KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is "all talk" with no facts or evidence to back his allegations against the former.
Dr Mahathir took a swing at the prime minister in his reply to the latter's statement of defence, saying that Anwar had been making numerous allegations but without any evidence.
The statement of claim was filed via the law practice of Rafique at the Shah Alam High Court on Thursday (July 6).
He also said that Anwar had even refused to provide any evidence when he officially requested for it via a court application made in the RM150 million defamation lawsuit, which Dr Mahathir has initiated against the latter.
"Since 1998 until the day he filed his defence, the defendant had never shown any evidence to support his claims (related to) abuse of power or nepotism, but only repeated his political defamation against me. This, directly and indirectly, shows that he is someone who lies a lot."
Dr Mahathir also denied Anwar's allegation that he was corrupt and practised nepotism and cronyism and added that Anwar had traits of a "pathological liar", and had stated a different position than what was said in his defence.
This, he said, when explaining Anwar's claim regarding the government's rescue measure against KPB (now known as Pos Logistics Bhd), a company in which his son, Mirzan Mahathir, is a director and majority shareholder.
"It is illogical for the defendant to dismiss any allegations of abuse of power when the rescue measure took place and then chose to state otherwise in his statement of defence.
"The defendant himself, who was the then deputy prime minister on March 1998, told the media and defended the fact that the KPB-MISC (Malaysian International Shipping Corporation) issue was not a rescue measure but a decision based on a 'business decision'," he said.
Dr Mahathir insisted that there was no abuse of power that led to him "enriching" his children, but instead, all their business resulted from the efforts and merits of the companies they owned.
He also said that Anwar's allegations that the plaintiff (Dr Mahathir) was an individual with wealth in the "billions" and who took the money abroad to avoid paying taxes were merely unfounded accusations.
He also rubbished Anwar's allegation that claimed that the suit sought to create a racial divide. This, Dr Mahathir said, was a wild accusation.
"The defendant's claim that I have just started talking about the Malays 'after losing power' is slanderous and untrue. My purpose of raising the issue about Malays is not new. (Therefore) the defendant's statement is clearly wrong with the intention being to tarnish my image as a statesman.
"Recently, I raised issues relating to Malays to protect their welfare and rights that are being neglected, which is a well-known fact," he said.
Dr Mahathir said that Anwar's claims of having an abundance of evidence against the abuse of power and alleged malfeasance allegedly committed by the plaintiff had created a bad perception of Dr Mahathir in the eyes of the public.
Dr Mahathir said as of today, Anwar, had not brought any evidence or facts to prove that the plaintiff had abused his position when he was prime minister to earn billions of ringgit.