Tajudin deal connected to 1992 forex losses?

Popular blogger Raja Petra says the settling of Tajudin's debts is proof that Malaysians today are still paying for huge losses suffered in the 1992 financial scandal.

PETALING JAYA: Did the government agree to the RM589 million out-of-court settlement of Tajudin Ramli’s debts because it wanted to cover up the extent of the massive foreign exchange (forex) losses made under Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1992 and 1993?

This was the question raised by popular blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin in his article published today in Malaysia Today.

He claimed that the lopsided out-of-court agreement with former MAS executive chairman Tajudin Ramli over the Malaysia Airlines takeover fiasco was to ensure that the truth about the forex losses suffered almost 20 years ago did not resurface.

“The settling of Tajudin’s debts is proof that Malaysians today are still paying for the RM100 billion Mahathir financial scandals,” he said.

Raja Petra added that Tajudin himself had claimed in his court documents that Mahathir instructed him to acquire a 32% stake in MAS in 1994 to “bail out Bank Negara which had experienced massive losses in foreign exchange”. This was, however, denied by Mahathir.

“In other words, Tajudin was just doing ‘national service’ on the instructions of Mahathir,” said Raja Petra.

“And the whole objective of this exercise… was to cover Malaysia’s massive forex losses.”

“Hence, you can’t look at this MAS multi-billion disaster in isolation. You need to look at it in the context of the earlier scandal, the forex disaster, which the MAS exercise is supposed to cover,” he said.

Raja Petra also said that most Malaysians have forgotten the forex scandal, “or somehow do not see the link between that old episode and the current MAS scandal”.

He further said that a police investigation had also revealed that there was an alleged collusion between the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to not prosecute Tajudin for allegedly committing offences which resulted in MAS losing RM8 billion.

He claimed that the powers-that-be has filed the criminal matter under NFA (no further action), just as the civil matter has been settled out of court.

“Was this to ensure that the real purpose of the MAS exercise would not become public knowledge?

“Was it so that Malaysians would never find out that the RM8 billion MAS hole was to cover an even bigger forex hole that was created back in 1992 and 1993?” he asked.

Part of Umno’s plans

In another article, also published today in Malaysia Today, Raja Petra said that Tajudin “could plunder” MAS at will because it was all part of Umno’s bigger plans at filling its political coffers and enriching its powerful members.

That this was all part of Umno’s plans was revealed in several affidavits filed by Tajudin in his court papers against MAS, he added.

It was also supported by recent court testimonies of other Umno cronies like Rahman Maidin who once helmed MRCB and Halim Saad of Renong in other cases that came to trial over the past year.

He added that the Umno modus operandi was still continuing as can be seen from the National Feedlot Corporation scandal involving Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family and the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) RM2.2 billion project involving the former Chief Justice and Umno’s legal adviser.

In the MAS matter, Raja Petra claimed that Umno covered up the scandal despite a report prepared by the then Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Ramli Yussuf.

He said that Ramli had briefed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2006 about Tajudin’s alleged misconduct and was even ready to recommend that Tajudin be charged.

He added that to erode Ramli’s credibility, the powers-that-be also decided to bring down his lawyer Rosli Dahlan.

“This they did by making the MACC brutally arrest and charge him just the day before Hari Raya of 2007. Then, on Nov 1, 2007, Ramli was stripped off his rank as Commissioner of Police and charged with purportedly unauthorised use of a police Cessna (aircraft),” he said.

He also claimed that another key witness in the MAS trial, Raja Azura Mahayudin, who prepared the audit report of Tajudin’s related party contracts, was moved out of MAS, and appointed as the CEO of the Peneraju Bumiputera Foundation Fund.

“On the other hand, Shahari Sulaiman, the man who lodged a MACC report on May 20, 2009, against Tajudin and others who covered up the case, was quietly removed from his position as managing director of MASKargo on some obscure allegations of corruption.

“To discredit Shahari as a witness in the MAS cases, and to remind Shahari of what they did to Ramli in 2007, the MACC ransacked Shahari’s house on Nov 1, 2011 in full view of his wife, children and neighbours,” he said.