In a Facebook posting today, Khairy who is also the Umno Youth chief, stressed he had never called the former Prime Minister a “desperate man” and intends to lodge a police report over the matter.
“In politics, slanderous accusations have become more common. Recently an article had been published alleging I had made a comment against Tun Dr Mahathir.
Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin has denied defaming Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as published in an article entitled ‘Dr Mahathir seperti orang terdesak’. - Source Facebook
“The article was written in a news portal format but the portal, the author of the article and any references were not visible or available.
“I vehemently deny the contents of this article. I have never made the said statement against Tun Dr Mahathir,” he said in the posting.
Khairy also expressed his disappointment with certain quarters for “attacking” him on this article.
“I would like to express by utmost disappointment with those who have attacked me regarding this article without making any effort to verify the matter,” he said.
He added, politics has now become increasingly challenging and every action in politics must be based on arguments.
“In politics there are friends, there are enemies. We cannot expect everyone to like or support us. While we have our enemies, we should consider how we participate in politics.
“We shouldn’t resort to slanderous accusations such as this. If we want to fight, we should fight with arguments. We should fight for the people. Not play dirty politics such as this,” he said.