KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional (PN) information chief Datuk Seri Azmin Ali said the letter of demand issued by Barisan Nasional (BN) to him and its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin showed how BN was using its status to threaten the opposition with legal actions.
The letter of demand was over a claim that recent charges against his party leaders were masterminded by BN chairperson and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
"The letter of demand allegedly denies the role of Umno and BN which is believed to have led to a series of prosecutions against Bersatu leaders and businessmen accused of having links to Bersatu and PN.
"Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid and BN leaders are now part of the unity government that rules and governs the country.
"The letter of demand shows that BN are presently using their position to instil fear in the opposition by taking legal action," he said.
Azmin said that in actual fact, the statement from Bersatu and PN leaders regarding this matter were facts that had already been stated in the police report made by Bersatu's Armada representative on Feb 15 regarding the conspiracy to cripple Bersatu and PN through false accusations and slander.
In the statement, he noted some facts which included that Zahid had announced a new court cluster which would come from Bersatu and PN, as quoted in a news report from a Malay language daily.
Another fact was that Umno information chief Isham Jalil had also issued a warning on the same matter which meant that they already knew that prosecution would take place even before it happened, as quoted in a news article from a local news portal.
The following fact was when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was also seen as being involved in the conspiracy when he announced there was misappropriation of funds with amounts that kept changing, from RM600 billion; RM350 billion; RM92.5 billion; RM4.5 billion and lastly RM300 million purportedly from the Jana Wibawa government contract.
Lastly, when Bersatu's information chief, Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan was slapped with two charges, the amount was only RM6.9 million and not RM600 billion, RM530 billion, RM92.5 billion, RM4.5 billion or RM300 million as claimed earlier.
"Such charges clearly show that there is a conspiracy of false slander against Bersatu and PN that was hastily put together.
"The first charge against Wan Saiful purportedly showed that the offense was committed in April last year. At the time, the country's Prime minister was Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was Umno vice president, and not Muhyiddin," he said.
The second charge supposedly showed that there was an offense that happened between July to September last year.
At the time, Azmin pointed out that Muhyiddin was no longer the prime minister.
When such offenses were committed, it was not during the time when PN was leading the government but Umno that was spearheading it, noting that the charge sheets did not mention Bersatu or PN.
"Why is it only Bersatu leaders are becoming targets of investigations and prosecution whereas BN leaders are exempted?
"This clearly shows that there are attempts at the highest level of the PH-BN government leadership to use the government institution to carry out selected prosecution in this series of political hunting which is both hasty and messy.
"The trial for such cases will not happen before the state elections for the six states which are looming soon.
"Therefore, the series of prosecutions are being carried out merely for the character assassination of Bersatu and PN leaders ahead of the upcoming state elections, without taking into account if the charges have a strong base or foundation or not," he said.
Azmin said that this was an evil conspiracy by the PH-BN government to save their position which was becoming less popular in the eyes of the people as shown in the latest public sentiment research.
Referring to research carried out by the 02 Malaysia firm with the cooperation of five mainstream media, there was not even a minister from the PH-BN government, including the Prime Minister, who had received the people's satisfaction score of more than 50 per cent.
He said the people had also given a somewhat low score towards the capability of the PH-BN government in handling and managing the country's economic growth (27 per cent), sufficient food supplies (26 per cent), welfare and health, well-being of the people (25 per cent), household economic stability, poverty and cost of living (21 per cent).
This he said was empirical data which showed that the PH-BN government had failed in the eyes of the people after only 100 days in power.
"Once I receive the letter of demand, my lawyers will respond accordingly," he said.