Did RCI close shop early so Najib need not testify, asks Kit Siang

Lim Kit Siang is wondering if the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Bank Negara's foreign exchange (forex) losses concluded its proceedings earlier than scheduled to avoid the need for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to appear as a witness.

Testifying before the RCI yesterday, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed Najib was one of the ministers in a 1993 cabinet meeting who rejected Lim’s proposal to set up an RCI into the losses then.

Lim asked if the RCI decided to wrap up its proceedings in order to prevent Najib from explaining his decision to oppose the call in the past.

The DAP veteran, who was opposition leader in 1993, had asked then finance minister Anwar Ibrahim to refer to the cabinet to set up an RCI on the forex losses.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mahathir said Najib should appear before the RCI to explain why he was calling for the RCI now, and not years ago.

“Why was former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who said in August he knew the truth about Bank Negara's forex losses, not called before the RCI?” asked Lim.

Meanwhile, Lim expressed concern over the way former top civil servants were treated with “utter disregard” and even “cruelly treated with utter contempt” for their physical condition.

“I think it is the height of disrespect and cruelty that (former auditor-general) Ishak Tadin had to be physically dragged to the RCI, and that his second child Rizal Ishak had to appear before the RCI to plead that his father was unable to testify, as he had developed a condition in 2007 that affected his memory, and that this cognitive impairment caused his father 'trouble recalling past events',” he said.

Lim also cited other examples of “utter lack of compassion and respect for old public servants,” such as the case of former deputy secretary of the finance department in the Finance Ministry Othman Jusoh.

Othman and panel member Kamaludin Md Said got into a heated exchange after the latter prodded him about a decision in relation to the sale of government-owned shares.

“I found some of the exchanges between Sidek and other commissioners on the one hand and witnesses like Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin on the other most shocking and quite unbelievable, especially when they were asked questions as to how Mahathir or Daim did not know about the colossal forex losses when 'everyone seemed to know'.

“Sidek seems to have forgotten that he is himself a case in point…He seems not to know that the 1MBD scandal has turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy, which is known by everyone in Malaysia and informed opinion in the world, except government politicians and public servants like him,” he added.

Sidek, he said, had also left many loose ends in declaring the RCI hearings closed ahead of schedule, as Anwar was expected to be recalled among others.

“How can Sidek expect the Malaysian public and world opinion to have full respect for the report of the RCI when its chairperson had preconceived ideas about the RCI findings and conclusions without taking into account the evidence?” he asked.- Mkini