KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sued Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a tit-for-tat situation after Ahmad Zahid filed a suit against him, the High Court was told.
Dr Mahathir, however, said it was his right to sue as his popularity and affection were affected by a statement Ahmad Zahid had made in 2017, which he considered a “personal insult”.
“I was less popular because of Ahmad Zahid’s statement,” the former Langkawi MP said yesterday.
Dr Mahathir was testifying in a lawsuit he initiated against Ahmad Zahid for alleged defamation over the latter’s “Kutty” remarks.
Ahmad Zahid’s lawyer Mohd Shahrul Fazli Kamarulzaman had asked Dr Mahathir why he only initiated the legal action in July 2022, some four years after the event.
“I have a lot of things to do. I have to handle a lot of other businesses. Along the way, I realised what he said was believed by some people,” Dr Mahathir said.
Mohd Shahrul: I put it to you, Ahmad Zahid (first) sued you on this issue in April 2022. Your letter of demand was only given to him in May 2022. Your demand on this defamation suit is actually a response to Ahmad Zahid suing you in 2022.
Dr Mahathir: I have the right to sue him.
(On April 20, 2022, Ahmad Zahid filed a defamation suit against the former prime minister over Dr Mahathir’s claim that he sought the latter’s help to drop corruption charges in court.)
Mohd Shahrul: He is suing you, so that’s why you sued him back.
Dr Mahathir: That is one of the reasons but the main reason is that what he told was a lie that affected my reputation.
Mohd Shahrul then suggested to Dr Mahathir that his legal action was purely an afterthought that only arose after he was no longer in power.
At this point, Dr Mahathir’s lawyer Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi told the court it was “common knowledge” that an individual has six years to initiate legal action.
On July 20 last year, Dr Mahathir filed the lawsuit against Ahmad Zahid, 70, for allegedly issuing defamatory statements regarding the “kutty” issue.
In his statement of claim, Dr Mahathir claimed that Ahmad Zahid had issued the defamatory statement against him during an Umno divisional meeting in Kelana Jaya on July 30, 2017.
The statement was reproduced on Astro Awani’s YouTube and several online news portals, which could be easily accessed by Internet users.
Dr Mahathir claimed the statement meant he was not born as a Malay or a Muslim with the alleged original name of “Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty” and that he had claimed to be a Malay when he became prime minister to gain political and personal advantage, apart from belittling Malaysians of Indian Muslim descent.
In his statement of defence, Ahmad Zahid denied that the statement made on July 30, 2017, was malicious and slanderous or harmed the reputation of the plaintiff.
The Umno president claimed the name “Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty” refers to an individual based on information in an old copy of an identity card.
He claimed that he also has no control over any video publication over his statement on the media platform.
The hearing before Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong continues tomorrow.
