GUA MUSANG: Perikatan Nasional chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was charged at the Sessions Court here today with making seditious remarks at Felda Perasu on Aug 14.
The former prime minister pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him before Judge Nik Mohd Tarmizie Nik Mohd Shukri.
According to the charge sheet, Muhyiddin, who is also the Pagoh member of Parliament, was charged with uttering the following seditious remarks:
"Saya nak ceritakan mungkin orang Nenggiri ingatkah tak ingat. Saya waktu itu, sekali lagi diberikan sokongan ada 115 Ahli Parlimen yang sokong saya. (I want to tell whether the people in Nenggiri remember or not. At the time, I was once again received the support from 115 members of Parliament, who backed me).
"Ikut Perlembagaan kalau saya sebagai Ahli Parlimen ada dapat sokongan 114, campur saya Muhyiddin Yassin ada satu Parlimen jadi 115. (According to the Constitution, if I, as an MP, received the support of 114, plus myself Muhyiddin Yassin with one Parliament seat, that makes 115.)
"Kerusi Parlimen 222. Kalau bahagi 2 berapa? 111...kalau dapat lebih 1 dia boleh bentuk kerajaan. Tapi saya dapat 115. Kalau ikut kiraan Perlembagaan saya sudah ada jumlah yang lebih daripada mencukupi untuk jadi Perdana Menteri. (There are 222 parliamentary seats. If you divide by two, that's 111. If you get one more, you can form a government. But I received 115. According to the calculation based on the Constitution, I already have more than enough to become the Prime Minister.)
"Ini bukan nak mengungkit tapi it's a record of history. Tapi entah macam mana Yang Dipertuan Agong waktu itu tak ajak jemput saya pergi Istana angkat sumpah. (This is not about bringing it up but it's a record of history. However, somehow, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at that time did not invite me to the palace for the swearing-in.)
"Siapa yang Dipertuan Agong dulu? Faham dah la eh. Kita tak nak cerita apa-apa buruk eh tapi yang itu bagi saya agak luar biasa...tapi takpe lah. (Who was the Yang di-Pertuan Agong back then? Understand? We don't want to dwell on anything negative, but that was quite unusual for me... but it's okay.)
"Maka lepas tu terbentuklah kerajaan Perpaduan..sekarang ni kita panggil kerajaan Madanon. (After that, a unity government was formed...which we now call the 'kerajaan Madanon')."
Muhyiddin was charged with making the remarks near Dewan Semai Bakti in Felda Perasu here between 10.30pm and 11.50pm on Aug 14.
The charges were framed under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 and punishable under Subsection 4(1) of the same Act, which carries the maximum RM5,000 fine or three years' imprisonment or both if convicted.
Datuk Umar Saifuddin Jaafar led a six-member prosecution team. Muhyiddin was represented by Amer Hamzah Arshad, Chetan Jethwani, Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, Mohd Nasir Abdullah, and Mariana Mat Kudin.
Earlier, Umar Saifudddin proposed bail at RM20,000 and asked the court to impose additional conditions of a gag order against Muhyiddin from making any statements on the issue.
Amer Hamzah, on the other hand, said that the proposed RM20,000 bail is unreasonable and excessive, considering that Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor previously was only required to post RM5,000 bail.
He added that imposing a bail of RM5,000 is sufficient and that there was no need to impose a gag order against his client since the issue was already public knowledge.
The court later set bail at RM5,000 and rejected the prosecution's request for the gag order. The court also fixed Nov 4 as mention.