Muhyiddin says doesn’t know Anwar was offered DPM post

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PUTRAJAYA: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday he does not want to get dragged into what he described as useless polemics arising from the claim that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at one time was offered the Deputy Prime Minister post.

He said he did not know of the offer and only knew of the claim through the media.

“I am not sure if the statement is true or not and I do not want to get involved in useless polemics,” he said when asked to comment on the claim by Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament, Nurul Izzah Anwar that her father had been offered the post.

Approached by reporters after he had launched the Mind Transformation Plan ‘Towards a Clean, Beautiful and Prosperous Nation’ here, Muhyiddin said there were more important matters to handle like the economy and social issues.

“The question of position is not important to me, if anyone wants to make all sorts of accusations, that is their right. But we who understand, do not get easily trapped so that it becomes a debate or conflict of no benefit. I do not think that is what Malaysians want,” he said.

Several news portals had reported that Nurul Izzah had claimed Anwar was offered the post of Deputy Prime Minister after the 13th General Election in 2013.

Anwar is currently serving a five-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh Prison in Selangor after the Federal Court on Feb 10 rejected his appeal against his conviction and the jail sentence by the Court of Appeal for sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari in 2008.

Replying to a question on whether Umno was uneasy with the action of the chief prosecutor in Anwar’s sodomy case, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah who has gone on a roadshow to provide information on the case, Muhyiddin said it was the right of the noted lawyer.

“It is his (Shafee’s) right. He has been invited to explain and people want to listen. Shafee is an intelligent man. If he thinks it is appropriate, then that’s his right,” he said. — Bernama