{
  "id": 5296162,
  "title": "Muhyiddin’s counsel disputes businessman’s account of Jana Wibawa meeting",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/muhyiddins-counsel-disputes-businessmans-account-of-jana-wibawa-5296162",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T09:28:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today-freemalays",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/09/03/muhyiddin-s-counsel-disputes-businessman-s-account-of-jana-wibawa-meeting"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is currently facing seven charges related to the Jana Wibawa program, a government initiative launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to aid Bumiputera contractors. During a recent hearing, Muhyiddin's counsel challenged a businessman's assertion about a meeting with Muhyiddin's official in 2020 to discuss the program. Amer Hamzah Arshad, the businessman, testified that Asmar Asmadi Abdullah Sani, Muhyiddin’s deputy private secretary, had shown him a list of ten approved Jana Wibawa projects during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Parliament. Amer claimed that Muhyiddin had mentioned Jana Wibawa during a private meeting at Tropicana Golf Club in mid-July 2020 and directed Asmar to meet Amer for more details. However, Amer suggested that Asmar’s account of the list was fabricated, pointing out that Tengku Zafrul Aziz, then finance minister, only proposed the term \"Jana Wibawa\" in a letter to Muhyiddin on July 23, 2020. Asmar denied that the letter existed and that Muhyiddin had used the term before July 23. Amer also questioned the timing of Asmar’s meeting with Muhyiddin, arguing that it could not have occurred before Muhyiddin began using the term following Zafrul’s proposal on August 3, 2020. Asmar disagreed with Amer’s claims, but admitted that he could not provide evidence to support Muhyiddin’s use of the term Jana Wibawa earlier than July 23.",
  "summary": "Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad suggested businessman Azman Yusoff's account that he was shown a list of Jana Wibawa projects in July 2020 was fabricated.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Muhyiddin’s counsel disputes businessman’s account of Jana Wibawa meeting",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/muhyiddins-counsel-disputes-businessmans-account-of-jana-wibawa",
        "published": "2026-09-03T09:28:26.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}