No Anifah apology for Anwar

May 17, 09 5:42pm Malaysiakini

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said today he will not apologise to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for claiming that he had been offered the deputy prime minister’s post as an incentive to join Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat. MCPX Anifah said this at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport upon his return from the United States, adding that he had no time to worry about Anwar or his threat to file a defamation suit against him. On Thursday, at a joint press conference after meeting with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington DC, Anifah was asked about the fresh sodomy charge against Anwar, which the US State Department had earlier said was politically motivated. As part of his response, Anifah was also reported to have said: “And I was personally offered to jump into the opposition and offered a very lucrative position - it’s like a deputy prime minister (post in the Pakatan government). And this is not known to the world at large.” Anwar has denied making such an offer and plans a defamation (libel) suit against Anifah. Lawyer Sankara Nair, who is representing the opposition leader said: “At no time were any such offers made to Anifah by Anwar. The allegations made in the said story are baseless, untrue, defamatory and made with malicious intent to tarnish Anwar’s reputation.” “We have instructions to file a defamation (libel) suit against Anifah if he does not retract and make an apology within 24 hours,” said Sankara on Saturday.