It is sad that we are going into an era when public confessions are being made - of sodomy, of denial of rape, of corruption, etc - in an attempt to brainwash the public in a way that can only insult the intelligence of the average thinking person. And the national media are willing conspirators in this.

Aliran will not allow itself to be turned into a political football to be kicked around by certain characters who, having been caught in a political web, are used as pawns to serve the interests of their political masters behind the scenes.

This afternoon, Aliran filed a defamation suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against Datuk Abdul Murad bin Khalid for alleging that "Aliran and Dr Chandra Muzaffar" had received RM5 million from the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim via a "Master Account". This is in keeping with the unanimous decision of the Annual General Meeting of Aliran on Sunday, 21 November 1999.

In a resolution passed, the members voiced their outrage against the wild and unfounded allegation that suggested that Aliran was a crony of Anwar Ibrahim and that Aliran was being used to further the political ambitions of the former deputy prime Minister. The members regarded Murad's outlandish lie as deliberate and calculated to tarnish and destroy Aliran's very integrity and reputation. To us, our integrity is extremely important and we are not going to allow Murad to get away with it.

It was explicitly clarified that at no point did Aliran receive any money from Anwar Ibrahim. Throughout the 1992-1997 period, neither Aliran nor its executive committee members had any contact or dealings with Anwar Ibrahim. In fact, articles critical of Anwar and policies associated with him were published in the Aliran Monthly.

Aliran's accounts for the years 1992-1999 have been made available to the press and can also be found in the latest issue of Aliran Monthly, which will be on sale in the next couple of days. We will perhaps be the first public interest group to make public our accounts, which by right only Aliran members are privy to. We are doing this because we have always been a transparent society with nothing to hide.

The meeting also decided that Aliran will not profit from Murad's lie by claiming anything for itself. The meeting resolved that all monetary award gained from the civil suit would be used to set up a foundation which would make funds available to Malaysian NGOs and individuals fighting for the causes of justice, freedom, multi-ethnic and multi-religious cooperation and unity. Not a single sen of the RM70 million total damages we are claiming in the suit will go into Aliran's coffers.

It won't go unnoticed by many Malaysians that Murad only came forward with his declaration after he himself was charged for not declaring assets worth RM24 million. This itself must raise questions about his motives and would surely make the public wonder whether he is trying to - or has already - cut a deal with the authorities.

It is very clear that Murad was politically motivated for him to come out with this blatant lie. This was very obvious when he stated at his press conference on 20 October 1999: