Former federal territories minister Annuar Musa has dared the current minister, Dr Zaliha Mustafa, to repeat outside of Parliament her claim that he was to blame for a developer taking ownership of Kampung Sungai Baru land that’s set to be redeveloped.
Annuar, now with PAS, claimed that Zaliha’s remarks in the Dewan Rakyat were misleading but had been widely reported by the media, tarnishing his reputation.
Annuar, the former Ketereh MP, invited Zaliha to repeat the claim on a podcast of his to be recorded next week. “If she doesn’t dare do so, I am ready to attend her next post-Cabinet press conference and offer my rebuttal,” he said in a statement.
The former Umno secretary-general gave her three days to respond, failing which he will consider taking legal action.
Yesterday, Zaliha told the Dewan Rakyat that Annuar made a rushed decision to allow a developer to become the owner of the Kampung Sungai Baru land slated for redevelopment.
She said the developer’s request to acquire the land was deliberated on at a post-Cabinet meeting chaired by Annuar in September 2020.
The recommendations of the meeting were approved by the federal territories land executive committee on April 21, 2021.
She said the process of gazetting the land transfer to the developer under the Land Acquisition Act was completed in just three days, between June 18 and June 21, 2021.
Annuar served as federal territories minister from March 2020 to August 2021.
