Political rivals twisted my speech, says Muhyiddin

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 18 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin today said his comments on Christians in a recent speech had been taken out of context, adding that they were in reference to a video clip making the rounds on social media.

In a statement, Muhyiddin repudiated a video clip circulating on TikTok which he said had been edited to 1 minute and 35 seconds from a speech that was about 55 minutes long.

Muhyiddin accused his political opponents of having twisting a ceramah speech and circulating an edited video “specifically to tarnish my image and to create a false narrative”.

“My entire speech was approximately 55 minutes long. This clip that is circulating on TikTok and social media is a limited one minute and 35 seconds out of the whole speech,” he said.

Muhyiddin has come under fire from DAP and PKR leaders over his purported statements, that PH was involved in an agenda to “Christianise” the country, and that a group of Jews wanted Pakatan Harapan (PH) to win the general election.

However, he said: “For the record, I was commenting on a video clip that was circulating during this election period where a foreign religious group specifically appeared to be praying for the government to fall in the hands of the opposition.”

Muhyiddin said that in his speech he had reiterated PN’s commitment to fairness and equality.

“PN stands for stability, fairness to all and to uphold the rule of law,” Muhyiddin said in response to a Malaysiakini report which quoted a speech he recently gave in Muar, Johor.

“In fact, at the 48-minute mark of the speech, I stated the intention of PN to implement the Shared Prosperity Vision so that no one would be left behind. I said: ‘Everybody must prosper. The Malays, Chinese and Indians must share together. So that our nation’s prosperity can be shared by people of all races’,” he said.

NMT