The Star/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Nov 06, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR - There was a plan to make Kulim-Bandar Baru MP Datuk Zulkifli Noordin vacate his seat to allow Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to contest the seat, the High Court was told.
Former PKR deputy president Senator Dr Syed Husin Ali admitted he and president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail were involved in this plan to get Anwar back into Parliament.
When asked by Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd's lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Jamaluddin if he accepted Zulkifli would have to resign his seat in order for Anwar to contest, Dr Syed Husin said: "He had to resign or be forced to resign."
While admitting that the planning was done at the party political bureau in Zulkifli's absence, Dr Syed Husin claimed it was Zulkifli who had suggested he step aside for Anwar since there was supposed to be an election petition against him for the seat.
Testifying in his RM10mil (S$4 million) libel suit filed against Utusan Melayu and Zulkifli, Dr Syed Husin admitted that he did not think Wan Azizah would ask Zulkifli to make way for Anwar.
The 76-year-old Senator also testified that Anwar, on two occasions, told him that Zulkifli had allegedly asked for payment to step down.
"The first occasion was a formal discussion with me and Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at their house and the second was at the party's political bureau," the first witness testified before Judicial Commissio-ner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.
Dr Syed Husin, however, agreed that he did not have direct knowledge from Zulkifli and did not hear the MP making such a request.
Dr Syed Husin admitted that he made the allegation in his book Memoir Perjuangan Politik Syed Husin Ali (Memoirs of the Political Struggle of Syed Husin Ali) that Zulkifli had demanded a payment of RM60,0000.
He said he felt it was not necessary for him to ask Zulkifli whether the allegation was true as Zulkifli had the right to comment and reply to the allegation which he did in his blog.
However, Dr Syed Husin denied that he met Zulkifli on behalf of Anwar to make an offer for the MP to vacate his seat.
He also disagreed that he told Zulkifli at the party headquarters that if the MP agreed to vacate the seat, Anwar promised to offer a position in any of Selangor GLC subsidiary companies with a monthly emolument of RM50,000 and RM60,000.
In his suit filed on Jan 27, Dr Syed Husin is also asking for an injunction to restrain the defendants from further publishing the similar libel or slander against him.
Dr Syed Husin said Zulkifli had published false allegations against him on Nov 19, last year in his blog under the title Anjing-Anjing Pencen (Retired Dogs).
He alleged Utusan Malaysia and its editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak had published a defamatory statement against him in the newspaper on Nov 20 last year under the headline Zul Nordin nafi dakwaan Syed Husin (Zul Noordin denies Syed Husin's claims).
