Bank Negara has recovered from forex losses, says Dr M

Pointing to Bank Negara’s recovery following its foreign exchange (forex) trading losses, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the ongoing royal commission of inquiry (RCI) was not meant to investigate the loss.

“It is not about losing money because, after that, Bank Negara recovered fully.

“Not only did it recover, today Bank Negara’s assets are huge – running into hundreds of billions of dollars.

“And if you would please remember, the capital given to Bank Negara at the start was only RM5 million. Today, it has more than RM100 billion.

“So are you going to say that Bank Negara is a failure? That it doesn’t look after our money?” he told reporters.

He was speaking to reporters after testifying at the RCI hearing conducted in Putrajaya today. Mahathir is the hearing’s 24th witness.

Mahathir reiterated that the RCI is meant to paint him and Pakatan Harapan de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in a bad light.

He claimed that the questions directed at him were irrelevant and were not focused on finding out about the losses that Bank Negara had sustained.

However, he said he believed that he had handled the questions well, while Anwar had answered the RCI’s questions according to what he had been told as the finance minister at the time.

“As I had said in my statement, this royal commission is not about finding out the losses sustained by Bank Negara. It is about trying to find a way to make me look bad in the eyes of the public – that during my time also, money has been stolen. RM30 billion.

“That is their purpose, but I’m afraid they haven’t achieved their objective of making me like one of these kleptocrats who is running the country today,” he said when asked to comment on the line of questioning used in the hearing. - Mkini