KOTA BARU: Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) vice president Datuk Husam Musa today urged Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and other party leaders to step down honorably following the out-of-court settlement of a defamation suit between Abdul Hadi and Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.
Husam said in his Facebook posting today that Hadi should take full responsibility of his action as it involved the dignity of the party.
Other actions suggested by Husam include calling for the resignation of party leaders who had supported the defamation suit.
"The party’s dignity and integrity needs to be restored," said Husam who is also Kelantan’s Pakatan Harapan chairman.
While cynically offering his "congratulation" on the out-of-court settlement of the defamation suit, Husam said the actions of certain Pas leaders had tainted the party.
"The party had been the people’s hope. Deep In my heart, I feel that this episode is tragic," he said.
Husam said the Sarawak Report editor’s position was not a bit dented but Pas had to spend RM2 million collected party members and supporters to proceed with the defamation suit.
In a statement yesterday, Hadi’s political secretary Syahir Sulaiman said that "Hadi has decided to finalise an out-of-court settlement against Sarawak Report’s Clare Rewcastle-Brown through an order of consent, dated Feb 1, at the London High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division."
The decision was reached after scrutinising the whole court action, as well as views from Hadi’s legal team.
Syahir was reported to have said Hadi and Rewcastle-Brown had consented to withdraw claims and counterclaims, respectively.
Hadi filed the defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown over an allegedly defamatory article titled "As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let’s Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections" published on Aug 6, 2016, which he had claimed was false.
The article alleged that Hadi had received RM90 million from Najib to get Pas to support Umno and Barisan Nasional.