Azmin: I kept red diary to monitor Anwar’s daily movement

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali told the High Court that he kept a red diary to monitor daily movements of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his official capacity.

Azmin insisted that Anwar had never directed him to move any machinery to challenge the Umno presidency.

Azmin, 52, said the contention that Anwar had wanted to challenge Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the Umno presidency was baseless.

He said he was then the private secretary to Anwar when the latter was the deputy prime minister and finance minister.

He said Anwar had never voiced any intention during discussions with various groups that he wanted to topple Dr Mahathir from his party position.

“I attended all those discussions with him. If it is true Anwar planned to topple Dr Mahathir, the best forum to do so was through the inner circle.

“Anwar considered Dr Mahathir as a father, who is with him, to develop Malaysia,” Azmin testified in the trial of a defamation claim.

He said such contention was a strategy of the opponent to remove Anwar from his position.

Azmin said Anwar had informed him that the Umno Supreme Council had decided that there would not be any contest for the top two posts.

Questioned by Anwar’s lead counsel R. Sivarasa, Azmin said he had a red diary to record daily schedules to monitor Anwar’s movements at the ministry as well as his other working visits and various appointments, for safety reasons.

“We just had one red diary. It was about an A4 size. I slept with the diary,” he said when questioned by lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who acted for Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

In his RM100mil civil claim, Anwar said Khairy had defamed him while giving a speech in 2008, which had centred on vice, betrayal and sodomy.

Questioned by Sivarasa, Azmin said he had co-ordinated with other officers and secretaries from the ministry to ensure an organised schedule for Anwar, and recorded this in the diary.

The Gombak MP disagreed to a suggestion by Muhammad Shafee that it was impossible to include all appointments in the diary.

He said the police had raided his and Anwar’s offices upon Anwar’s sacking on Sept 2, 1998, and took away the diary and other documents.

“The diary was not returned to us even after the case was over,” he said.

Azmin said he was also detained on Sept 16, 1998, and released on Sept 22, 1998, on the instructions of a court although the police had asked for an extension of his remand order.

He said he had resigned from the post on the same day that Anwar was sacked.

Queried by Muhammad Shafee, Azmin said he had met Dr Mahathir when he was a student leader abroad and that the former premier had also introduced him to Anwar.

“Anwar is a leader whom I respect, my mentor, a friend and my boss,” he said.

Anwar, 69, said he had filed the claim as Khairy had allegedly given a false and slanderous remark against him in his speech at an Umno Youth event in Lembah Pantai on Feb 19, 2008.

In his civil claim filed on March 7, 2008, Anwar named Khairy, who was Umno Youth deputy chief then, as the sole defendant.

Among others, Anwar said the defamatory words meant that he was of low moral, had a tendency to commit crime and vice, and was unfit to hold political or other positions.

High Court judge Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan fixed May 19 to hear submissions from the parties.