KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has hit back at his critics, saying his remarks touching on Christianity were taken completely out of context and circulated by political opponents specifically to tarnish his image and create a false narrative.

The Perikatan Nasional chairman was commenting on a TikTok video which showed him giving a speech in which he told the public not to vote for Pakatan Harapan, saying that the Opposition coalition was backed by a group of Jews and Christians pushing for a “Christianisation” agenda in Malaysia.

“My entire speech was about 55 minutes long.

“This clip that was circulated on TikTok and social media is a limited one minute and 35 seconds out of the whole speech,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The Bersatu president and candidate for the Pagoh parliamentary seat said he specifically spoke about the need for political stability in the country and to avoid corruption.

“I also spoke about the need for DAP to show restraint in its demands and to respect the rights of all races in Malaysia, including the special rights of the Malay and the Malay Rulers.

“In fact, at the 48-minute mark of my speech, I specifically and unequivocally stated the intention of Perikatan to implement the shared prosperity vision so that no race will be left behind.

“I said everybody must prosper; Malay, Chinese and Indian must share together so that our nation’s prosperity can be shared by all races,” said Muhyiddin.

He added that he had even reiterated Perikatan’s commitment to fairness and equality.

“My whole speech was to promote stability, the rule of law, fairness to all races and religions, and to uphold the rule of law,” said Muhyiddin.

“For the record, I was commenting on a video clip that was circulating during this election period, where a foreign religious group appeared to be praying for the government to fall in the hands of the Opposition,” added the former prime minister.