KUALA LUMPUR: Lim Guan Eng has demanded Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to make an open apology over the latter's remarks on the revocation of Al-Bukhary Foundation's tax exemption.
The Bagan member of Parliament (MP) also urged Muhyiddin, who is also former prime minister and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president, to retract his allegations immediately.
Lim said that legal action would be taken against Muhyiddin if he failed to apologise and retract his statement, and gave the Pagoh MP until today to do so.
"Legal action (on Muhyiddin) would not just be a civil case. I hope he knows what is happening even though he was not present in Dewan Rakyat this morning.
"I hope he is following the Dewan Rakyat sitting live to know what's going on.
"I hope he can act with dignity by retracting and apologising so this can be resolved, or else I will take the next step," he said at a press conference at the Parliament lobby here today.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Datuk Anwar Ibrahim revealed that Lim, during his tenure as the finance minister, never revoked Al-Bukhary Foundation's tax exemption.
Anwar said this was based on records at the ministry, which showed that approval was only given on Feb 25, 2021, in an extraordinary circumstance involving Yayasan Al-Bukhary and Al-Bukhary Group.
On March 9, Muhyiddin had, in a statement after being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), alleged that the Pakatan Harapan government revoked the tax exemption for the foundation.
Meanwhile, Lim, who is also DAP chairman, reiterated that he had never examined the file or gave instructions for the tax exemption to be cancelled, as claimed by Muhyiddin.
"I do not want to be dragged into the corruption case linked to the Jana Wibawa programme or the Al-Bukhary Foundation tax exemption case.
"I have been linked to both issues when I have never made any statement on either one of them.
"I think this is intentional to create sentiments, especially being a non-Muslim finance minister cancelling tax exemptions for Islamic charitable institutions.
"This certainly fulfills Perikatan Nasional's (PN) desire to play on unhealthy sentiments.
"These are slander and lies that are very evil and unfair to me. I hope this can be resolved with Muhyiddin apoogising to me," he added.
He said Muhyiddin, who is also PN chairman, did not respond to the letter of demand delivered on March 15.