Pua begins steps to haul Melanyi to Court

Other parties too will have 7 days to retract and apologise publicly for false and malicious allegations against him.

KUALA LUMPUR: A little-known Sarawakian journalist, Lester Melanyi, will receive a Letter of Demand from Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua’s lawyers this week and will have 7 days to retract and apologise for his widely publicized video statement implicating him in an alleged conspiracy against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He added that as in the case with Melanyi, other parties too will have 7 days to retract and apologise publicly for their false and malicious allegations, failing which he will immediately commence legal suits against the relevant parties.

Unlike Najib however, he will not be writing to Melanyi to seek “clarification” on his video. “I have directed my lawyers, Gobind Singh in Klang Valley and where necessary, Chong Chieng Jen in Kuching, to issue a letter of demand against Melanyi and anyone else who republishes or repeats his utterly baseless accusations”.

“Melanyi has via his 2-part videos todate directly accused me of conspiring with other parties, foreign and local, to fabricate and falsify information about 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in order to ‘cheat and lie’ to achieve whatever alleged objectives,” said Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary.

Pua hopes that whatever fees Melanyi received from Barisan Nasional (BN) or its affiliated NGOs for the made-up “confession” was worth his while. “More importantly perhaps, he should request Federal Minister from Sabah Abdul Rahman Dahlan to foot his legal bills.”

The admitted paid “confession” by Melanyi was packed with incredulous tall tales which even the most hardcore of BN supporters would find hard to believe, lamented Pua. “In the latest video, he even alleged that 90 per cent of what was published by the Sarawak Report on 1MDB was fabricated and only 10 per cent was truthful.”

If it were indeed made up of 90 per cent lies, pointed out Pua, “then I am certain that the Sarawak Report stories would have been debunked and humiliated a long time ago by 1MDB”. Instead, he stressed, 1MDB had over the past six months steadfastly refused to rebut the specific allegations which were backed with attached documents.

“That is the reason why Housing and Local Government Minister Rahman Dahlan did his ‘chicken dance’ to capitalize on the allegations against him politically, but was too much of a coward to accuse me of crimes directly.”

What stunned him was Melanyi’s “confession” that he (Pua) had “communicated once” with him in January. “Allegedly I had asked him whether he was ‘on this 1MDB mission’ and he had responded to me that he wasn’t,” he said. “Instead, he had allegedly told me ‘to communicate with Clare (Rewcastle) directly’.”

Pua said that he was stunned because he had never known or heard of a “Lester Melanyi” in his entire life before the first video, much less “communicated” with him. “I almost doubted myself and actually took the trouble to search for his name in my emails and contacts list, in case my aging memory had failed me,” admitted Pua. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, Melanyi’s allegation was completely fabricated.”

Melanyi’s videos weren’t just a mere work of fiction, said Pua. “It was a malicious attempt designed to destroy the reputation and credibility of those who were most critical of 1MDB.”

“Melanyi’s accusations meant that I had cheated and lied in my criticisms against the scandal-ridden company and that I had also conspired with other individuals to do the same via the Sarawak Report.”

It was shocking, he continued, how low BN Ministers will go to, relying on a fictitious confession from someone with no credibility in order to taint the critics of the government.

He noted that his critics didn’t even bother to do some simple background checks on their dubious sources. “They are so desperate to distract the people’s attention from the scandal-ridden Prime Minister who has yet to deny receiving nearly USD700 million in his personal account.”