BNM forex loss: Najib, Mustapa should be questioned, says Kit Siang

DAP parliamentary leader says his statements in Parliament in early 1990s are public information and asks if a task force will only be set up in 2040 to probe 1MDB.

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PUTRAJAYA: DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said he was the wrong person to be called for the probe into the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) forex losses 25 years ago.

He said he had merely brought up the issues in Parliament.

“What I knew about the Bank Negara forward forex trading in the early 1990s is public information in my speeches in Parliament,” he told reporters after a brief meeting with the special task force set up to probe losses, at the finance ministry here today.

He said the people who should be questioned were Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was a senior minister then,  International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad, who was then parliamentary secretary to the finance ministry, and Pendang MP Othman Abdul, who was the parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department at the time.

“Did Najib, Mustapa and Othman carry out their national duties to uphold accountability and good governance principles, or were they responsible for any cover-up of the Bank Negara forex losses scandal?” the Gelang Patah MP asked.

The special task force investigating the 1990s BNM forex losses is led by former chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan. He is assisted by a six-member team.

The task force will investigate whether there was any action to cover up the losses, and whether misleading statements on the matter were presented to Parliament.

Lim said he stands by his speech in Parliament in April 1994 calling for a royal commission of inquiry into the colossal Bank Negara losses.

“I find myself in an anomalous position today as if I am in the dock for my speeches on the losses in Parliament in 1993 and 1994 when it should be a vindication of what I said on the subject,” he said.

Lim was accompanied to the meeting with the special task force by his lawyer, Ramkarpal Singh Deo.

The DAP veteran also questioned the task force and authorities, asking if they were making the same mistake they did 25 years ago by missing the 1MDB “elephant in the room” with ministers, top civil servants and MPs again failing in their responsibility to uphold the principles of accountability and good governance.

“Do we have to wait for a quarter of a century before we have a special task force to ‘exhume’ the ‘elephant carcass’ of the 1MDB scandal, some time in 2040?”

Last week, former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed that the country lost between RM15 billion and RM30 billion in the foreign exchange scandal in the early 1990s.

In a statement sent by PKR’s communications unit, Anwar, who was the finance minister then, claimed that he had on April 20 informed the special task force that this was the final estimated loss.

Anwar had also said he had chosen to voluntarily cooperate with the task force as he was finance minister from 1991 to 1998.

He claimed that former Bank Negara Malaysia assistant governor Nor Mohamed Yakcop had not provided a complete report on the billions of ringgit in forex losses suffered by the central bank in the 1990s.

Anwar said when he was imprisoned in September 1998, Nor Mohamed was appointed as economic adviser to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. -FMT