Why Kit Siang Can Work With Mahathir

There is no denying the RCI is going to announce that three crimes have been committed. First is Bank Negara lost US$10 billion gambling on the forex market. Second is they lied to the Cabinet by saying that the loss was only RM5.7 billion and is merely ‘deferred expenditure’ and ‘unrealised losses’. Third is they lied to Parliament, first by denying the whole thing and calling it opposition lies and propaganda, and a year later by saying that it was a very small ‘paper loss’ and not actual money paid out.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

People are wondering why is it that Lim Kit Siang is now able to work with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when once-upon-a-time he wanted the old man hanged upside down from the nearest tree. People who ask this question do not understand politics or realise Kit Siang’s true intentions.

Kit Siang’s target was never Mahathir. In fact, if today Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak resigns from Umno and joins Pakatan Harapan, Kit Siang will sing his praises and call him a “Towering Malay” and “True Malaysian Patriot” and so on. Anyone who supports Umno and Barisan Nasional is bad while anyone who opposes Umno and Barisan Nasional is good. That is the simple way Kit Siang analyses things. White, good. Black, bad. Right, good. Left, bad. Anti-Umno, good. Pro-Umno, bad. All the rest do not matter. There are no ‘grey areas’.

Kit Siang once wanted Mahathir dead but today he is trying to keep the old man alive since both are united against Umno

Umno’s political dominance in the Number One Enemy as far as DAP and Kit Siang are concerned. And that was precisely how Chin Peng felt as well, which was why the Baling Talks failed. And anyone who also opposes Umno’s political dominance will be DAP’s and Kit Siang’s friend even if you are a thief like Mahathir, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Muhyiddin Yassin or Anwar Ibrahim.

Umno’s political dominance represents Malay and Muslim dominance as well. Islam is mentioned in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia as “The Religion of Federation” and yet Kit Siang insists that Malaysia is a Secular State. The Raja-raja Melayu represent “Ketuanan Melayu” so Kit Siang is opposed to the Monarchy because he is opposed to “Ketuanan Melayu”. And because of that DAP and Kit Siang are opposed to Perkasa as well, even though Mahathir is behind them.

READ: Malaysia under DAP’s ‘anti-Malay, anti-Islam rule’ if Umno rejected, Najib warns

DAP’s agenda is to challenge Malay and Umno political dominance

Just over 13 years ago, on 10th January 2004, when Kit Siang was still opposed to Mahathir, he said, “Nor Mohamed’s first job is to issue a White Paper to “exorcise the ghost” of the RM30 billion Bank Negara forex losses a decade ago to establish his suitability as the Second Finance Minister –  apart from professionalism, a full commitment to accountability, transparency and good democratic governance.”

“Up to now, the government has failed to “come clean” on the colossal Bank Negara forex losses as a result of speculation in the international currency markets from 1992-1994, with the losses cited as ranging from RM10 billion to RM30 billion. In Parliament in 1994, I had given reasons as to why the Bank Negara’s forex losses as a result of its forex speculation operations could have amounted to as high as RM30 billion, which had not been seriously rebutted by any top government leader or Bank Negara official,” said Kit Siang.

“One question which I raised in Parliament on May 3, 1994 in my speech on the 1993 and 1994 Supplementary Estimates had remained unanswered in the past decade and continues to haunt the corridors of power  – whether Bank Negara’s maximum exposure at the height of its forward foreign exchange speculation was in the region of RM270 billion, which was three times the country’s GDP and more than five times the country’s foreign reserves at the time!”

“The reasons which I had advanced in Parliament in 1994 for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the colossal Bank Negara forex losses remain valid today,” Kit Siang argued.

Yes, in 1994, and again ten years later in 2004, Kit Siang asked of a RCI to be set up to get to the bottom of the US$10 billion losses Bank Negara made gambling on the forex market. Kit Siang suspected that there is more to the story than just a straightforward or normal loss. He suspected that quite a lot of the money was stolen or siphoned out and disguised as forex losses.

Tajudin revealed how Mahathir and Daim tried to hide the US$10 billion Bank Negara loss by faking the sale of MAS

In fact, one of Daim’s proxies, Tajudin Ramli, revealed what was really going on back in 2006 in this news report by The Sun, ‘Tajudin alleges secret deal with Dr Mahathir and Daim’ (READ HERE).

Tajuddin said he was directed by Mahathir and Daim to buy shares in MAS at RM8.00 per share to help hide or camouflage Bank Negara’s foreign exchange losses in 1994.

“He claimed that it was not a normal commercial deal as it was made out to be and that he was instructed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin to buy MAS shares at RM8.00 each (way above the then market price of RM3.50) as a national service to help out Bank Negara (which owned the MAS shares) which was hit by multi-billion ringgit foreign exchange losses,” said The Sun.

Tajudin said his purchase of MAS shares was disguised as a commercial deal as “it was essential for the public and the international investment community to perceive the entire transaction as a normal commercial arms length deal (which clearly it was not)”.

Today, Kit Siang is getting his wish. The Cabinet has approved the setting up of the RCI to get to the bottom of Bank Negara’s US$10 billion losses, which were initially alleged to have been straightforward or normal gambling losses but now we know are not, and which also bankrupted MAS as well. Now, however, Kit Siang knows that the RCI is not such a good idea after all as it is going to hurt him, DAP and Pakatan Harapan as well.

At the time, when Kit Siang pushed for the RCI on the US$10 billion Bank Negara gambling losses, his target was Umno. His target has always been Umno since PAP first set up DAP in 1965 two months after Singapore split from Malaysia.

DAP’s and Kit Siang’s real enemy is Umno and Umno’s political dominance which represents Ketuanan Melayu and Islam

However, to attack Umno and to bring down Umno, he must first attack the top leaders of Umno — the President, Deputy President, Vice Presidents and so on, who are also the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, etc. So, Kit Siang’s reason to attack the Bank Negara US$10 billion losses matter is merely to bring down the Umno leaders, and hence bring down Umno itself, and not to ‘save Malaysia’ as he pretends.

So, from 1994 to 2004, Kit Siang went all out to attack the Bank Negara forex matter. And, of course, Mahathir and Daim were two of his prime targets. This is because many Malaysians, Malays included, hated these two people who are said to have cost Malaysia RM250 billion or so. So these are easy targets for Kit Siang. Most Malaysians already hate them so he just gives Malaysians more reason to hate them.

Books have been written by people such as Barry Wain, Edmund Terence Gomez, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, and many more, that Mahathir wasted RM100 billion of the nation’s money and stole another RM100 billion, while Daim siphoned out RM60 billion and parked it in banks in Africa and Latin America. And Mahathir and Daim have thus far never rebutted these allegations (because they can’t).

But that was before. Now, Mahathir and Daim are with Pakatan Harapan. So exposing them as thieves who stole hundreds of billions and get the RCI to reveal how Mahathir and Daim blew what today is equivalent to RM99 billion of Bank Negara’s money gambling on the forex market will just hurt Pakatan Harapan.

Mahathir and Daim gave Clare Rewcastle Brown of Sarawak Report RM50 million to attack Najib and to use the 1MDB issue to cover the US$10 billion forex scandal

So Kit Siang does not want the RCI on Bank Negara’s US$10 billion forex losses any longer. He wants this matter buried. If the RCI confirms that Mahathir and Daim cost Bank Negara US$10 billion — or what is equivalent to RM99 billion today — and that quite a bit of the money was not ‘honest losses’ but was siphoned out and disguised as forex losses, this is going to cost Pakatan Harapan the next general election.

Kit Siang, in fact, is trying to torpedo the RCI or bring to question the credibility of the RCI. That is why he is asking for the Special Task Force report to be made public — so that he can find fault with it and use that as an excuse to attack the RCI. Kit Siang cannot afford for the RCI to proceed and come out with its findings that Kit Siang knows it is going to come out with.

There is no denying that the RCI is going to announce that three crimes have been committed. First is Bank Negara lost US$10 billion gambling on the forex market. Second is they lied to the Cabinet by saying that the loss was only RM5.7 billion and is merely ‘deferred expenditure’ and ‘unrealised losses’. Third is they lied to Parliament, first by denying the whole thing and calling it opposition lies and propaganda, and a year later by saying that it was a very small ‘paper loss’ and not actual money paid out.

The three behind the US$10 billion forex scandal who are going to get crucified and take DAP and Pakatan Harapan down with them

And Mahathir, Daim and Nor Mohamed Yakcop are going to get crucified for this. And with the crucifixion of the three, Pakatan Harapan is going to fall and along with it DAP that is now the strongest supporter of Mahathir.

Kit Siang is trying to deflect the RCI on the Bank Negara US$10 billion losses by asking that a RCI also be set up to investigate 1MDB. Then if the government does not set up the RCI on 1MDB Kit Siang can turn around and say they also cannot accept the RCI on the Bank Negara forex losses.

That is a stupid argument targeted at stupid DAP supporters. The government’s investment in 1MDB is just RM1 million. Even if the government did lose that RM1 million that is still not serious enough to warrant a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Anyway, that RM1 million is equity and is not lost. It is still there and is listed in the books. A RCI is a post mortem and you do a post mortem on something that has died, like the US$10 billion that ‘died’ in 1994. 1MDB is still alive and the RM1 million equity the government has in 1MDB is also still alive. You do not do a post mortem on something that is still alive or kill something still alive just so that you can do a post mortem.

So what game is Kit Siang playing here other than trying to torpedo the RCI on the Bank Negara forex losses so that Mahathir and Daim do not die and in the process bring Pakatan Harapan and DAP to their grave along with them?

Mahathir says Najib is going to arrest him and is trying to make it appear like political persecution rather than because he stole US$10 billion of Bank Negara’s money

In the meantime Mahathir is saying that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is going to arrest opposition leaders before the general election. Mahathir means he is going to get arrested. And he knows it is because of what he did to US$10 billion of Bank Negara’s money.

So Mahathir is preempting this by saying that the arrests are politically motivated, just like what Anwar Ibrahim is saying regarding his sodomy conviction. So, if you have murdered or raped someone, all you need to do is join DAP or one of the parties in Pakatan Harapan and then scream that they are arresting you for political reasons and not because you committed a crime.

Like this you do not need lawyers to stay out of jail. All you need are political parties because once you join a political party the police will no longer dare arrest you for fear of being accused of political persecution. And that is exactly what Mahathir is trying to do. He is trying to stay out of jail by screaming political persecution.

Mahathir will use any weapon he can get his hands on to further his political ambitions, serve his family’s interest, and ensure the future of his political and business dynasty. Mahathir can use DAP to attack Umno or use Umno to attack DAP. Both ways are okay as long as his objectives are met.

Kit Siang, on the other hand, regards Malays, Islam and the Raja-raja Melayu as DAP’s enemies. So he will work with anyone — Malays, Muslims and ex-Umno leaders included — to attack the Malays, Islam and the Raja-raja Melayu. Of course, both Mahathir and Kit Siang will scream that they are just trying to ‘save Malaysia’ — just like Mahathir stole RM100 billion of Umno’s money and Daim stole another RM60 billion to help ‘save the Malays’.