the article, alleging the party had received RM90mil in bribes from Umno.
She filed a counterclaim on October 2017.
Commenting on a study that nearly 60% of Malays were not happy with the performance of the Pakatan Harapan government, Khalid said it was a figure derived from the average of total voters in Malaysia.
“The average calculated included voters from states like Kelantan and Terengganu where Pakatan candidates got less than 12% of Malay support, which pulled the figure further down.
“Perhaps in the next elections, with PAS and Umno collaborating, Malays that despise Umno will support Pakatan. Instead of a three-cornered fight, it will be two-cornered.
“But, that will also depend on our performance,” he said.
He said this in response to a joint survey conducted by independent research firm Ilham Centre and Penang Institute, a think tank funded by the Penang government.
They found that 60% of the respondents believed that non-Muslims were now in control of the government and that the DAP was calling the shots.
The survey interviewed 2,614 Malay respondents between Oct 24 and Dec 24 last year.
Khalid also said that the owners of two buildings in Kuala Lumpur - Kompleks Tun Ghafar Baba and Dewan Shazac Bistari - that were built on government land without approval from Federal Land Office have begun looking for a settlement.
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