'I am a Malay Muslim', Dr M tells court

KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the High Court here that Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had lied to the public when he called the former premier "Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty".

The former prime minister, who testified in a lawsuit he initiated against the current Deputy Prime Minister for alleged defamation, said that there was no such identification card (IC) that referred to him by that name from the time he was born until he graduated from university.

"It has never been written anywhere until Ahmad Zahid made the statement supposedly that he had an IC showing 'Mahathir anak lelaki Iskandar Kutty'. That is a lie by Zahid," Dr Mahathir said on the stand before Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong here on Monday (Aug 26).

In his witness statement, the nonagenarian said his birth name was "Mahathir bin Mohamad" and that he was born a Malay Muslim, evident through his IC and birth certificate.

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"My father is Mohamad bin Iskandar and my mother is Wan Tempawan binti Wan Hanapi.

"My father hails from Penang and is a Malay whereby my ancestral grandmother had roots from Southern India, which is Kerala.

"My mother hails from Kedah and is pure Malay," he stated.

On July 20 last year, Dr Mahathir, filed the lawsuit against Ahmad Zahid, 70, as the sole defendant, for allegedly issuing defamatory statements regarding the "kutty" issue.

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In his statement of claim, Dr Mahathir, 99, claimed that Ahmad Zahid had issued a defamatory statement against him during an Umno divisional meeting in Kelana Jaya on July 30, 2017.

The statement was reproduced on Astro Awani's YouTube and several online news portals, which can be easily accessed by Internet users without any restrictions.

Dr Mahathir claimed that the slanderous statement meant that he was not born as a Malay or a Muslim with the alleged original name of "Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty" and that he claimed to be a Malay when he became prime minister to gain political and personal advantage apart from belittling Malaysians of Indian Muslim descent.

In his statement of defence, Ahmad Zahid denied that the statement made on July 30, 2017, was malicious and slanderous and harmed the reputation of the plaintiff in the public eye.

The Umno president claimed that the name "Mahathir son of Iskandar Kutty" refers to an individual based on the information in an old copy of an identity card, in addition to claiming that he also has no control over any video publication regarding his statement on the media platform.